AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA - ICHR Blocks Manuscript on Freedom Struggle Because It Makes the Sangh Look Bad, Alleges Historian
While Hindu-right
organisations, under the patronage of the Narendra Modi government, are
claiming spaces within the spectrum of associations with instrumental
roles to play in the India’s nationalist movement, the Indian Council of
Historical Research (ICHR) – the primary government-sponsored institution for
funding historical research and publications – has found itself in the dock for
allegedly trying to bury historical work that looks into the
counter-productive role played by the Sangh parivar during the
freedom struggle.
Renowned Indian
historian Arjun Dev has alleged that the ICHR, probably under the influence of
the Modi government, has been sitting on a manuscript that he submitted two
years ago on August 1, 2015. The manuscript is part of the ICHR’s Towards
Freedom series, which was conceived as a project to compile records
and documents from the last ten years of the freedom struggle (1938-1947). The manuscript, edited
by Dev, is a compilation of documents on political developments in the year
1941. Speaking to The Wire, Dev said that it is divided into three
parts – the nature of the nationalist movement in princely states of colonial
India, the role of communal politics and labour and peasant movements during
the period.
Dev suspects that the
second part, which includes original sources that portray Hindu nationalist
organisations such as the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS in poor light, may have
been the reason for the delay in the manuscript’s publication. He added that the ICHR
has not sent the manuscript to print despite the fact that the volume has
already been approved by the general editor of the the project, Sabyasachi
Bhattacharya, who is also an eminent historian. “As is the norm for
publication, the general editor has already approved the manuscript and has
sent his letter of approval to the member-secretary of the ICHR. Despite this,
the ICHR unprecedentedly referred the manuscript to an expert panel, which
raised objections to some portions of the book,” he said.
News18 had earlier reported that
the expert panel, whose names have not been disclosed by the ICHR, has cast
doubts over the credibility of the some documents related to some speeches of
Hindu Mahasabha leader, and later Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s founder, Syama Prasad
Mookerjee. “The other objections
pertain to mention of a particular community for disturbances in Dacca on March
17, 1941, too much emphasis on farmers and labour movements and the overall
communist tone of the volume,” the report noted. The manuscript
contains important speeches made by and quotes from Hindu-right leaders like
Mookerjee, V.D. Savarkar and B.S. Moonje, a possible reason the ICHR has
deliberately delayed publication.
In June this year, Dev
wrote to the ICHR chairman Y. Sudershan Rao seeking an explanation on the
council’s delay in forwarding the manuscript to the Oxford University Press and
also asking why his manuscript was sent to another expert panel after it was
approved by the general editor. “You see,” said Dev,
“seeking the opinions of unknown experts is a departure from the convention,
from the already laid down procedures. Moreover, the so-called experts’
comments had no academic value. The comments betrayed a complete lack of
literacy in reviewing a manuscript.”
“My manuscript is a
mere compilation of documents written by political parties, the government and
different leaders in 1941. None of it is my analysis. By delaying the
publication, the ICHR is keeping important information outside public domain,”
added Dev. He further said that
the second part, which may have rubbed the ICHR the wrong way, does not single
out only Hindu nationalists but also contains detailed documents about the
Muslim League and other associations. “Even if we leave that aside, there are
significant details about the nationalist movement in princely states, an area
which has not seen much historical research. The documents can create new areas
of research for historians. It is a pity that the ICHR has not sent it to the
press,” said Dev… read more:
