One Hundred Scholars and Academics Condemn Attack on Bipan Chandra's Book

SAHMAT statement against the attack on Bipan Chandra's book.

In recent days it seems to have become a habit of some latter-day “nationalists” to raise divisive or non-substantial issues to parade their patriotism. The most recent example of this is the attack on a major history of our National Movement authored by the distinguished historian Professor Bipan Chandra and his colleagues, titled India’s Struggle for Independence, published 28 years ago in 1988. The objection is that Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his comrades have been described there as “revolutionary terrorists”. The critics, however, forget that this was really a term the martyrs had practically used for themselves.

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The Hindustan Socialist Republican Association, to which Bhagat Singh and his colleagues belonged, said in its Manifesto (1929): “We have been taken to task for our terrorist policy. No doubt, the revolutionaries think and rightly that it is only by resorting to terrorism that they can find a most effective means of retaliation… Terrorism has its international aspect also. England’s enemies, which are many, are drawn towards us by effective demonstration of our strength. That in itself is a great advantage”. To Gandhiji’s critical article ‘Cult of the Bomb’, the Association answered through a statement titled “Philosophy of the Bomb”. Here it was asserted that it was owing to British repression that “terrorism [has] been born in this country. It is a phase, a necessary and inevitable phase of the revolution. Terrorism is not the complete revolution, and the revolution is not complete without terrorism”.

It is true that in his later phase Bhagat Singh stated: “Apparently, I have acted like a terrorist; But I am not a terrorist”. Clearly, two definitions of the word ‘terror’ were already at work, and Bhagat Singh was being influenced by his reading of Lenin’s teachings against individual terror. But the main point is that the entire movement to which ShaheedBhagat Singh belonged, terror had till then seemed a revolutionary path that they were wholly committed to.

Their conception of “terror” as a method of revolutionary action actually derived from a tradition that went back to the Russian revolutionaries’ struggle against Czarist tyranny. Now, however, in the last two or three decades, terror has come to mean almost all over the world the killing of innocent men, women and children. And it has thus assumed a heavily pejorative sense, not necessarily borne by it in the 1920s and 1930s.

Clearly, today many of us would not like to call our national heroes Bhagat Singh or Surya Sen or Chandrasekhar Azad, “terrorists”. But if we claim to be nationalists we should at least know more about our National Movement and not forget that there was a time when this tag was borne with pride by people who actually died for the cause of this country. And so let us not go about demanding changes in books, or banning them altogether and so display our own ignorance to the world. The withdrawal of the translation of the book by the Delhi University and the hounding of the authors on TV shows and at law courts that has now begun is particularly odious and only too characteristic of such campaigns by the RSS and its various fronts.

IrfanHabib

Amar Farooqui

Arjun Dev

B.P.Sahu

Biswamoy Pati

D N Jha

Iqtidar Alam Khan

K M Shrimali

Lata Singh

Prabhat Shukla

R C Thakran

Shireen Moosvi

SuviraJaiswal

Vishwamohan Jha

Romila Thapar

Gopinath

R P Bahuguna

K L Tuteja

Rajesh Singh

Kesavan Veluthat

A K Sinha

Santosh Rai

Shalin Jain

H C Satyarthi

V Ramakrishna

Ramakrishna Chatterjee

Arun Bandopadhyaya

S Z Jafri

Vivan Sundaram

Prabhat Patnaik

MushirulHasan

Mihirbhattacharya

Sashi Kumar

Ram Rahman

SukumarMurlidharan

Anil Bhatti

Anuradha Kapur

Archana Prasad

Badri Raina

C P Chandrasekhar

GeetaKapur

Indira Chandrasekhar

Jayati Ghosh

M K Raina

Madangopal Singh

Madhu Prasad

Malini Bhattacharya

Moloyshree Hashmi

N K Sharma

Nilima Sheikh

Nina Rao

Parthiv Shah

Praveen Jha

Rahul Verma

S Kalidas

Saeed MIrza

Saif Mahmood

Shakti Kak

Sohail Hashmi

Javed

Ari Sitas

Thierry Costanzo

Veer Munshi

Vikas Rawal

Indira ArjunDev

S Irfan Habib

Shireen Gandhy

Rajat Datta

Mukul Kesavan

Zoya Hasan

Tadd Fernee

Shantha Sinha

C P Bhambri

Rahul Mukherji

Krishna Ananth

Chandi Prasad Nanda

Shri Krishna

PritishAcharya

Neerja Singh

Najaf Haidar

BhupendraYadav

Richa Malhotra

Richa Raj

Deepa Sinha

Amit Mishra

Rashmi

Rizwan Qaiser

Bodh Prakash

Himangshu

Rakesh Batabyal

Mahalakshmi

Saurabh Bajpai

Ranjana Das

J V Naik

Ajay Patnaik

Subodh Malakar

Girish Mishra

P. Bilimale

Sujoy Ghosh

G. Arunima

Ayesha Kidwai

Javed

Ari Sitas

Thierry Costanzo

Veer Munshi

VikasRawal

Indira ArjunDev

S IrfanHabib

ShireenGandhy

RajatDatta

MukulKesavan

ZoyaHasan

Tadd Fernee

ShanthaSinha

C P Bhambri

Rahul Mukherji

Krishna Ananth

Chandi Prasad Nanda

Shri Krishna

PritishAcharya

Neerja Singh

Najaf Haidar

BhupendraYadav

RichaMalhotra

Richa Raj

DeepaSinha

Amit Mishra

Rashmi

RizwanQaiser

Bodh Prakash

Himangshu

RakeshBatabyal

Mahalakshmi

SaurabhBajpai

Ranjana Das

J V Naik

Ajay Patnaik

SubodhMalakar

Girish Mishra

P. Bilimale

SujoyGhosh

G. Arunima 

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