|
A Comprehensive list of
Articles and Talks by Arun Shourie
|
|
|
Things work at two levels in
India, that of paper and that of fact. On paper, for instance, we
have section 167 of the Indian Penal Code under which a public
servant is to be hauled up for preparing a false document... more |
|
|
|
Within five days of Kamla being
purchased and brought to Delhi three of us filed a writ in the
Supreme Court informing the Hon'ble Court what we had learnt about
the trade in women in the Morena and Dholpur regions and praying for
relief of several kinds... more |
|
|
|
A case in which the English
version of a major book by a renowned Muslim scholar, the fourth
Rector of one of the greatest centers of Islamic learning in India,
listing some of the mosques, including the Babri Masjid, which were
built on the sites and foundations of temples, using their stones
and structures, is found to have the tell-tale passages censored
out... more
|
|
|
|
"The Congress is like Ravana," The
Hindustan Times of 2 September, 1999, reported Dr. Murli Manohar
Joshi saying, "and they have unleashed Sonia, the Surpnakha
(Ravana's sister who was humiliated by Lakshman) on the country."
That in a box-item at the very top of page 1, under the heading,
"Below the belt." The source? The Asian Age, reported The Hindustan
Times... more |
|
|
|
The Premise of democratic
governance is that the people will decide. But what will be the
character of the decisions they will take when instead of being
informed, inspired, when necessary enraged to act on issues, they
are distracted and merely entertained?.... more |
|
|
|
"But why do you refer to it as a
mosque at all? Where is the mosque, my friends, when the namaz is
not performed? When for forty years idol worship is going on there,
what kind of a mosque is it? That is just the temple of our dear
Ram."... more |
|
|
|
At first, the demand-cum-assurance
was, "If you can bring any proof showing a temple had been
demolished to construct the mosque, we will ourselves demolish the
mosque". A host of documents -- reports of the Archaeological Survey
of India going back to 1891, Gazetteers going back to 1854. Survey
reports going back to 1838 were produced which stated unambiguously
that a Ram temple had been demolished to construct the mosque"...
more |
|
|
|
Of course, he said, Hindus who
became Muslims must be taken back into the Hindu fold. Otherwise our
numbers will keep dwindling- we used to be around 600 million by the
reckoning of Ferishta, the oldest Muslim historian, now we are just
200 million. "And then", he continued, "every man going out of the
Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more."... more |
|
|
|
The depths to which society had
pushed sections of its own induced the latter to convert to Islam,
for them the conversion was a liberation, and the people who even
today do not see this are "lunatics", says Swami Vivekananda...
more |
|
|
|
May I begin with a few passages
from my book 'A Secular Agenda'? It was sent to the press in late
September and comes out later this week. A chapter, "No time to
relent", which concludes the section on Kashmir notes... more |
|
|
|
On January 2, 1937 a Professor of
Philosophy from Poland, Krzenski came to see Gandhiji. Krzanski told
Gandhiji that Catholicism was the only true religion... more |
|
|
|
The traditions of India were rich
as can be. They had attained insights of the first order. A person
who has reflected on what the Buddha has to say on the workings of
the mind for instance, one who has even a little acquaintance with
Buddhist works on psychology will find the writings of, say, Freud
to be high-school level reductionism... more |
|
|
|
But have we no rights to proclaim
our faith, to preach Gospel? You are the editor of such a large
news-paper. You express your views on issues. Do we not have the
same right? It was Bishop George Anathil, of Indore, the Chairman of
the Commission for Proclamation of the Catholic Bishops Conference
of India... more |
|
|
|
Dainik Jagran is today among the
largest newspapers in our country. Amar Ujala is also a substantial
paper. Addressing a public meeting on October 12, UP chief minister
Mulayam Singh Yadav denounced the two papers, "Halla Bol", he
exhorted his followers, "Commence the storming". Why read them, he
told them, you don't have to even see them. No one present had any
doubt what they meant: Don't let them be seen, that is what it
meant... more |
|
|
|
'Muslims all over the world
including those of India were hopefully looking up to Pakistan for
help and guidance... The Pakistani debacle of 1971 had caused
immense grief to Indian Muslims.' The speaker? Maulana Abul Hassan
ALi Nadvi, otherwise known as Ali Mian, whom the press always refers
to as the widely respected scholar and moderate Muslim leader...
more |
|
|
|
But in looking at the ritual, at
the idol, at the concept, why not start with the opposite
assumption? Why start by assuming that they are empty, that they are
the remnants of superstition? They had occurred to, they had been
devised by seers, by persons of great insight... more |
|
|
|
'It is a miracle... can be likened
to the building of the Gothic cathedrals of Europe... There is no
doubt that London has acquired a significant new building of
traditional Indian beauty and interest... We can be grateful that
this has happened in a part of London that needed transforming'...
more |
|
|
|
The super-speciality hospital
which Satya Sai Baba has set up in Putaparti, the water schemes
which have been inaugurated in Anantpur district to mark his 70th
birthday will, of course, make the difference between life and death
to vast numbers. The other point about projects undertaken at the
direction of these teachers is their managerial excellence. The
projects are invariably completed on schedule: it took just three
years from the permission being granted for the temple in London to
its being opened for worship..... more |
|
|
|
In holding that not all references
to religion in election speeches necessarily amount to corrupt
electoral practices; that it is the soliciting of votes on the
ground of the religion of the candidate or that of his opponent
which is a corrupt electoral practice; that statements made by
others do not have the same effect as those made by a candidate
himself -- in all this, as we saw, the Supreme Court has merely
reiterated what the the law itself says and what the Supreme Court
has itself held on previous occasions. What then accounted for the
fury of the secularists ?... more |
|
|
|
The so-called secular parties --
that is, all fifteen of them, including the Muslim League -- are
continuing to insist that they shall vote out the BJP Government on
the 31st. Assume that they do, and assume that a Government headed
by Deve Gowda assumes office... The situation now is different, they
say; for one thing there are those experiences to warn the secular
parties and leaders, they say; moreover, this time the leaders of
"the forces of social change" are very conscious of the historic
responsibility that rests on their shoulders, they say.... more |
|
|
|
There is a difference, Gandhiji
used to say, between Raja Harishchandra and an actor on a stage
playing the part of Harishchandra. So also there is a difference, we
are being taught, between a simple, humble farmer and Deve Gowda
playing "a simple, humble farmer"... more |
|
|
|
Some months ago an official of the
United States state department met me through a common scholar
friend... Last week the same scholar friend sent me an account which
that officer had written and circulated about the way India, in
particular Hindus, are again being portrayed in the USA. The note
deserves to be read in full, so what follows is the verbatim text of
his note... more |
|
|
|
"When Dabholkar comes to Delhi
next, I must get the two of you together," Dr. J.P. Naik, would say.
When I was to go to Bombay for some work, he would urge, "Take two
days off, go to Kolhapur and meet Dabholkar." Years passed, Dr. J.P.
Naik passed away, I never got to meet his friend, Dr. Shripad
Dabholkar. And then I saw a little snippet in a video magazine of
the Plus Channel. It was about an agronomist in Bombay, Dr.
R.T. Doshi. The programme showed his roof farm -- on his roof in the
middle of Bombay, he was cultivating grapes, vegetables, fruit, even
six foot high sugarcane. I went to visit him the next time I got to
Bombay. The second time I was able to take Anita, my wife along. I
am just following the methods of Dr. Dabholkar, Dr. Doshi told us.
Therefore, when the Pudhari group of newspapers asked me to
deliver a memorial lecture in Kolhapur, I agreed at once to do so...
more |
|
|
|
All sorts of lessons are being
propounded from the events of fifty years ago. But, as usual,
political correctness is keeping commentators from facing up to the
fundamental lesson. The fundamental premises on which the country
was partitioned were that (i) religion defines nationhood; (ii)
though they do not have a common language, though they are separated
by a thousand miles, the Muslims of East and West India are a nation
because of their common adherence to Islam; (iii) moreover, Muslims
are a separate nation from the rest who inhabit the sub-continent;
(iv) they can never get justice in a united India for they will be
swamped by the Hindu majority; (v) once they are given a country of
their own, prosperity, justice, fraternity and all else will flow
automatically; (vi) as Islam is a religion of tolerance, brotherhood
and equality, as it places human dignity above all, people of all
beliefs, creeds, races, languages will enjoy equal rights, and live
in liberty and fraternity.... more |
|
|
|
'Dalits fight back,' 'Dalit
resurgence,' 'Dalit politics will never be the same again,' 'Mumbai
massacre a watershed' - headlines, news stories, comments in the
wake of the firing at the crowd in Mumbai. There was a little hiccup
- the leaders of the 'Dalits' whom these publications had been
building up for years were thrashed by the 'Dalits' whose resurgence
the same press was celebrating! But the prophets of resurgence soon
regained their vigour... more |
|
|
|
No one in the twentieth century
has done as much to rid us of untouchability than Gandhiji. He
attached more importance to ridding Hinduism of this accretion than
to attaining Swaraj. He brought upon himself the hostility of
orthodox opinion in western India, in the South by his
uncompromising stand on the matter. But the other day, speaking
during the commemorative session of Parliament, Kanshi Ram asserted
that abolishing untouchability was never on Gandhiji's agenda. Not
one person stood up to contradict him... more |
|
|
|
Will a government which hasn't
been there all along, finally go? Will its departure lead to
elections or will it be replaced by a new government which will be
there no more than the one which was never there and has at last
gone? In a word, the first feature of what was happening was that
everything could happen... more |
|
|
|
These days when those guardians of
secularism, our newspapers, refer to the Secular Front, they put the
label -- "Secular" -- as well as the excuse -- "to combat communal
forces" -- within inverted commas ! Those who used to preface their
remarks about Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee with, "The right man in the
wrong party", suddenly emphasize only "The right man" part ! "Things
are all going right," says a person who has feasted off secular
governments for ten years, as I run into him -- I don't immediately
get what he thinks is going right, so out of touch have I been with
him. "I mean, we are not going to get just a stable government, we
are going to get a BJP government," he says enthusiastically...
more |
|
|
|
In the beginning was a foreigner.
He founded the Congress. Then, no one did anything till the
Nehru-Nehru (Father and Son) Family stepped forth. They firmly
stamped the history of India with the twin features that
characterise it in the first half of the 20th century: everything
they did was a sacrifice, no one else made any sacrifices.... more |
|
|
|
Sonia Gandhi endeared herself to
women and the youth in Udaipur today," said a gushing TV reporter,
by taking up issues close to their hearts - price rise, and
unemployment." In what sense had Sonia "taken up the issue"? She
reads out a sentence - I know how difficult it is for you, specially
for my sisters here to make ends meet these days, prices have risen
so much because of instability -- and "the issue" of price rise had
been "taken up"... more |
|
|
|
"And what about the pogroms that
go on from time to time ?," the caller asked. Late at night, an
editorial writer with one of the world's best-known papers was
calling from the USA. It was becoming evident that the BJP would
form the Government, he was gathering background information...
more |
|
|
|
"But What was the immediate
threat?," ask the pundits. "Why now?," they demand. I K Gujral adds
the considerable weight of having been Prime Minister to the
argument: as one who had access to secret information as Prime
Minister, he tells Parliament, I say that when I left office there
was no threat that warranted the explosions... more |
|
|
|
Remember that incident in April
1996, about the ring magnets? "Baseless", the Chinese thundered.
When they could not deny the sale any longer, they acknowledged the
shipment but insisted that the ring magnets were for hold your
breath - windshield wipers for cars... more |
|
|
|
We are so dazzled by reports of
the strides China has made in enlarging its economy that we do not
notice that one of the principal uses to which it is putting its new
wealth is to multiply its military strength. Pick up any book or
analysis about security developments in the Pacific region or in
Asia, and the facts it sets out about China are bound to startle...
more |
|
|
|
"Rational vs. National," screams
the headline of the new pall-bearer of secularism, the magazine
Outlook. "Tampering with history," proclaims the old pall- bearer,
The Hindu. Having been educated by The Hindu that the "nodal
ministry" for the matter is the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, I ring up the Secretary of that Ministry. Has the
Memorandum of Association of the ICHR been changed?, I ask. No, he
says. It has not been changed, he says... more |
|
|
|
Answer by the Ministry for Human
Resources Development to Unstarred Question number 3466 in the Rajya
Sabha : "Professor Bipin Chandra was sanctioned a sum of Rs.
75,000/- during 1987-88 for the assignment entitled 'A History of
Indian National Congress'. A sum of Rs. 57,500/- has been released
to him till 23.6.1989. The remaining balance of Rs. 17,500/- is yet
to be released because a formal manuscript in this regard is yet to
be received... more |
|
|
|
Worse, even after a decade of
killing by Pakistan armed terrorists, voices are still raised that
hide Pakistan deeds under dust: An ex-editor is forever narrating
the sweet words he exchanged on his most recent trip to Pakistan,
how person like him had built a small lobby in Pakistan for peace
with India; another editor proclaims that Nawaz Sharif should be
given the Nobel Prize for Peace, so hard is he trying for peace in
the face of such enormous difficulties... And they have an audience!
for we just do not face the fact that Pakistan is working to a
clear, indeed, to a singular aim - and that is to break India...
more |
|
|
|
"Death is just an insignificant
word for them," begins the report in The News of 28 November, 1997
on the annual gathering of the Mujahidin-e-Taiba. "Killing those who
do not share their set of Islamic values is the only reality. The
congregation was flooded with thousands of people with these
beliefs..." ... more |
|
|
|
As we have seen, the explicit part
of the Circular issued by the West Bengal Government in 1989 in
effect was that there must be no negative reference to Islamic rule
in India. Although these were the very things which contemporary
Islamic writers celebrated, there must be absolutely no reference to
the destruction of the temples by Muslim rulers, to the forcible
conversion of Hindus, to the numerous other restrictions which were
placed on the Hindu population... more |
|
|
|
Writes Tasneem Ahmad, "I express
my profound sense of gratitude, very personal regards and respects
to Professor Irfan Habib, who encouraged and guided me at every
stage of the work. In spite of his very pressing engagements and
pre-occupation, he ungrudgingly spared his valuable time to examine
with care every intricate problem, arising out [sic.] during the
course of work." When the entire manuscript has been lifted word for
word from the work of Dr. Parmatma Saran... more |
|
|
|
The pattern of these textbooks
thus is set in stone : concoct a picture of pre-Islamic society of
Indian history as a period riddled by discord, tensions, inequity
and oppression -- evidence or no evidence; on the other side,
concoct a picture of the Islamic period as one in which a "composite
culture" flowered, one in which, in spite of the errors of few who
acted out of normal, non-religious motives, there was peace and
harmony -- evidence or no evidence... more |
|
|
|
Arun Shourie is not a historian.
He is a mythologist of Hindu communalism. He is a political
pornographer," declared one of these eminent historians, K N
Panikkar, in Kerala the other day. He had been asked for an answer
to the facts I had set out in Eminent Historians. And he was giving
reasons why it was beneath his dignity to give one... more |
|