Five ‘other’ unidentified persons have also been booked in the case lodged at the city’s Krishna Nagar police station.

Dr Khan first became a household name after the 2017 tragedy at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College, where several children died due to lack of oxygen cylinders. While for most Indians, he was hailed as a saviour for arranging emergency oxygen cylinders, he faced criminal action along with nine other doctors and staff members over irregularities in their duty. After months of incarceration, all were finally released on bail.

‘Jail was hell for me,’ he had told Sabrangindia in his first interview after his release in 2018. The interview is in four parts.

Krishna Nagar Station House Officer Jitendra Pratap Singh said, “Dr Kafeel was booked after a local resident alleged a book written by him was being distributed to incite people against government and create division in society.”

The Lucknow police told the media that they have started a probe into the case and are trying to identify the other accused. The case was lodged under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery to make or transfer any valuable security, or to receive money), 468 (forgery for cheating), 465 (forgery), 471 (using forged as genuine), 504 (insult to provoke breach of peace), 505 (statements causing mischief), 295 (defiling a place of worship to insult a religion), 295-A (malicious acts to outrage religious feelings), and 153-B (assertions prejudicial to national integration) of the IPC.

When contacted by Indian Express over phone, Dr Khan said, “Neither the government nor the police have told me anything about it. The book in question is available on Amazon and has been on sale for two years. I have been staying outside UP for four years. The book in English has been translated by some people into Hindi and Urdu. I don’t know why they have registered a case against me now,” said Khan.

It may be recalled that, in September 2020, the Allahabad High Court revoked charges under National Security Act (NSA) against Khan, and ordered to immediately release him as he had been in a Mathura jail for nearly six months. Khan was accused of delivering a provocative speech at Aligarh Muslim University in December 2019 during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The case against him was lodged for allegedly “disturbing public order’.

Related:

Allahabad HC stays second suspension order against Dr. Kafeel Khan

18 months on, Dr. Kafeel Khan still suspended from service

The post Dr Kafeel Khan booked again, this time over book ‘inciting people, creating division’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Wasim Rizvi, the former chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board, is in the news once again for his deeply communal and Islamophobic diatribe, this time published in his book titled Muhammad, purportedly on the life of the Prophet Mohammed, one of the most revered figures in Islam.

One could have gauged the contents of the book from the book launch ceremony itself where Rizvi was seen in the company of fellow hate offender Yati Narsinghanand. The head priest of the Dasna temple has cultivated quite an ecosystem of hate, with his followers feeling empowered to spew hate with impunity. The Wire, that has examined a copy of the book, reported that Rizvi has virtually attempted to defame Prophet Mohammed as a womaniser and murderer.

Wasim Rizvi is not new to controversy. In the past too he has made multiple attempts to create communal tension.

In September 2017, Rizvi had met Mahant Suresh Das, one of the parties advocating the construction of Ram Temple, to show the UP Shia Waqf Board’s support for the construction of the Ram temple. He had also advocated for the construction of the mosque some distance away from Ramjanmabhoomi in a Muslim neighbourhood. This had helped him score major brownie points from Hindutva leaders and groups. However, the comments were ill timed as the matter was still sub-judice and extremely communally sensitive, especially given the violence surrounding the Babri Masjid demolition in December 1992 and a spate of violence that ensued in its aftermath.

Then in January 2018, Rizvi alleged that country’s madrasas “produced more terrorists than civil servants” in a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Incensed at the accusations made by Rizvi, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Maharashtra, sent a defamation notice to Rizvi. Apart from the Rs 20 crore defamation suit, the notice also demanded Rizvi to submit an unconditional apology.

On March 11, 2021, Rizvi had moved Supreme Court with a plea seeking the “removal” of certain verses from the Quran that according to him “promoted violence.” This prompted the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to seek an unconditional apology from him for his “highly provocative, objectionable and malicious” statements that the NCM claims, were delivered “with intent to outrage the religious feelings of a particular community and to insult the particular religion.”

Recently while promoting his book, in a viral video interview to right-wing Youtuber Niraj Atri, Rizvi said, “Mohammed declared himself to be a Prophet, and used Allah’s name to share false teachings in a bid to become influential. This influence grew so much that we now see Islamic terrorism threatening the world. The foundation for all this was laid in Arabia 1,400 years ago.”

It is noteworthy that the Shia community and Rizvi’s own family have virtually disowned him. His latest book, is therefore perhaps, a desperate attempt to hold on to the last few shreds of dignity and forge stronger alliances with Hindutva leaders.

Related:

Shia Waqf Board meets Hindu parties involved in Ayodhya case, reiterates support for Ram Mandir
Jamiat slaps Rs 20 crore defamation suit against UP Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi
Withdraw comments against Quran, apologise: National Commission for Minorities tells Waseem Rizvi
What will Waseem Rizvi gain by antagonising the Muslim community?

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A Promised Land, that has recently been released, leaves little doubt that the political leadership in North America is aware of the existence of a majoritarian religious chauvinism in the world’s so called largest secular democracy.  

Authored by the former US President Barack Obama, the book is his memoir of first term in office from 2008-2012. During this time, he made his first official visit to India back in November 2010. In his brief memories of that visit shared in Chapter 24, Obama talks about his meeting with then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the leader of then-ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.  

Based on his conversation with Singh, he has noted about his concerns over growing anti-Muslim sentiments in India due to terror attacks originating from Pakistan-based Muslim extremist groups and how this was helping the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) increasing its influence.  

The BJP came to power under Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. Since then the attacks on religious minorities, particularly Muslims have increased. While Obama is understandably silent about it in his book that does not cover his second term in the office from 2012-2016; he draws a parallel between the rise of BJP and the illiberal forces in Europe and his own home country.  

Significantly, he mentions about the murder of MK Gandhi- the towering leader of India’s passive resistance movement against British occupation by a Hindu extremist in 1948. Without going into the detail of the conspiracy behind the assassination, he only writes, “He was shot at point blank range by a young Hindu extremist who viewed his ecumenism as a betrayal of the faith”.  
Gandhi was murdered by Nathuram Godse, who was once associated with RSS, a Hindutva supremacist group of which the BJP is a political wing and was banned in the aftermath of this high profile killing. Modi is also a member of the RSS. Gandhi was despised by the Hindutva Right for his advocacy of Hindu-Muslim unity and opposition to ultra-Hindu nationalism.  

That Obama chose to overlook these connections is one thing, but even the slight admission of these facts establishes that the US administration isn’t unaware of the ascendance of Hindutva extremism to power.  

While we can only guess if Obama is planning to write another memoir of his second term in which he might come out with a more candid critical assessment of Modi and his party. But these small observations are sufficient to break the deafening silence over what has been going on in India.  

However, Obama’s silence about other issues, such as Sikh Genocide won’t go unnoticed.  

Thousands of Sikhs were murdered all over India following the assassination of then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in 1984 by the goons led by the activists of the slain leader’s Congress party. Whereas he mentions about the assassination of Indira Gandhi, he makes no reference to the ugly events that followed her death. This is despite the fact that he describes Manmohan Singh as “a member of the tiny, often persecuted Sikh religious minority who’d risen to the highest office in the land”. That the BJP alone has not been polarising Hindu majority is a fact that cannot be denied.  

Another major omission he has made is his impressions in terms of the brutal caste system allegedly sanctioned by Hindutva religion within the Indian society. While Obama has rightly criticised Gandhi for his failure in undoing the “stifling caste system” his comparison of the freedom movement of Gandhi against foreign rule with Black emancipation struggle in America is flawed.  

His argument that Gandhi’s nonviolence was a beacon for the dispossessed, including Black Americans under Jim Crow is rather weak considering how Gandhi and his associates had allegedly overlooked the struggle of so called untouchables or Dalits who were being discriminated against by the upper caste Hindus who were in the forefront of the freedom movement. If there was anyone who strongly defended the rights of Dalits in India and can be equated with the leaders of Black emancipation struggle it was none other than the architect of the Indian constitution Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.  

Though Gandhi opposed untouchability, he lacked conviction to question the validity of the caste system for which he had to face fierce criticism of Ambedkar. By turning a blind eye to Amebdkar, Obama did little justice to the issue which has become more relevant under a right wing Hindutva nationalist regime that believes in caste system and is determined to dilute the Constitution that guarantees religious freedom and equality while at the same time attempting to appropriate both Gandhi and Ambedkar.  

*Views expressed are the author’s own.

More by Gurpreet Singh:

Canada will always be there to defend the right of peaceful protest: Justin Trudeau
If Modi really cares about Nanak’s teachings, he must treat farmers with respect 

The post Some promising revelations appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Translation is not just about words, it is about carrying a culture, a history, a whole world into another language. Translations do not just bring languages closer to one another, they also introduce us to diverse modes of imagining and perceiving different cultures.

Image courtesy OUP

To mark the International Translation Day, celebrated on 30 September, the Indian Cultural Forum will be doing a series of posts to emphasise the power and importance of translations.

Camels in the Sky: Travels in Arabia has been written by V Muzafer Ahamed, edited by Mini Krishnan, and translated into English by PJ Mathew. The book is a travelogue exploring the history, archaeology, legends, folklore and travails of migrant Asian workers in the Arabic world.

This is an excerpt from the chapter “The Bedouins and the Gaaf Tree” of the book.

The Bedouin and the Gaaf Tree

A dying gaaf tree | Photograph by Muhammed Nowfal

The deserts have rains that man cannot see. The briefest of rain—a single drop which cools but a single cell, and which only a tree can feel.
The secret of this rain and the trees is known only to the Bedouin, who are privy to the deep mysteries of nature and the universe. They call it the single-drop rain. This rain will shed just a drop into the vast expanse of the desert and vanish instantly.

It is extremely difficult to spot the single-drop rain but the Bedouin will recognize it if it falls on a gaaf tree that is nearly dead from prolonged exposure to heat and lack of water. The Bedouin believe that the gaaf will sprout at least a single green leaf with that drop. They claim that this one-drop, one-sprout phenomenon is the mysterious poetry of the desert. And only the Bedouin can spot the gaaf tree with the single green leaf in the vast and mysterious recesses of the desert’s arid sand dunes. To outsiders, the gaaf would appear only as a collection of shrivelled-up twigs ready to die and merge into the sands. Of course, a single drop of rain may not be enough to create a green leaf. In such circumstances, that drop is guarded in the underbelly of the tree as a potent green vein, not readily discernible to a non-Bedouin.

Desert life is guided by signs. It is based on their science of signs that the Bedouin estimate the weight a camel can carry and how far it can travel in the desert. They do it by feeling the camel’s knees. Much like the Sufi s who heal the human body’s damages by feeling the pulse and stroking the nerves, the Bedouin have formulated all their survival philosophies by reading the signs.

The gaaf tree found amidst the sand dunes of the desert is an appropriate metaphor for the Bedouin’s life. The tree resembles driftwood in the hot desert and betrays no sign of harbouring any life. Even the feeblest signs of life would appear to have been blown away in the intermittent sweep of sandstorms. But, in reality, it might probably have been standing still for decades. But with just one shower, it would turn green and fl ourish. The next rain might be another decade away, but the gaaf would not have given up. The Bedouin certify that the gaaf tree will survive for three decades with just two rains, each a decade apart. What they say about the tree is, in fact, true about themselves.

A Bedouin grandfather who had seen a century in the desert asked me how many rains I had seen in my life. How many rains would a Keralite have seen in his life? Has anyone cared to count? Does anyone count? I said I must have experienced countless rains. He said he knew exactly how many spells of rain he had seen—less than 50! He remembers the details of all the rains he had seen.

The one that he remembered most vividly was the rain when his camel was in labour. There was great uncertainty and anxiety. The mother and the calf were at risk of dying when the rain came. In the midst of her labour, the camel swung its eyes towards the falling raindrops. The shower gathered intensity and the camel forgot her pain and eased out the calf. And the Bedouin said the camel ran out into the rain even before licking its newborn clean. What was he doing then, I asked the grand old man. Of course, he had run out into the rain even before the camel did, he said, chortling artlessly.

Those gaaf trees that receive a good shower would then survive for several decades. Its seeds survive in the desert’s depths for ages. They rear their green heads and come overground soon after a rain. The survival of the gaaf tree symbolizes not only the life of the Bedouin but also all of life in its varying layers of existence. In them are ingrained the secrets of human survival. That is why there exists a rain that is visible only to the gaaf.

Once, in the midst of a journey, I noticed a page of Arabic stuck on the branch of a gaaf. It looked as though the tree was hugging the letters. Words (the imperishable) hugging the icon of survival! How that leaf from an unknown book survived the winds and came this far into the desert was a mystery. But its survival seemed to eloquently convey a message. The winds did not allow the paper to stay stuck to one tree. It kept taking it from one tree to another. At times, it wafted down to a sand dune, before being blown away again to a far-off tree. A piece of paper that could easily have been shredded by the winds was surviving, probably to certify the imperishability of words!
I came across several signs of desert life when I stayed in tents in the desert: snakes’ sloughs, bits of goats’ legs reeking of dried blood, footprints of birds, and trails of creeping creatures just outside the tents in the morning. Once, curiously, I dreamt of two green leaves and the wings of a butterfly shining in the breaking light. Colourful feathers were strewn around.

V. Muzafer Ahamed is the periodicals editor of Madhyamam Daily, Kerala, India, and winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award (2010) for travel writing.

PJ Mathew is a bilingual journalist with two decades of experience in English journalism and three decades in Malayalam.

Mini Krishnan is Editor, Translations, at Oxford University Press. So far she has edited 62 literary translations, four of which have won the Crossword Award for translation. She is an advocate of translation education in universities and colleges and is on the National Translation Mission, which operates under the National Knowledge Commission.

These are excerpts from Camels in the Sky: Travels in Arabia written by V. Muzafer Ahamed, translated by P.J. Mathew and published by Oxford University Press. Republished here with permission from the publisher.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum
 

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As in many parts of parts of the world, India is witnessing a hypernationalism on multiple fronts. Through five illustrative cases involving biological claims, Subramaniam explores an emerging bionationalism. The cases are varied, spanning the revival of Vaastushastra, the codification of “unnatural sex in IPC Section 377 (which the Indian Supreme Court recently struck down), the unfolding debates around the veracity of Hanuman and Ram Setu, debates on the geographic origins of Indians through genomic evidence, the revival of traditional systems of Indian medicine through genomics and pharmaceuticals, the growth of and subsequent ban on gestational surrogacy, and the rise of old Vedic gestational sciences.

Moving beyond a critique of India’s emerging bionationalism, Holy Science explores generative possibilities that the rich traditions of South Asian story telling offers us.

The following is an excerpt from the chapter Conceiving a Hindu Nation: (Re) Making the Indian Womb

New Biopolitical Imaginations of Hindu Nationalism

One of the central and ongoing projects that Hindu nationalists have embarked on is to “Hinduize” the nation. Since coming to power in the national government in 2014, they have poured considerable investment into these projects—taking over research institutions, rewriting school textbooks and curricula, and reshaping research and policy agendas. In the realm of biology, Hindu nationalists have sought to modernize and scientize Vedic sciences by reconstructing them in the language of modern genomics. The new Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) has a separate budget and a higher status than any similar agency has ever had in India’s history. On its web-site, images of Prime Minister Modi in yoga asanas with a large group of followers fill the screen. Over the last year, several efforts at reproductive enhancements using Vedic and Hindu sciences have garnered international attention. These practices and claims have an older history. For example, Lucia Savary (2014) describes what she calls “vernacular eugenics” in India during colonial rule in the early decades of the twentieth century. Known as santati-śāstra (the “science of progeny” or “progeniology”), this emerging branch of knowledge bases its principles on Francis Galton’s “classical eugenics” but has adapted them to Indian eugenics, using Ayurveda or ratiśāstra (ancient texts that deal with conjugal love) as its knowledge base. During this time period, Savary (2014: 381) argues,“western science functioned as a legitimizing source in vernacular texts.” In the more recent projects, what is striking and alarming is the seamless melding of the ancient and the modern to reconfigure Vedic medicine as proven knowledge.

Let’s consider claims of the revival of the ancient Indian tradition of garbh sanskar, or education in the womb. Organizers claim that it “is a scientifically proven fact” and “an amazing way of teaching/educating and bonding with unborn baby in womb during pregnancy.” Its objective is to produce uttam santati, superior children (Sampath 2017). Parents are advised to follow “three months of ‘shuddhikaran (purification)’ for parents, intercourse at a time decided by planetary configurations, complete abstinence after the baby is conceived, and procedural and dietary regulations” (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017). Ashutosh Bharadwaj (2017) quotes a doctor as stating, “The shastras prescribe a specific time to have intercourse for pregnancy. Doctors tell couples when they should become intimate on the basis of their horoscope and planetary configurations.” The program involves “purification of the energy channels” (Gowen 2017) and following the religious scriptures. This project, launched in Gujarat a decade ago, has been promoted at the national level since 2015. Its national convener, Dr. Karishma Narwani, states, “Our main objective is to make a Samarth Bharat (strong India) through uttam santati [superior offspring]. Our target is to have thousands of such babies by 2020” (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017). Such training extends to Hindu nationalist camps called Arogya Bharati (Gowen 2017).

Through Ayurveda, the program argues, you can produce superior offspring: “The parents may have lower IQ, with a poor educational back-ground, but their baby can be extremely bright. If the proper procedure is followed, babies of dark-skinned parents with lesser height can have fair complexion and grow taller” (R. Mishra 2017). A perfect example of an archaic modernity, the claims originate in both Indian mythology and modern biology. Garbh sanskar (education in the womb), for example, draws on the Indian mythological tale of Abhimanyu. In the Mahabharata,  Abhimanyu is described as having learned the art of breaking the “chakravyuh” (a circular trap) inside his mother’s womb as his father narrated the method (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017). Alongside this mythological insight, the project introduces bioscientific language. Repeatedly in the numerous projects that have proliferated, one sees the mingling of Indian mythological stories alongside bioscientific language that often proves nonsensical if one examines it carefully. For example:

Garbh sanskar enables “genetic engineering in vivo or inside the womb.” (Indiatimes 2017)

This procedure “repairs genes” by ensuring that genetic defects are not passed on to babies. (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017)

Ayurveda has all the details about how we can get the desired physical and mental qualities of babies. IQ is developed during the sixth month of pregnancy. If the mother undergoes specific procedures, like what to eat, listen and read, the desired IQ can be achieved. Thus, we can get a desired, customised baby (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017).

Often the personnel have a mixture of traditional and bioscientific training. For example: “Narwani and Jani hold Bachelor’s degrees in ayurveda, medicine and surgery, and Varshney obtained a PhD in biochemistry from Allahabad University in 1986” (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017).

All of the projects share a few features. The primary advice seems to be the control of the pregnant woman—making her a happy, docile, accommodating individual. They promote being “good” and religious, reading religious scriptures, listening to the Ramayana, and following austere Hindu values such as eating vegetarian food. The recent trend of violence against meat eaters is significant given that vegetarianism is a cultural practice of only a minority of India’s population (Natrajan and Jacob 2018). The advice is decidedly puritanical in its prohibitions against desire and passion (albeit not against sex!).

Pregnant women have been advised to stay away from “desire or lust”, avoid non-vegetarian food and have spiritual thoughts. . . .

Pregnant women should detach themselves from desire, anger, attachment, hatredness [sic], and lust. Avoid bad company and be with good people in stable and peaceful condition always. . . .

The [government-funded] booklet has also suggested that expecting mothers read about the life of great personalities, keep themselves in “peace” and hang “good and beautiful pictures” in their bedrooms for a healthy baby. (Times of India 2017) The programs and website make grandiose forecasts, including a higher IQ, fair skin, and tall stature for the baby and an easy labor for the mother, as one of the other quotes suggests: “If the mother chants shlokas and mantras, it helps in the mental growth of the baby . . . if she leads such a life, there will be no labour pain and the baby will gain up to 300g more weight” (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017; Gowen 2017).

Lest we think these are a few fringe groups, it is important to remember that promotional materials and information are often government funded and featured on government websites. For example, the government-funded Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy produced a booklet released by the minister of state for AYUSH that contained much of this information (Times of India 2017). Information to produce uttam santati (superior children) has made its way into textbooks in some states. Controversial teachings on how to produce a “superior male child” through diet and melted gold and silver have found their way into the curriculum for a Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine, and Surgery (a five-and-a-half-year degree) third-year textbook in the state of Maharashtra (R. Mishra 2017). While these ideas have long circulated in India, with a Hindu nationalist government at the helm promoting such knowledge as Vedic science, these projects are increasingly finding national reach.

The projects and their goals are ambitious. One claims to have already ensured the delivery of 450 “customised babies,” and its target is to have a Garbh Vigyan Anusandhan Kendra (a facilitation center) in every state by 2020 (Indiatimes 2017). They have also begun to incorporate garbh vigyan sanskar (pregnancy science rites) into college curricula.

Most alarming are the hopeful claims linking their projects to the successes of Nazi Germany. Several organizers have repeated the narrative that the project was inspired by the advice a senior Hindu nationalist (RSS) ideologue received over forty years ago in Germany from a woman he called the “Mother of Germany.” The woman is quoted as telling him, “You have come from India, have you not heard of Abhimanyu (the son of Arjuna in the epic Mahabharata)?” Varshney commented, “She told him that the new generation in Germany was born through Garbh Sanskar and that is why the country is so developed” (Ashutosh Bharadwaj 2017).

Banu Subramaniam is a Professor of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She writes on social and cultural aspects of science. She supports activist science aimed to create knowledge about the natural world while being aware about how it is embedded in our society and culture. In 2016, her book Ghost stories for Darwin won the Ludwik Fleck Prize for science and technology studies.
 

These are excerpts from Holy Science written by Banu Subramanium, published by Orient BlackSwan. Republished here with permission from the publisher.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post Hinduise the Nation appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Image courtesy: Speaking Tiger
 

These are excerpts from One Foot on the Ground: A Life Told Through the Body written by Shanta Gokhale and published by Speaking Tiger. Republished here with permission from the publisher.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post Hair and Heart appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Pragya Singh and Yogesh S in conversation with Madhavi Menon

Madhavi Menon is professor of English at Ashoka University, and writes on desire and queer theory. She is the author of Wanton Words: Rhetoric and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama; Unhistorical Shakespeare: Queer Theory in Shakespearean Literature and Film; and Indifference to Difference: On Queer Universalism. She is also the editor of Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

The post History, Mythology and India’s Syncretic Past appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Excerpts from Early Indians

The following are excerpts from the Epilogue to the book.

Image courtesy Juggernaut

Many of us believe our ancestors have lived in South Asia since “time immemorial”. But, as it turns out, “time immemorial” may not have been all that long ago. Tony Joseph’s Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From goes 65,000 years into the past–when a band of modern humans, or Homo sapiens, first made their way from Afrcia into the Indian subcontinent. Citing recent DNA evidence, Joseph traces the subsequent large migrations of modern humans into India. The book not only shows us how the modern Indian population came to be composed as it is but also reveals an undeniable and important truth about who we are: we are all migrants. And we are all mixed.

Over the four chapters of this book, we saw how the Indian ‘pizza’ got made, with the base or the foundation being laid about 65,000 years ago, when the Out of Africa migrants reached India. The sauce began to be made when the Zagrosian herders reached Balochistan after 7000 BCE, mixed with the First Indians, and then together went on to build the Harappan Civilization. When the civilization fell apart, the sauce spread all over the subcontinent. Then came the ‘Aryans’ after 2000 BCE, and cheese was sprinkled all over the pizza, but a lot more in the north than in the south. Around the same time arrived the major toppings which we see today in different regions in different amounts – the Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman-language speakers. And then, much later, of course, came the Greeks, the Jews, the Huns, the Sakas, the Parsis, the Syrians, the Mughals, the Portuguese, the British, the Siddis – all of whom have left small marks all over the Indian pizza.

Like all metaphors this is a silly oversimplification, of course, but is useful to the extent that it helps correct deeply embedded and problematic misconceptions about who we are. It is commonly thought that the ‘adivasis’ or ‘original inhabitants’ or ‘tribals’, who form about 8 per cent of the population, are very distant and very different from the rest of the Indian population – a perception that has led to them being looked down upon, not just as people who have chosen to continue a particular lifestyle, but as people who are ‘not us’. Now we know this is baseless. The tribals are ‘us’.

The tribals share much with the rest of the population genetically since they carry the ancestry of the First Indians and they ought to be seen as the foundational population of India as it is today. As we have seen, 50 to 65 per cent of whole genome ancestry of the Indian population comes from the descendant lineages of the First Indians. And there is no population group in India today that does not carry First Indian ancestry, no matter what language it speaks or where in the caste hierarchy it falls. How appropriate it is then that the most recognizable image of the Harappan Civilization is the ‘dancing girl’ (cover image) who could very well be a tribal girl. As we saw in chapters 2 and 3, First Indians were a part of that first urban revolution. (Aside: We do not know, of course, whether the girl was ‘dancing’; what we do know is that she has a powerfully attractive, insouciant stance that denotes energy and authenticity even today.)

The disdain towards tribals and scheduled castes comes from an inbuilt belief system that ‘others’ them and now we know why this othering needs to go. This attitude also reflects in the general unconcern for our own prehistorical sites. From Jwalapuram to Bhimbetka to Dholavira, the lack of interest in and identification with these sites is almost as palpable as in the case of our western neighbour’s similar indifference to historical sites that predate the arrival of Islam in the subcontinent. We will know that we have matured and owned our past in the full sense when prehistorical sites in India start attracting enough visitors who are excited and thrilled to see what their ancestors did and how they lived.

[…]

The theory that incoming ‘Aryans’ imposed the caste system on the population when they arrived in the subcontinent has been proved wrong by a genetic study published in 2013 titled ‘Genetic Evidence for Recent Population Mixture in India’. It was co-authored by Priya Moorjani, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, Lalji Singh, David Reich and others.

The results of the study that these scientists had conducted, based on genome-wide data from seventy-three population groups in the Indian subcontinent, were stunning. The study showed that between 2200 BCE and 100 CE, there was extensive admixture between the different Indian populations with the result that almost all Indians had acquired First Indian, Harappan and Steppe ancestries, though, of course, to varying degrees. The paper says, ‘India experienced a demographic transformation several thousands of years ago, from a region in which major population mixture was common to one in which mixture even between closely related groups became rare because of a shift to endogamy [marrying within the community].’

We have already seen how, when the Harappan Civilization began declining, as a consequence of the long drought and the arrival of new migrants, there were large-scale population movements from the north-west to both south and east, and much intermixing. So that is not surprising, even though the study reveals that the mixing was quite deep-going: ‘nearly all groups experienced major mixture in the last few thousand years, including tribal groups like Bhil, Chamar and Kallar that might be expected to be more isolated’. What is surprising, because it is counter-intuitive, is that the mixing came to an end sometime around 100 CE. One can imagine two separate groups who had maintained their genetic distance for a long time suddenly deciding that enough was enough and starting to mix. But it is more difficult to visualize groups that had already been mixing waking up one day and deciding to put a stop to it, and creating barriers to continued intermixing. The genetic study says that this is exactly what happened. It was as if around 100 CE a new ideology, which had gained ground and power, imposed on the society new social restrictions and a new way of life. It was social engineering on a scale never attempted before or after, and it succeeded wildly, going by the results of genetic research.

The study links the sudden downing of the shutters on intermixing to the beginning of the caste system: ‘The four-class (varna) system, comprised of Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras, is mentioned only in the part of the Rigveda that was likely to have been composed later. The caste (jati) system of endogamous groups having specific social or occupational roles is not mentioned in the Rigveda at all and is referred to only in texts composed centuries after the Rigveda.’ Could the end of the Maurya empire in the closing centuries of the first millennium BCE have had anything to do with this change in ideology? Did the defeat of the Mauryas also presage the eventual disappearance of Buddhism from the subcontinent and the decline of Jainism? Could the orthodox traditions of Aryavarta – with a more rigid view of social hierarchy and opposition towards ‘varnasankalana’, or mixing between different classes or races – have defeated the more open, freewheeling, progressive and anti-ritualistic ideologies of Magadha that had posed a challenge to it?

Did the rapid expansion of the Maurya empire into the heartland of Aryavarta between the fourth and second centuries BCE threaten the Brahmanical ideology based on sacrifices, the supremacy of Brahmins and their special relationship with rulers, and did Aryavarta strike back in response? Did they, then, over time, manage to impose their own long-held ideals of ‘purity’ and strong endogamy on the rest of society, including the Indo-European-language speakers of eastern India, who did not share those ideals, though they called themselves ‘Aryans’ too? Bronkhorst addresses some of these questions in his book.

A few things follow from this discussion. The caste system in India is not coterminous with the arrival of the ‘Aryans’ in the subcontinent. It fell in place around the ankles of Indian society only about two millennia later. And by the time it came about, intermixing had already taken place to varying degrees. So Ambedkar was right when he stated that the Sudras were not genetically different from the rest of Indian caste society. But perhaps he did not go far enough – he seems to have still considered the tribals to be different from everyone else. We now know that this is not correct – because their genes run through everyone, no matter where in the caste hierarchy one is.

Ambedkar was also wrong in denying ‘Aryan’ migrations altogether, though he cannot be blamed for the mistake since he did not have the genome data that we have today.

The cultural effervescence in eastern India or Magadha began in the centuries before the flowering of the Maurya empire and can be seen in such things as urbanization, new religions and philosophies and the rising affluence and prominence of the trading classes. It had already spread its influence and ideas across the subcontinent and far outside of it too, before the gates of the caste system were installed and closed, perhaps over several generations and centuries, thus turning the country inward in many ways.

A period of achievements and adventures

The five or six centuries before the beginning of the Common Era and a couple of centuries after it would rank as one of the most creative and progressive periods in the history of India. The composition of the Upanishads, the insights and philosophy of which have inspired millions across the world and influenced much of the thought of the Indian subcontinent; the rise of the world’s first missionary religions, Jainism and Buddhism, that took the teachings of their founders as well as new linguistic ideas and literary forms to all corners of India and, in the case of Buddhism, to many corners of the then known world; the bringing of east Asia under the spell of Indian cultural ideas; the mesmerizing of China . . . the list is as long as it is exciting. Most of the overseas overtures, outreaches and adventures would have begun either from the eastern or southern parts of India, which would have been without the kind of restrictions on intermixing and voyages across the seas that Aryavarta found necessary to impose.

The momentum of these strong cultural currents carried on for many centuries after a new social hierarchy and a new way of living became common in the subcontinent and mixing between groups of the kind that was seen earlier had become taboo. Sanskrit, as the new language of the elite and the medium of intellectual discourse, probably became more influential than any other language in ancient history, with the possible exception of Latin – and Sanskrit spread more by persuasion and buy-in rather than military invasions as in the case of Latin, as explained beautifully by Sheldon Pollock in his majestic book The Language of the Gods in the World of Men. Kings and aspiring kings all over the subcontinent and across the seas in south-east Asia wanted the prestige and comfort that Sanskrit offered, along with its theory of kingship and social structure that seemed to find a ready market among elites everywhere. A powerful body of literature including the two mega epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which remain unrivalled in their ability to enthrall and inspire, carried in its sinews the new theory of power and social relationships that was perhaps as convincing for those at the receiving end of it as for those at the giving end of it.

This was not inevitable

But there was also a huge social cost to the new social construct, as indicated by genetics, again, as David Reich explains it in Who We Are and How We Got Here:

People tend to think India with its more than 1.3 billion people as having a tremendously large population, and indeed many Indians as well as foreigners see it this way. But genetically, this is an incorrect way to view the situation. The Han Chinese are truly a large population. They have been mixing freely for thousands of years. In contrast, there are few if any Indian groups that are demographically very large, and the degree of genetic differentiation among Indian jati groups living side by side in the same village is typically two or three times higher than the genetic differentiation between northern and southern Europeans. The truth is that India is composed of a large number of small populations.

In essence, the social structure that was imposed in the second century CE has cut the country into ‘tukde, tukde’ (pieces), to use the vocabulary of television news channel discussions in 2018. When you divide up a people like that, a society’s ability to maximize the potential of its individuals is severely affected and, equally importantly, fellow feeling even among people who live in the same locality is dampened, thus aborting the possibility of common actions that would benefit everyone. To what extent this has hampered India, as a nation, is perhaps a question that only sociologists will be able to answer, hopefully quantitatively, some day.

What we know now is that this was not inevitable. This was not the direction in which India was heading till around 100 CE when we seem to have halted suddenly, and turned back on an issue of crucial social importance. It would be wrong to think, though, that the ideological confrontation between what Aryavarta represented – or perhaps what an elite group within it represented and preferred – and what Magadha or eastern India represented and practised came to an abrupt halt. Buddhism kept going for centuries after its defeat in the land of its birth, though its position grew weaker and weaker.

That some of these battles were still being fought seven centuries after the arrival of the caste system in 100 CE we know from the work of Adi Shankara who took on the philosophies of Buddhism and Jainism. We also know this from archaeological and literary sources that have recorded continuing disputation, both intellectual and physical, and from theological movements like Bhakti that gave voice to the voiceless. That Bhimrao Ambedkar chose Buddhism for himself and his followers when he wanted to challenge still existing inequities in the twentieth century shows how the historical threads of a difference of opinion on the way a society ought to be constructed have continued to this day. In this sense, the spectacular ideological confrontation between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar too can be seen as a contest between the best of the philosophy of life and society that the conservative Aryavarta had to offer and the best of the rationality and progressivism that Magadha had to offer.

To quote the historian Romila Thapar:

When we assess our cultural heritage, we often tend to forget or we downplay the fact that rationality and scepticism were very much a part of early Indian thought. This was not limited to the Carvaka/Lokayata thinkers but is also clear from some other schools of philosophy, as indeed it is noticeable in Buddhist and Jaina thought. We have inherited a tradition of questioning, which was not limited to philosophical thought but is apparent in popular literature as well. It would be as well to nurture that tradition.

 Tony Joseph, former editor of Businessworld, has been a columnist and contributor to leading newspapers and magazines. He has written many impactful articles on India’s prehistory.
 

These are excerpts from Early Indians written by Tony Joseph and published by Juggernaut books. Republished here with permission from the publisher.

Courtesy: Indian Cultural Forum

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Josh Malihabadi was born as Shabbir Hasan Khan in 1896. He was from an Afridi Pathan family based in Malihabad, a small town near Lucknow, the city of nawabs. And Shabbir Khan was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Or should I say a golden spoon. His abba was a big zamindar with untold wealth. As a small kid, Shabbir fed sugarcanes to his pet elephant! His abba travelled in a “paalki” borne by eight “kahaars”. A young Shabbir was homeschooled by 4-5 ustads. He was a child prodigy who had mugged up Persian classics like Gulistaan and Bostaan. But his doting father was against Shabbir going to a school. He was so possessive!

After Shabbir’s satyagraha, he relented and sent Shabbir to schools first at Sitapur then at Lucknow. As a young man, Shabbir joined the MAO College in Aligarh, only to be thrown out for playing a prank with his junior! At the MAO College (now AMU) Shabbir Hasan Khan was a boarder, staying at the Mumtaz House. By this time, he was also a full-fledged Urdu poet. His “takhallus” (nom de plume) was Josh Malihabadi. In fact, poetry was in his DNA. His ancestors were also renowned poets. In 1924, Josh Malihabadi became an employee of the Hyderabad Nizam. The Nizam respected him but soon Josh was kicked out of Deccan for reciting a nazm against the Nizam himself! He went to Datia and Dholpur to try his luck but to no avail. Then he came to Delhi, got monetary help from Sarojini Naidu, Bulbul-e-Hindustan and launched his own magazine Kaleem. The magazine prospered until his business partner deserted him. For some time, Josh Malihabadi worked at the Shalimar Pictures in Pune as a songwriter but lost his job when the owner migrated to Pakistan! He got the editorship of Aajkal, courtesy his bosom friend Pandit Nehru.

By 1955, Josh Malihabadi was being courted by Pakistan. Pakistanis told him that after Nehru’s demise, Muslims would be persecuted in India. Josh Malihabadi’s grandsons would be forced to wear dhoti and keep choti. And then Josh Malihabadi committed the biggest blunder of his life. Breaking hearts of Pandit Nehru and Maulana Azad, he bid adieu to Hindustan and became a Pakistani citizen! Tall promises made by his Pakistani friends soon turned out to be Narendra Modi’s “achchhe din”! Achchhe din never came and Josh soon found himself embroiled in the petty politics of Pakistan. People jealous of Josh Malihabadi made life miserable for him. Pandit Nehru called him back to India but shayar-e- inquilab was too proud to retrace his steps. The book makes the reader sad at Josh Malihabadi’s plight as a revolutionary poet sells his wife’s ornaments to keep the chulha burning!

The book is full of anecdotes. It also brings to light horrors of the zamindari system. How cruel the feudal system was. Sample this example. As a young boy, Shabbir Khan was a spoilt brat. He carried an airgun. One day, a poor barber’s son didn’t salaam him. Shabbir got so angry that he fired his airgun at the small kid. The metal ball pierced the little kid’s back. He cried in agony while the young Shabbir again hit him.

The book also throws light on conspiracies at the Nizam ‘s court. Sycophants ruled the roost while upright guys suffered. Josh Malihabadi also spent some time at Shantiniketan at Tagore’s request. Meat was banned at Shantiniketan and Josh ‘s servant Jugnu smuggled mutton inside Josh’s room!

Josh Malihabadi was very close to top Indian leaders especially Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad and Sarojini Naidu. Once Nehru fired his secretary for speaking lies to Josh on telephone. Sarojini Nsidu was like a sister to Josh.

Overall, the book is a captivating one. A must-read for all who take pride in Hindustan’s Ganga-Jamni tehzeeb.

(Mr. Amitabh Kumar Das is a 1994 batch IPS Officer.)

Courtesy: themorningchronicle.in

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Hindutva’s Second Coming by Subhas Gatade; published by Media House, Delhi; 2019; pages: 272; Rs 395 (US $ 18).

While analysing Hindutva’s second coming, the author divided the contents into three sections, each with a focal point and finally Appendix-IV, the most informative one on Nehru and Ambedkar. Beginning with the soaring increase of whatsapp in India, the author has substantiated with reports and even quoted data survey to show how the 2019 election can be called a “WhatsApp Election” with its huge network spreading “fake news”. How dangerous it had been, even from the point of view of creating serious violence and therefore the misuse of whatsapp and Twitter with the BJP’s entire strategy of distorting historical facts to intermingle nationalism, religion and patriotism having far-reaching ominous or threatening social consequences.

Looking back on those years after partition with “deaths of around two million people and forcible displacement of 10-12 million”, the author rightly gives credit to the then “robust leadership with firm committment to secularism to handle the post-independent challenges”. (p. 23) Here he has brought in the ideological battle of the RSS with its concept of Hindutva and development with nationalism. Delving deep into the issue he has shown how “the secular construct was countered by the majoritarian Hindu construct”. (p. 27) His study on Maharashtra’s social-cultural scenario deserves special mention. His attempt to find out the roots of the emergence of Hindu nationalism in the backdrop of the two-fold factors of Muslim threat along with lower caste assertion is corroborated with materials from analyses by renowned scholars and historians. He has dealt in detail the concept of the “exclusivist” version of Hindu unity, the different facets of Golwalkar and Deoras along with the transition of the RSS from a non-entity to a place of ‘reverence’ through their large number of affiliated bodies.

In the chapter on Militarisation of Hindus, the author has traced the trajectory of militarisation and shown how through this process the nation was Hinduised. In this section he has brought out the background and data of mob- lynching and vigilante violence. The religious celebrations with trishul dikshas and armed processions were deliberate attempts by the RSS to legitimise religion for political use and institutionalising riot systems as the author rightly placed in a footnote. (p. 63)

The book does not only deal with the emergence of the Hindutva in India; rather it throws light on the majoritarian religious cultural nationalism and its danger in South Asia, for example, in Sri Lanka the Buddhist violence through Bodu Bala Sena’s hate speech against Muslims and Tamil Hindus. The similarity between Sinhala-Buddhist militants and Hindutva supremacists in terms of hate and violence is a widespread South Asian phenomenon. Here comes the role of the state vis-a-vis majoritarian politics. The Saudisation or Wahabisation of Pakistan, Buddhist chauvinsim in Sri Lanka, plight of Rohingyas in Myanmar (720,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh), Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh (killing of bloggers irrespective of religion) are shown as a connected chain, definitely shocking news for the entire world.

The most interesting chapter titled ‘Dear Hitler’ is an eye-opener to us, as it reveals the popularity of Hitler in India and the fact that ‘Mein Kampf’ is widely read! Hitler’s authoritarianism is admired by the Indian elite as they think a dictatorial regime to be the answer to India’s innumerable problems. The author has analysed in depth the psyche of the Indian elite to remain contented “within their own cocoon of selective amnesia” (p. 102), not bothered about organised killings, lynching etc. as they similarly keep themselves distanced from ethnic cleansing of Jews by Hitler and deny the genocide of Holocaust! It is a shocking revelation that in the NCERT textbooks in Gujarat Hitler was portrayed as a hero. There is a co-relationship between this glorification of Hitler and the meeting of Dr Munje of the Hindu Mahasabha with Mussolini in India. This explains their strategy to militarise the RSS and militarily regenerate the Hindus.

Section II deals with the thought, concept, activities of the Hindu Mahasabha and RSS idealogues and leaders, starting from Savarkar, Shyama Prasad to Mohan Bhagwat. The transition of Savarkar after his transportation for life to the Andamans, where he had handed over a mercy petition on November 14, 1913 promising the British Government to serve in any capacity, from one who endorsed Hindu-Muslim unity to someone who propounded the theory of Hindu Nation has been elucidated in a historical framework. This chapter also gives an account of Savarkar’s praise for Hitler and endorsement of ethnic cleansing in Nazi Germany. Jinnah is known as the propounder of the two-nation theory, but much before 1940 Savarkar declared this theory at the 19th session of the Hindu Mahasabha in 1937. This is a well- documented fact. But what is interesting is that the author to substantiate the point has quoted a pro-Sangh Parivar historian, R.C. Majumdar. The ambience for the partition was built up with Savarkar “asking Hindu Youth to join the military with a call ‘Militarise Hindus, Hinduise the Nation’” and also “helping the Britishers to find recruits for their army”. This happened at a time when most of our national leaders were in jail during the ‘Quit India‘ Movement.

Similarly another stalwart of the Hindu Mahasabha, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, occupies considerable space in this treatise. The conversation between Shyama Prasad and Sardar Patel after Gandhi’s assassination is not known to this generation. Patel conveyed to Shyama-prasad how the involvement of the Hindu Mahasabha in Gandhi’s assassination and the activities of the RSS proved to be a “clear threat to the existence of Government and the State”. Interestingly Shyamaprasad “did not resign to express his dissent over these actions”. (p. 142) He was party to all the decisions of the Nehru Cabinet including the banning of the RSS. He, however, resigned on the issue of the Nehru-Liaqat Ali Pact of 1950. Each of these leaders had suffered from dichotomy. So had Shyamaprasad, his sharing of power with the Muslim League in Bengal was one such instance.

The most significant aspect of Shyamaprasad, that is not widely known, is his initial acceptance of the “inevitability of Article 370”. In the correspondence between Shyamaprasad and Nehru on February 17, 1953 this argument is reiterated. The author has concluded this chapter by saying: “Till date the BJP maintains that if the government then had heeded to Mukherjee’s opposition to the said Article, Kashmir would have been in a different situation right now but still has not gathered courage to admit that he had conceded to the proposal in writing earlier.” (p. 150)

The ambience and milieu of hate towards Gandhi with slogans of Gandhi Murdabad at Mahasabha meetings was created by the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha in such a manner that when Gandhi was assassinated by Godse, sweets were distributed by the Hindu supremacists. This chapter also reveals the five attempts to kill Gandhi by these elements since June 25, 1934 (in 1944 twice, in June 1946, on January 20, 1948 in Delhi and finally on January 30, 1948) which explains the theory of conspiracy behind Gandhi’s assassination. Gandhi was their target because of his ‘pro-Muslim’ mentality, and also because he was the main obstacle to the path of building a Hindu Rashtra. Gandhi was not just assassinated but with him his idea of composite nationalism was targeted. This issue is not yet settled, as Godse, the assassin, has surfaced in the society as a patriot. The glorify Godse campaign has such far- reaching consequences that Sadhvi Pragya, who openly praised Godse as a patriot in her election campaign, could get elected to the Lok Sabha with a huge margin! This slows how deep the Hindutva ideology has penetrated into our society. There is enough evidence of a conspiracy and Savarkar was the main person behind it. For me, it has been a renewed learning process to go through those evidences written in the book.

The chapter on Deendayal Upadhyaya, who is being projected as the BJP’s Gandhi, on Shyamaprasad and on the formation of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh takes us to a period where Muslims are considered a “complex problem”. (p. 191) The dislike of the idea of secularism is explicit in all their writings and speeches. Even the federal character of our Constitution has been critically judged with a preference to the unitary form. (p. 192) Deen-dayal’s theory of integral humanism did not deter him from speaking against Hindu-Muslim unity. Since his time, the idea of an inclusive India took a backseat. The chapter on Mohan Bhagwat revives our recent memory of his utterances such as mobilising an “army” in three days. His claim of the RSS being a democratic organisation has been rightly refuted with provisions of having no entry for women, or a leadership chosen through nomination and not election. However, the fact remains that the RSS/BJP during this phase has emerged as a predominant voice with a huge vote-share in the electoral process.

The third section titled “Hindutva’s Second Coming: the Way Ahead” is highly fascinating as numerous contentious issues are discussed here. While comparing this phase of undeclared emergency with Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, the author states the earlier Emergency “could never gain legitimacy of the people”. (p. 231) The worst victim is secularism. The author may be right when he observes: “One needs to introspect the whole idea of secularism and enquire why there is a lack of social foundation for secularism in this country.” (p. 234) The author considers that there is an absence of broadening the constituency of the ‘secular movement’ or integrating it in a larger framework, and also there is the failure of the Opposition. The question that remains is: why did the anti-colonial struggle fail to impact on our future generations who do not have any idea of its legacy and on the contrary are brainwashed and mesmerised by a majoritarian outlook? It is a South Asian phenomenon, one type of fanatic idea feeds the other. This chain is connected as the author mentions: “Buddhist extremists in Myanmar strengthen Islamists in Bangladesh and they further add strength to the Hindutvasupremacists here.” (p. 236)

The last section titled Appendix: Nehru, Ambedkar and Challenge of Majoritarianism provides a tool to fight these Hindu supremacists with quotes and excerpts from their writings and speeches. Today when Ambedkar is being sought to be appropriated by the BJP/RSS and Gandhi’s killers, the people should know that he had talked about no state religion and said that liberty of conscience should be guaranteed to every citizen. (p. 246) Ambedkar, who had envisaged state socialism, could sense the danger of majoritarianism, and talk about a new doctrine of the Divine Right of the Majority to rule the minorities according to the wishes of the majority. (p. 248) His abhorrence to majori-tarianism is evident in his writings.

Though the RSS with its affiliated bodies may try to dent into the SC Hindu vote-bank, the SC population should be told what Ambedkar had said when he had formed the Scheduled Caste Federation: “The Scheduled Caste Federation will not have any alliance with any reactionary party such as the Hindu Mahasabha or the RSS.” (p. 249) Ambedkar’s idea of making political democracy into social democracy is extremely significant as he realised that democracy and secularism are inseparable. Today when secularism is under a serious threat this revisit to Ambedkar’s writings will undoubtedly enrich one’s vision of India and strengthen the zeal for the struggle ahead.

This book has come at a time when the need to sharpen our reasoning and faculty in com-bating the serious challenge of Hindu majori-tarianism in India is most imperative. The wide range of information about the rich legacy of our secular thought textured in an extremely readable manner in this book will, indeed, boost all those forces that are working at various levels to prevent the dismantling of the idea of India.

Gargi Chakravartty is a former Associate Professor of History, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi.

Courtesy: Counter Current

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