I’ve been reading Ramachandra Guha’s ‘India After Gandhi’ for quite some time now. Lucidly written, it makes an easy and interesting read. Quite an important book, for there are only but a few which attempt to present a panoramic view of the Indian polity ever since Independence. Hence, any book on the subject, even if written by a partisan or a person with a clear agenda, i.e., something like Shri Advani and his ‘My Country, My Life’, merits attention.
Nice reading apart, I’ve developed some reservations on the facts mentioned in Guha’s book. Since those mis-statements pertain to events which happened in recent history, one wonders as to which other parts of Guha’s writings are factually incorrect, particularly narrations which occurred in the hoary (relatively speaking) past
A few which I noted:
Guha states that the BJP called for a mid term poll in 1999 in order to gain a better majority. Now, anyone who has followed politics even narrowly, would know that BJP tried their best to hold on to power and sewed in an inconceivable alliance with the DMK once Jayalalitha withdrew support, reducing the Government to a minority. That they lost their Government by 1 vote only underlines how poor BJP was in political management. However, for Guha, it seems that this simply did not happen and BJP made the President dissolve the parliament and of course, Sonia Gandhi never made the ‘we have 272…and more’ statement to the media.
Writing on Defence, Guha states that India has developed a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles, i.e., Prithvi, Agni, Sagarika, etc etc… and ‘Surya’, an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile with a range of around 12,000 kms. Whoa…when did it happen? When were the tests conducted? When was the missile inducted? And why is the army keeping it a secret. The fact is that ‘Surya’ and ‘Kali’ as of today exist only in planning papers of the DRDO and security experts. There has been a hush hush talk of developing these two ICBMs for years now but not even a prototype has been built till date. Forget 12,000 kms, today Agni is not fully ready to hit even 5000 kms
In the chapter on Riots, Guha imperiously states that the Sangh Parivar attacked missionaries in Orissa and that the prime accused in the Graham Staines murder case, Dara Singh, was a Bajrang Dal member. Guha either does not know or seems to have conveniently forgotten that the Justice Wadhwa commission did not find any evidence of Dara Singh being a part of any Sangh Parivar outfit. He had his own outfit called the Bajrang Sena which was not an associate of any RSS organization.
In the same chapter, Guha gives the figures of Muslims killed in Gujarat riots at 2,000. This follows probably because 2,000 sounds so much more better than the official figures of around 700 Muslims and 270 Hindus. Lest we embarrass Guha, let us gloss over the facts that these figures have been released by the Central Government on the floor of the Parliament, a Central Government which is no friend of the BJP, forget being a friend of Modi. Guha states that post Independence, only 2 riots qualify for the monikor of pogroms – the 1984 Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots. It is worthy to compare both and be astounded that while one of those 'pogroms' had hardly any member of the Hindu community among dead, the other ‘pogrom’ had Hindus accounting for more than a quarter of all killed. It is noteworthy that around 40,000 of that pogrom committing community had been forced to refugee camps, something which is unparalleled in the annals of any rampaging community.
Continuing on Gujarat riots, Guha authoritatively states that the Kar Sevaks pulled Muslim vendors by beard on Godhra station and that the attack on train was in retaliation to that. Now while there have been such allegations, there has been no independent corroboration that such events ever actually happened. Guha chooses to make truth the casualty of his ‘research’ and presents unproved allegations as facts.
He further conjectures that the train fire was caused probably by a stove or cylinder preparing food. Now, even if a few beard pulls are sufficient provocation for attacking of the train, then certainly burning alive of 58 people, including 28 women and children are provocation enough for the riots. Secondly, how could one be so naive so as to believe that food was actually being prepared in the compartment which was filled to seams with people, both with and without tickets?
In the same chapter, Guha writes about the Babri masjid demolition and writes that in the post demolition massacres, in a grisly replay of partition riots, Muslims were pulled out from trains and killed. What is more shocking about this gross calumny that Guha does not even provide a fig leaf of any reference point. A ghastly lie, not even supported by a supposed news. In the same page, he gives some obscure reference to Advani’s Rath Yatra being called a Rakta Yatra. The words though have stuck post this fancy monikor being awarded by a then obscure journalist, the fact remains that no town/city which the first Rath Yatra visited witnessed riots following the yatra.
A surprising mis-statement is with regards to his comments on Jan Sangh’s performance in electoral polls. He states that Jan Sangh was not much impacted by the Indira wave in 1971 and that there seat tally came down marginally. Guha would have done good to refer to the ECI records available online. He would then have noticed that the BJS came down to 22 seats from a high of 35 in 1967. Certainly a fall of more than 35% qualifies for a setback!!
Going a bit back in history, Guha writes about a certain Acharya Karpatri who he states was among the leading lights of the Cow Protection movement. He states that he came into the centerstage all of a sudden and likewise was never heard of again post the attempted gherao of parliament wherein scores of Sadhus were killed in police firing. It is probable that Guha may not be aware for rather than being a shooting star, Acharya Karpatri was the head of ‘Ram Rajya Parishad’ which fought and won 3 seats in the Indian Parliament in 1952 General Elections. The party later merged with the Jana Sangh. Further, Achrya Karpatri did not vanish or abscond. He simply faded the way politicians fade and remained a Katha-vachak for the balance years of his life.
These are among but a few of those factual mis-statements which I can think of while I write this post. There could be many more, quietly hidden in secure belief of their author of their never being ever questioned. The sad part of these mis-statements is that whatever has been written in this book will get quoted and reproduced again and again in form of references in works by future columnists and historians, in effect, making these falsehoods true.
Nice reading apart, I’ve developed some reservations on the facts mentioned in Guha’s book. Since those mis-statements pertain to events which happened in recent history, one wonders as to which other parts of Guha’s writings are factually incorrect, particularly narrations which occurred in the hoary (relatively speaking) past
A few which I noted:
Guha states that the BJP called for a mid term poll in 1999 in order to gain a better majority. Now, anyone who has followed politics even narrowly, would know that BJP tried their best to hold on to power and sewed in an inconceivable alliance with the DMK once Jayalalitha withdrew support, reducing the Government to a minority. That they lost their Government by 1 vote only underlines how poor BJP was in political management. However, for Guha, it seems that this simply did not happen and BJP made the President dissolve the parliament and of course, Sonia Gandhi never made the ‘we have 272…and more’ statement to the media.
Writing on Defence, Guha states that India has developed a formidable arsenal of ballistic missiles, i.e., Prithvi, Agni, Sagarika, etc etc… and ‘Surya’, an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile with a range of around 12,000 kms. Whoa…when did it happen? When were the tests conducted? When was the missile inducted? And why is the army keeping it a secret. The fact is that ‘Surya’ and ‘Kali’ as of today exist only in planning papers of the DRDO and security experts. There has been a hush hush talk of developing these two ICBMs for years now but not even a prototype has been built till date. Forget 12,000 kms, today Agni is not fully ready to hit even 5000 kms
In the chapter on Riots, Guha imperiously states that the Sangh Parivar attacked missionaries in Orissa and that the prime accused in the Graham Staines murder case, Dara Singh, was a Bajrang Dal member. Guha either does not know or seems to have conveniently forgotten that the Justice Wadhwa commission did not find any evidence of Dara Singh being a part of any Sangh Parivar outfit. He had his own outfit called the Bajrang Sena which was not an associate of any RSS organization.
In the same chapter, Guha gives the figures of Muslims killed in Gujarat riots at 2,000. This follows probably because 2,000 sounds so much more better than the official figures of around 700 Muslims and 270 Hindus. Lest we embarrass Guha, let us gloss over the facts that these figures have been released by the Central Government on the floor of the Parliament, a Central Government which is no friend of the BJP, forget being a friend of Modi. Guha states that post Independence, only 2 riots qualify for the monikor of pogroms – the 1984 Sikh riots and the 2002 Gujarat riots. It is worthy to compare both and be astounded that while one of those 'pogroms' had hardly any member of the Hindu community among dead, the other ‘pogrom’ had Hindus accounting for more than a quarter of all killed. It is noteworthy that around 40,000 of that pogrom committing community had been forced to refugee camps, something which is unparalleled in the annals of any rampaging community.
Continuing on Gujarat riots, Guha authoritatively states that the Kar Sevaks pulled Muslim vendors by beard on Godhra station and that the attack on train was in retaliation to that. Now while there have been such allegations, there has been no independent corroboration that such events ever actually happened. Guha chooses to make truth the casualty of his ‘research’ and presents unproved allegations as facts.
He further conjectures that the train fire was caused probably by a stove or cylinder preparing food. Now, even if a few beard pulls are sufficient provocation for attacking of the train, then certainly burning alive of 58 people, including 28 women and children are provocation enough for the riots. Secondly, how could one be so naive so as to believe that food was actually being prepared in the compartment which was filled to seams with people, both with and without tickets?
In the same chapter, Guha writes about the Babri masjid demolition and writes that in the post demolition massacres, in a grisly replay of partition riots, Muslims were pulled out from trains and killed. What is more shocking about this gross calumny that Guha does not even provide a fig leaf of any reference point. A ghastly lie, not even supported by a supposed news. In the same page, he gives some obscure reference to Advani’s Rath Yatra being called a Rakta Yatra. The words though have stuck post this fancy monikor being awarded by a then obscure journalist, the fact remains that no town/city which the first Rath Yatra visited witnessed riots following the yatra.
A surprising mis-statement is with regards to his comments on Jan Sangh’s performance in electoral polls. He states that Jan Sangh was not much impacted by the Indira wave in 1971 and that there seat tally came down marginally. Guha would have done good to refer to the ECI records available online. He would then have noticed that the BJS came down to 22 seats from a high of 35 in 1967. Certainly a fall of more than 35% qualifies for a setback!!
Going a bit back in history, Guha writes about a certain Acharya Karpatri who he states was among the leading lights of the Cow Protection movement. He states that he came into the centerstage all of a sudden and likewise was never heard of again post the attempted gherao of parliament wherein scores of Sadhus were killed in police firing. It is probable that Guha may not be aware for rather than being a shooting star, Acharya Karpatri was the head of ‘Ram Rajya Parishad’ which fought and won 3 seats in the Indian Parliament in 1952 General Elections. The party later merged with the Jana Sangh. Further, Achrya Karpatri did not vanish or abscond. He simply faded the way politicians fade and remained a Katha-vachak for the balance years of his life.
These are among but a few of those factual mis-statements which I can think of while I write this post. There could be many more, quietly hidden in secure belief of their author of their never being ever questioned. The sad part of these mis-statements is that whatever has been written in this book will get quoted and reproduced again and again in form of references in works by future columnists and historians, in effect, making these falsehoods true.
It doesn’t take too much to realize that most of Ramachandra Guha’s mis-statement result directly from his ideological bias, something which I plan to analyze in the next post.
while u might get hundreds of books on india's pre independence struggle, rarely u get books on the facts and stories post independence.. while in school history was always pre independence.. never read about emergency or pokhran blasts, war against pakistan etc.... guha has remained unbaised and presented history well... must read to improve ur knowledge
ReplyDeleteBooks on post Independence India are not rare. It is only that most are not widely known. No doubt that Guha's canvas stretches wide. He cannot however, be called unbiased by any stretch of generosity.
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