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It's that time of the week again: Sunday, when op-ed pages overfloweth with delicious opiniony goodness.
Kanchan Gupta has an excellent column in the Daily Pioneer about how India is as ill prepared to deal with the Taliban as Pakistan has proved to be. Money quote:
When the Government decides to reward the families of slain jihadis, it sends out a loud message to Muslims: Take up the gun, die in action, ensure a better life for your families. By casting aspersions on Delhi Police and accusing them of killing ‘innocent’ Muslims, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet colleagues encourage moderates to turn extremists. When madarsas are euologised and Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools are relentlessly demonised, the ulema feel sufficiently emboldened to include hate in their teachings. When the Government slyly allows the setting up of qazi courts, which dispense justice according to shari’ah, and lets them function without so much as a whimper of protest, it tells Muslims that India’s secular justice system is incapable of protecting their interests. When a wholly illegitimate All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is allowed to dictate how Muslims should run their personal lives, the state abdicates its responsibility to its citizens. As in Pakistan, here too the Government has come to believe that Islam is a substitute for jobs, housing and health services. Azamgarh to Alappuzha, Dibrugarh to Dharwad, a fetid swamp similar to that of Pakistan’s is spreading; the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ are the produce of this swamp.
The distance between Swat Valley and Islamabad is 160 km. Jamia Nagar is in Delhi.
Also in the Pioneer is a biting piece by Chandan Mitra about Marxist dogma masquerading as history in Indian textbooks. Highlight:
The mindset of Marxist historiography is besotted with demolishing popular faiths and beliefs. In their arrogance, these historians assumed that people knew nothing; that all they believed from legends and tales was erroneous; and they must be rescued from blind faith and superstition. This zeal is comparable to that of the white missionaries who came to India and Africa convinced they had to deliver the ignorant inhabitants from the Dark Ages. Take Romila Thapar’s book on the Somnath temple that I reviewed in February 2004 for India Today. The entire exercise, albeit scholarly, was undertaken to exonerate Mahmud of Ghazni of his criminal offence in ransacking the splendid shrine. She takes pains to point out conflicting contemporary accounts to suggest nothing so traumatic happened. I have no doubt that under the new dispensation, this is the kind of history that shall be prescribed in schools. Short of exhorting children to offer prayers to Mahmud of Ghazni, Mohammad Ghauri, Nadir Shah and Aurangzeb, our new textbooks will do everything to run down all indigenous achievements. Maharana Pratap, for example, finds just a one-line reference in the SCERT book and Aryabhata none!
Why does any of this matter? Because history is more than dry facts and dates. It shapes our perception of who we are as a civilization. And too often, Marxist dogma is used as a tool to try to make us feel ashamed of our (pre-muslim) past. I can understand the communist parties subscribing to such faux historians, it's entirely in keeping with their character. But what excuse does the Congress have?
More fantastic analysis by Dasgupta and MJ Akbar. I can't get over how awesome a newspaper the Pioneer is, and how woefully unknown it is in India, relative to scum like the Times of India. Reading TOI's op-ed pages is more painful than a root canal, and at least the root canal serves a purpose! (And the less said about NDTV or IBN the better) I guess I should be grateful it even exists, I don't know what I would've done without it.
Meanwhile, Friedman is creative, if a bit zany, and Rich is a tour de force. Nothing new there. More gratitude is in order, this time for the NYT.
Kanchan Gupta has an excellent column in the Daily Pioneer about how India is as ill prepared to deal with the Taliban as Pakistan has proved to be. Money quote:
When the Government decides to reward the families of slain jihadis, it sends out a loud message to Muslims: Take up the gun, die in action, ensure a better life for your families. By casting aspersions on Delhi Police and accusing them of killing ‘innocent’ Muslims, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet colleagues encourage moderates to turn extremists. When madarsas are euologised and Saraswati Sishu Mandir schools are relentlessly demonised, the ulema feel sufficiently emboldened to include hate in their teachings. When the Government slyly allows the setting up of qazi courts, which dispense justice according to shari’ah, and lets them function without so much as a whimper of protest, it tells Muslims that India’s secular justice system is incapable of protecting their interests. When a wholly illegitimate All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is allowed to dictate how Muslims should run their personal lives, the state abdicates its responsibility to its citizens. As in Pakistan, here too the Government has come to believe that Islam is a substitute for jobs, housing and health services. Azamgarh to Alappuzha, Dibrugarh to Dharwad, a fetid swamp similar to that of Pakistan’s is spreading; the ‘Indian Mujahideen’ are the produce of this swamp.
The distance between Swat Valley and Islamabad is 160 km. Jamia Nagar is in Delhi.
Also in the Pioneer is a biting piece by Chandan Mitra about Marxist dogma masquerading as history in Indian textbooks. Highlight:
The mindset of Marxist historiography is besotted with demolishing popular faiths and beliefs. In their arrogance, these historians assumed that people knew nothing; that all they believed from legends and tales was erroneous; and they must be rescued from blind faith and superstition. This zeal is comparable to that of the white missionaries who came to India and Africa convinced they had to deliver the ignorant inhabitants from the Dark Ages. Take Romila Thapar’s book on the Somnath temple that I reviewed in February 2004 for India Today. The entire exercise, albeit scholarly, was undertaken to exonerate Mahmud of Ghazni of his criminal offence in ransacking the splendid shrine. She takes pains to point out conflicting contemporary accounts to suggest nothing so traumatic happened. I have no doubt that under the new dispensation, this is the kind of history that shall be prescribed in schools. Short of exhorting children to offer prayers to Mahmud of Ghazni, Mohammad Ghauri, Nadir Shah and Aurangzeb, our new textbooks will do everything to run down all indigenous achievements. Maharana Pratap, for example, finds just a one-line reference in the SCERT book and Aryabhata none!
Why does any of this matter? Because history is more than dry facts and dates. It shapes our perception of who we are as a civilization. And too often, Marxist dogma is used as a tool to try to make us feel ashamed of our (pre-muslim) past. I can understand the communist parties subscribing to such faux historians, it's entirely in keeping with their character. But what excuse does the Congress have?
More fantastic analysis by Dasgupta and MJ Akbar. I can't get over how awesome a newspaper the Pioneer is, and how woefully unknown it is in India, relative to scum like the Times of India. Reading TOI's op-ed pages is more painful than a root canal, and at least the root canal serves a purpose! (And the less said about NDTV or IBN the better) I guess I should be grateful it even exists, I don't know what I would've done without it.
Meanwhile, Friedman is creative, if a bit zany, and Rich is a tour de force. Nothing new there. More gratitude is in order, this time for the NYT.
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