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Arun Shourie on
Communism
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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
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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"...
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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 |
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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...
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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'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...
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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 |
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'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'...
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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"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...
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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 |
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'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 |
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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 |
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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...
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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 |
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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 |
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"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...
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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...
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"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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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Namboodiripas' fusillade was just
the opening salvo, it turned out. The Communist Party of India
published a series of pamphlets - Arun Shourie's Slanders Rebutted
History has indicated the Communists, 1942 August Struggle and the
Communist Party of India... Translated into several languages, these
were distributed far and wide. Today, they are prophylactics anyone
who reads them will be immunised against the abuse of these 'leading
intellectuals' and their parties... more |
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"You have said that this is a
historic visit, that this is a defining moment in the history of
South Asia, but what is the substance in these declarations?," asked
the correspondent at the joint press conference of the Indian and
Pakistani Prime Ministers in Lahore -- the usual European or
American correspondent, with the usual condescension and derision...
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"Why do you keep doing this?", I
keep asking. Another press conference has been held, another
statement reprimanding Government has been issued, another "massive
demonstration" protesting against the Government's "failure to
extricate India from the clutches of the WTO" has been announced.
The difference is that in the public eye the organizations for which
they speak, issue statements, announce morchas and the rest, are
part of the same parivar as the Government... more |
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"The mandate is for a coalition
government", the pundits declared in 1996. "Coalition governments
have worked for decades in Europe. Why will they not work in
India?", they demanded. The obvious answer was that Indian
politicians are not European politicians. That at every turn the
outcome will be in the hands of persons who have no scruple, no
ideology, no idea, no shame. But this was rejected as carping, as
specious pleading on behalf of communal and fascist forces. Several
coalitions later, how does that rationalisation of 1996 look? So,
the first lesson is for analysts: Do not contrive
rationalisations... more |
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Hostilities have but to commence
and a rash of strategists erupts: indeed, it seems that everyone,
except the ones actually running it, knows how to run the war. Just
as suddenly, intelligence agencies start planting stories: every
agency, it seems, knew what was going to happen, every agency sent
warnings, but every other agency scuppered its reports; every paper,
every commentator suddenly seems to know what which top-secret
agency has told Government... more |
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To attribute the occupation by
Pakistanis of such extended stretches in Kargil to "an intelligence
failure" is too facile. It is an evasion -- an evasion of the basic
cause, an evasion of responsibility... more |
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"India has massacred 60,000
Kashmiris, but the people of Kashmir will never rest till they have
won freedom;" "India has deployed 700,000 soldiers in the Valley,
and yet the Kashmiri mujahidin are inflicting heavy losses on them
every day;" -- such "facts" are repeated ad nauseum in
Pakistani papers. We tend to dismiss such assertions as the usual
lies. Public Opinion Trends, are so inured to these concoctions that
they excise them from their reports! In fact, the concoctions
deserve attention... more |
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Aap log jis jazbe aur walwalese
Jihad karten hain, vo Bharati kutton, muaf kijiye, faujiyon ko apni
bandookein uthane ka mauka bhi nahin milta''- the passion and
fervour with which you wage Jihad does not leave the opportunity for
these Bharati dogs, pardon us, these Bharati militarymen to even
pick up their rifles. ''Agar aap isi tareh Bharati faujiyon ko makhi
macchar ki tareh jahanum ki vaadiyon mein dhakelte rahe, to ankareeb
Bharat ka koi bhi kutta muazarat fauji Kashmir ka rukh nahin
karega''- if you continue to push them into hell in this way, like
flies and mosquitoes, no Indian dog, begging you pardon, no Indian
militaryman will dare look towards Kashmir... Serious analysis in Khabarein, a leading paper of Lahore,
of 10 July, 1999... more |
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"A thousand Pakistani militants
have entered the Baramula and Poonch sectors of Kashmir" -- that was
the lead story on the 9 p. m. news bulletin of a leading TV channel
on 27 July. I was properly alarmed. And so I was even more surprised
when the next morning not one paper carried anything about fresh
infiltration. But it might have been a scoop of the TV channel, I
thought. And was therefore triply surprised to see that the TV
channel itself had no follow-up on the story the next day. The story
vanished as swiftly as the terrorists... more |
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"Not one paisa has been taken from
the Trust," declared the Congress spokesman with a show of righteous
indignation. He was declaiming on the Indira Gandhi National Centre
for the Arts. But the charge had been altogether different -- that
the Trust had been a Government-trust, that it had received Rs. 134
crores of Government money and 23 acres of invaluable land, that it
had been converted into a private Trust by fraud, that the
conversion had been sanctified by collusion between a trustee and
the President of the Trust, Sonia Gandhi. Not one of these facts had
been disputed by the Congress... more |
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As Mr I K Gujral proceeded with
his "Gujral Doctrine," a friend in RAW said, "He will rue it by
September." As we returned from Lahore, he said, "When Pakistan goes
so far out to seem friendly, it is planning something big." As Nawaz
Sharif kept bringing one institution after another under his heel --
he enacted a version of our anti-defection law which made
legislators his bonded men: they stand disqualified the moment they
defy the party whip on any matter; he had the President resign; he
removed the Chief Justice; he did away with the Council for Defence
and National Security thereby curtailing the Army's role; he put a
pious cipher into the presidency -- my friend said, "He will go on
rushing forward till he bangs his head into a brick wall. It is his
nature... more |
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