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POSTED BY Buzz
ON May 12, 2012 AT 23:33 IST
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Edited At: May 12, 2012 23:33 IST
1949: The above cartoon is originally published on 28 August 1949 in Shankar's Weekly
2006: It is included in an NCERT Textbook for Class XI, Indian Constitution at Work which was being taught without any change or controversy since then
2012 April: A controversy is raked up over the cartoon
2012 May 11: There is ruckus in Parliament. HRD minister Kapil Sibal "apologises" for the cartoon, calling it "objectionable" and says orders have been issued to withdraw it and stop distribution of these books. Mr Sibal goes on to say that the government will also examine whether any criminal offence was made out against those who drew or included the cartoon and also that there were many other "objectionable cartoons" of political leaders and that his ministry had decided to constitute a Committee of experts to look into cases of all such objectionable cartoons and remove them.
2012 May 11: Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar, Chief Advisers for all the Political Science textbooks of the NCERT from class IX to XII, resign to allow the "independent review process" pointing out "that the short, heated and not very well informed debate in the Parliament did not do justice to the responsibility that a democratic society has towards it future generations." They add: "While deferring to the supremacy of the Parliament we think it is our duty to dissent."
2012 May 12: The Pune campus office of Prof Suhas Palshikar is attacked and ransacked. A Republican Panther of India spokesman claims responsibility for the attack, saying the cartoon amounted to an "insult" to the Dalit icon.
Yogendra Yadav sums up the outrage of the nation: "For someone who has taught me Ambedkar, for him to be attacked in the name of Ambedkar...Nothing can be more farcical, tragic and sad then this."
Some reactions on Twitter: 
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON May 12, 2012 AT 23:33 IST, Edited At: May 12, 2012 23:33 IST
POSTED BY Buzz
ON May 10, 2012 AT 17:57 IST
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Edited At: May 10, 2012 17:57 IST
Two must-read pieces on what is often ranked as India's best college, in response to the recent news that the St. Stephen's principal had come up with "an unusual proposal" to reserve 40 per cent of the seats for male students.
First, Saba Dewan in Kafila recalled her undergraduate years during 1982-85: Of chick charts, hen charts and other such women’s stories
As regularly as the boys could manage, a chart rating the 10 top ‘chicks’ in college on the basis of their physical attributes would be brought out and publicly circulated to bring cheer to our otherwise dreary lives. Each ‘chick’ would be rated and either cheered or booed on the basis of her assemblage of body parts, butt, breasts, legs, mouth. Much awaited, the ‘chick chart’ would generate excitement and controversy amongst our male peers – did the chart do justice to all the chicks on it? Had some deserving chicks been left out? Was it as funny as the previous one? Notwithstanding such minor quibbling, chick charts were generally seen as ‘good fun’, part of a boys’ tradition that made the college so special. Even the college administration seemed to think so since it allowed chick charts to be displayed on its official notice board.
And then Nilanjana S. Roy joined in the ongoing conversation, going much beyond the sexism at St. Stephens: What I learned from "The Patriarchy":
Institutions that are deeply, profoundly unfair often do not look the way you expect them to; it may take some time to recognize that you’re living in an unjust system. Logical corollary: an unjust system often co-opts otherwise good, kind, ethical people. Nice people are also part of a functioning patriarchy.
(This is just as true of families as it is of institutions.)...
...Patriarchal institutions are not necessarily unequal in other respects--as a friend pointed out, you can have a boy's club that is also staunchly not casteist or classist. But often enough the failure to address deeprooted gender bias can make it easier for an institution, even a highly respected one, to overlook other kinds of prejudice.
...As a corollary from the previous point—patriarchy in action is every bit as damaging to men as to women, trapping men into a constant and often exhausting struggle for power, and relies on a constant erasure of its own past in order to thrive...
Perhaps what Dewan has started with her piece on Kafila will lead to a reconstruction not just of Stephens’ history, but of all of our private histories. Once you start filling in the gaps and the silences, it becomes so much easier to see your history for what it really is.
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POSTED BY Buzz
ON May 10, 2012 AT 17:57 IST, Edited At: May 10, 2012 17:57 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 27, 2011 AT 21:48 IST
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Edited At: Oct 27, 2011 21:48 IST
Mukul Kesavan on the controversy over A.K. Ramanujan’s essay, Three Hundred Ramayanas
The reason Hindutva militants attacked this essay is not difficult to understand. Hindutva seeks to re-make the diversity of Hindu narratives and practices into a uniform faith based on standardized texts. When Ramanujan tells, in scrupulous translation, Valmiki’s version of Ahalya’s unfaithfulness, where Indra is emasculated by the sage Gautama for cuckolding him, the Hindutva right is embarrassed and appalled because it likes its epics sanitized.
If the members of the academic council and the vice-chancellor are appalled by the Ahalya story, they should know that their objection is to Valmiki’s Ramayana, not Ramanujan’s essay. They should also reflect on the implications of a decision that suggests that the academic guardians of the University of Delhi believe that their Honours students shouldn’t be introduced to an unexpurgated version of Valmiki’s Ramayana, that even references to the original of this epic text, should be bowdlerized or purged on the surreal ground that they distort the “…traditions of Hindu Culture…”
...A university’s academic guardians must know that there have been attempts in other times and places to fabricate an authorized past, to speak for an authentically Indo-European people, to concoct an ‘Aryan’ canon. Ramanujan’s essay is an intellectual antidote to projects such as these, it is a text that revels in the incredible diversity of our epic narratives. [Read on at the Telegraph: Three hundred Ramayanas
- Delhi University and the purging of Ramanujan]
PS: For those interested in the Ramanujan poem Kesavan quotes: Some Indian Uses of History on a Rainy Day
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, in the Indian Express, takes the debate forward:
The exclusion of A.K. Ramanujan’s great essay from the syllabus of the Delhi University highlights the ways in which both the Left and the Right have reduced a great tradition to an impoverished political totem. In the process, both have elided larger questions. The deeper crisis is that our public culture no longer has even the minimal intellectual resources to engage in a serious debate over different “meanings” of Ramayana. The invocation by the Left of a diversity of traditions is technically correct. But in this invocation, diversity is merely a formal gesture. We like the fact that there are diverse Ramayanas. But we don’t want to have the space to discuss any one of them. It is a bit like Amartya’s Sen’s invocation of the unilluminating phrase “argumentative”. We wear the term argumentative as a badge of honour. But are embarrassed by everything the tradition argued about.
...The Left and Right in India share one deep premise. The tradition, in its final analysis, has to be reduced to the social question. Whose group interests does a particular narrative serve?
...But once texts are reduced to the social question, the contest over them will be a contest between raw group power. There will be no space for larger questions of meaning, ethics and ontology. So this Diwali, we wonder what is left of Ram, beyond personal piety on the one hand, and sectarian enlistment on the other. [Read on at the Indian Express: Questions Lit Up]
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 27, 2011 AT 21:48 IST, Edited At: Oct 27, 2011 21:48 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 17, 2011 AT 23:29 IST
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Edited At: Oct 17, 2011 23:29 IST
Delhi University history department is once again abuzz with controversy surrounding the dropping of the classic Ramanujan essay on the Ramayana. As Nandini Thilak reports in today's Indian Express:
Delhi University professors, especially “non-Hindus”, may not be capable of explaining the context of A K Ramanujan’s essay on different tellings of the epic Ramayana to their students, one of the experts deputed by the university to assess the text had argued, in a report submitted to the Delhi University Academic Council, before it voted to drop the essay from the BA (Honours) syllabus last week.
The expert was the only one in the four-member committee to have favoured the removal of the text. The other three argued that it should continue in the syllabus of the course ‘Culture in India: A Historical Perspective’ for BA (Honours) students.
A few days back, Manan Ahmed wrote on his excellent Chapati Mystery blog:
Ramanujan’s essay is, in my view, one of the best pieces of scholarship the discipline of South Asian Studies has produced – theoretically rich, innovative and amazingly perceptive about the lived ways in which texts continue to exist – the importance of reading, of listening. It ought to be, if it already isn’t, required reading for anyone working on epic or performative texts in any historical or geographical period.
So, when I hear that the Delhi University has removed the essay from History syllabi, I feel the urge to grab my print copy, a chair, walk to the busiest intersection on campus, stand on the chair and start reading out loud his essay. Every word. Make them listen. They will be transformed. [Read on at Chapati Mystery]
Full texts are available here:
From 2008 archives:
Also read on the current DU decision:
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 17, 2011 AT 23:29 IST, Edited At: Oct 17, 2011 23:29 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 25, 2010 AT 23:15 IST
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Edited At: Oct 25, 2010 23:15 IST
Jyoti Punwani has some suggestions in the DNA:
The entire episode concerning the withdrawal of Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey is rich in irony. The man who has made abuse his personal style statement, objects to bad language in a literary work prescribed as a text for 18-year-olds! Even as he railed against the “dirty words’’ in the book, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray dug into his own repertoire of invective to describe his political rivals. The words used include “eunuch’’ and “impotent’’, along with trademark references to lungis falling, and finally, his special word of abuse for Muslims, landya (circumcised), the use of which, according to Sena mouthpiece Saamna, brought the house down every time.
Read the full piece at the DNA
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 25, 2010 AT 23:15 IST, Edited At: Oct 25, 2010 23:15 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Sep 14, 2010 AT 22:52 IST
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Edited At: Sep 15, 2010 02:05 IST
Pratap Bhanu Mehta takes a characteristically consistent and unambiguous position on the shocking ordeals of Prof T.J. Joseph who was recently sacked from Newman College in Thodupuzha, Kerala — his right hand was earlier brutally hacked by fanatics, allegedly associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI)— for setting an exam question that was seen as containing a controversial reference to Prophet Mohammad:
While giving gratuitous offence to any religion usually reveals the small-mindedness of those who engage in it, there is no way that in a modern society, religion can be protected against offensive speech. But by promising to exorcise speech offensive to religion through various laws and political interventions, all we have done is simply given more groups incitement to mobilise. We have also legitimised the thought that “community sentiment” is a valid argument for trampling individual rights. The problem is that we have legitimised too much the idea that speech offensive to religion should be an actionable offence, so that those wanting to police offences against religion feel empowered. No wonder the Archdiocese in Kerala (perhaps out of fear) is at one with the fanatics in saying that an actionable offence was committed in this case. In a university setting you want the learning environment to not be intimidating to any student simply on account of their religion. Any university will have to ensure that. But it also has to get across the message that you cannot be shielded from representations that try your patience.
Read on here for he goes on to make an insightful point about the "problem of managing what might be called the politics of dissociation" : God in God’s Own Country
Post Script:
Postscript:
It is heartening to see Dr K.N. Pannikar, Chairman of the Kerala Council for Historical Research and Vice-Chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council and currently the General President of the Indian History Congress, come out unambiguously against the decision of Newman College authorities and in support of Mr Joseph:
...the college authorities ... took the position that they would reconsider their action only if the Muslim community made an appeal to reinstate him, or the court issued an order to that effect. A highly irrational act was thus sought to be imbued with legal respectability and given a communal character.
This incident is symptomatic of the creeping influence of fundamentalism that has led to violence in the country at large and certain recent outbursts in Kerala. What has happened to Mr. Joseph is also indicative of the vulnerability of academic space and the authoritarian tendencies of certain managements of educational institutions in the State...
...It appears that there is ambiguity in the public mind about Mr. Joseph's own role. The reason is that the charge against him involves meddling with religious sentiments. Although new religions and sects emerge out of non-conformism and as a critique of the present, the established religions mostly see their interest to be linked with the status quo. That was perhaps why the Catholic Church was not moved by appeals to their humanitarian and philanthropic credentials. The Church has now issued a pastoral letter supporting and justifying the action of the college management. It is surprising that in a State that is surcharged by protests and a variety of public interest litigation processes, except for teachers' and students' organisations the liberal intelligentsia has not come forward in defence of Mr. Joseph.
More here
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Sep 14, 2010 AT 22:52 IST, Edited At: Sep 15, 2010 02:05 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Nov 16, 2009 AT 23:12 IST
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Edited At: Nov 17, 2009 00:12 IST
Jaithirth Rao in the Indian Express:
Professor Sheldon Pollock has just announced scholarships for Dalit students who wish to study Sanskrit at Columbia University. This is indeed welcome news. The tragedy is that this initiative is not being undertaken in India, the home of Sanskrit as well as Dalits. It is revealing to note what Professor Saroja Bhate of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune has to say: “I congratulate Professor Pollock for doing this. This is exactly what I would have done and would do in future if I have the resources.” The question we need to ask is why Professor Bhate does not have the resources. We spend crores and crores casually on conferences, commissions and committees of which we have lost count, but there is no money in Pune for pursuing Sanskrit studies or encouraging Dalits.
Read more
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Nov 16, 2009 AT 23:12 IST, Edited At: Nov 17, 2009 00:12 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 14, 2009 AT 21:14 IST
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Edited At: Oct 14, 2009 21:35 IST
Photo Courtesy BBC
As part of its Hunger to Learn series, BBC has this amazing story of a teenager, Babar Ali, whose remarkable education project is transforming the lives of hundreds of poor children. He tresk to school in the morning and then teaches what he has learnt in school to others in the afternoon. He is 16, and since the age of 9 has been running his own, unofficial school giving lessons just the way he has heard them from his teachers in the morning:
Now his afternoon school has 800 students, all from poor families, all taught for free. Most of the girls come here after working, like Chumki, as domestic helps in the village, and the boys after they have finished their day's work labouring in the fields.
"In the beginning I was just play-acting, teaching my friends," Babar Ali says, "but then I realised these children will never learn to read and write if they don't have proper lessons. It's my duty to educate them, to help our country build a better future."
Including Babar Ali there are now 10 teachers at the school, all, like him are students at school or college, who give their time voluntarily. Babar Ali doesn't charge for anything, even books and food are given free, funded by donations. It means even the poorest can come here.
Read the full story at BBC
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 14, 2009 AT 21:14 IST, Edited At: Oct 14, 2009 21:35 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 13, 2009 AT 02:53 IST
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Edited At: Oct 13, 2009 03:01 IST
Javed Anand takes up the old question of madrasa reforms and the draft bill — the Central Madrasa Board Bill 2008 — currently in circulation and examines the Sachar Committee observation that only 4 per cent Muslim children go to a madrasa for education. So Why doesn’t the government concentrate on the education of the 96 per cent instead of losing sleep over the future of 4 per cent?
A rounded education for the 4 per cent is critical, for it is they from whom the 96 per cent learn their Islam. Because of the compartmentalised, fragmented, insular and sectarian nature of his education, the Maulvi Sahib’s ignorance of the world he inhabits is tragic — and the Mr Muslim’s knowledge of Islam pathetic.
But of course, Muslims must be part of the battle against the neo-cons, the neo-colonialists, the uncritical Westophiles and the diehard Islamophobes. The good news is that there is a growing tribe of Muslim men and women who are engaged in this battle for hearts and minds and I can rattle off a long list of names. Sadly, or maybe not, almost all of them occupy distinguished positions in the top universities of the West. They are proud of their Islam which is different from yours and the West is listening with interest and respect. A pity not one of them will find a place in any madrasa or university in the Islamic world...
Read more at the Indian Express
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Oct 13, 2009 AT 02:53 IST, Edited At: Oct 13, 2009 03:01 IST
POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Mar 20, 2009 AT 23:58 IST
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Edited At: Oct 13, 2009 02:15 IST
Wendy Doniger, Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago’s Divinity School writes about her new book:
People are being killed in India today because of misreadings of the history of the Hindus. In all religions, myths that pass for history--not just casual misinformation, the stock in trade of the internet, but politically-driven, aggressive distortions of the past--can be deadly, and in India they incite violence not only against Muslims but against women, Christians, and the lower castes.
Myth has been called "the smoke of history," and there is a desperate need for a history of the Hindus that distinguishes between the fire, the documented evidence, and the smoke; for mythic narratives become fires when they drive historical events rather than respond to them. Ideas are facts too; the belief, whether true or false, that the British were greasing cartridges with animal fat, sparked a revolution in India in 1857. We are what we imagine, as much as what we do.
....And so I tried to tell a more balanced story, in "The Hindus: An Alternative History," to set the narrative of religion within the narrative of history, as a statue of a Hindu god is set in its base, to show how Hindu images, stories, and philosophies were inspired or configured by the events of the times, and how they changed as the times changed. There is no one Hindu view of karma, or of women, or of Muslims; there are so many different opinions (one reason why it's a rather big book) that anyone who begins a sentence with the phrase, "The Hindus believe. . . ," is talking nonsense.
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POSTED BY Sundeep
ON Mar 20, 2009 AT 23:58 IST, Edited At: Oct 13, 2009 02:15 IST
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