Historical Blindness

Cricket Historian turned real historian Ramachandra Guha has written a book on contemporary Indian history called India after Gandhi.

Knowing what we did about Guha so far, we were not too keen on reading the book. He is an ardent admirer of Nehru and calls himself a liberal democrat. But we do feel curious about why the likes of Tehelka and The Hindu are giving Guha so much coverage.

Well, we got a taste of what the book would be like from a CNN-IBN "freedom chat".


For quite sometime now, Guha has tried to pass himself off as non-partisan. He has largely succeeded. As a matter of fact, some of our sec-soc friends actually attacked him because of his view points on the recent St. Stephen's quota increase. Guha has also attacked Arundhati Roy in the past.

While it is also well known which side he bats for, the chat was a revelation. Guha blends some stale criticisms of Congress with feel-good socialistic catch phrases and the most vitriolic left of centre rhetorics.

A few samples from the chat:

The Gandhian ethos can still act as a brake on excessive consumerism, as a moderating influence which also will lead to an environmentally sustainable path of development.

That Periyar and Gandhi differed on specific issues should not worry us! Periyar wrote a wonderful obituary when Gandhi died, for he knew that the greatness of Gandhi was that he was never a sectarian leader.

It is not just the Congress — all major parties, all state governments, and the bureaucracy are loath to empower the panchayats and municipalities. This is a pity, ..

I do however think that the current demonisation of Nehru by free-marketers and Hindutva-vadis is ignorance and not based on facts.

Gandhi would have been opposed to minority-appeasement, but he would have opposed the BJP and the RSS even more. They seek to promote a narrow-minded and bigoted faith, which is totally at odds with Gandhi's inclusive and open-minded Hinduism.

That [suggesting a separate Southern state] was a jocular remark. Of course, I believe in a united and, more importantly, a democratic India.

But as a Hindu myself living in a Hindu-majority country, I do feel that Hindu communalism is the greater threat in India, just as Islamic communalism is the greater threat in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.

Because they [RSS] seek to make India a Hindu Pakistan. I also oppose the Naxalites because they seek to build a totalitarian state. I am a liberal democrat, opposed to all kinds of extremists and bigots.

Possibly — but I don’t see it [proportional representations, i.e. quotas] being seriously debated.

A great question, Ram. Actually, the new NCERT textbooks, out later this year, make history vivid and interesting for children — an outstanding group of my fellow historians, led by Neeladri Bhattacharya, has prepared them. I hope political bigots will not stall their publication and promotion — they are truly fantastic.

Hezboollah and Hamas also run schools and hospitals —they are merely the RSS in an Islamic guise, bigots pretending to have a human face!

The tests ahead include rise of Left-wing extremism (the Naxalites), the persistence of right-wing extremism (RSS, VHP, etc), environmental degradation and political corruption. We remain a 50-50 democracy!

We reserve our judgment till we read the book and we sincerely hope the book doesn't read anything like the chat transcript. There is something fradulent about writing a book on very recent events and calling it history. The danger of influencing current political opinion aside, the events in the recent decade hasn't yet been seen through the impartial eyes of history.

It is fascinating how strongly he believes in the fairness of NCERT books, he should read some of our blog posts (another big one coming) on this topic. At one point in the chat, he says, Film is a very dramatic but also superficial medium - it has to simplify. We hope that he realized the obvious pitfalls while writing the book.