Dear Friends:
This statement deserves your urgent attention and support. May I request you to kindly supporting it by appending your name to the list below, and send it to one of the e-mail addresses given below. Please forward this message to as many friends as possible.
Sharat G. Lin
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Sent: Monday, August 03, 1998 7:27 PM
From: Harsh Kapoor [SMTP:aiindex@mnet.fr]
To: ab41@columbia.edu
Subject: URGENT CALL FOR SIGNATURES
Dear Friends,
Pasted below is the text of a statement protesting the dangerous doings of the BJP (read RSS) govt. of India to undermine one of the premier academic institutions of India, i.e., the Indian Council of Historical Research. Should you agree with the statement please join us and append your name to the statement. In a period of 10 days we this statement shall be released to the media in India and addressed to the President of India. Please redistribute this message widely. Signatures can be addressed to: mathew@genius.rider.edu / vprashad@mail.trincoll.edu
Harsh Kapoor
(South Asia Citizens Web)
aiindex@mnet.fr
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HINDUTVA'S ASSAULT ON HISTORY (21 July 1998)
In early June 1998, the Bharatiya Janata Party's [BJP] Minister of Human Resource Development, Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi reconstituted the Indian Council of Historical Research [ICHR], a major academic body constituted on 27 March 1972 that comprises reputed historians and archaeologists. This 27-member council was constituted as an *autonomous* body with the mandate of setting high standards of research for the writing of Indian history. It currently operates under the Department of Education of the Human Resource Development Ministry, administers several historical projects (such as the "Towards Freedom" research and publication ventures), awards various fellowships and scholarships, and provides leadership for research in the disciplines of history, archaeology and so forth. Indian historiography and Indian historians have built a globally high reputation over the last few decades but recent events have led us to fear the erosion of that legacy. As it is the World Ar
chaeological Congress earlier censured two prominent members of the new ICHR. We urge that the ICHR be reconstituted with its scholarly and secular credentials intact.
The erosion of this legacy will take place very quickly if rigorous academic work is allowed to be replaced by partisan agendas and unsubstantiated "scholarship." In the last few months, the BJP-led government has appointed a new council with members whose goal is to legitimate and entrench a narrow Hindutva ["Hinduness"] version of history. They subscribe to the dubious and unsubstantiated BJP views on such contentious issues as the mosque-temple at Ayodhya. Further, there is every indication that the new ICHR will subordinate its historical research to the values of Hindutva and the whims of the Sangh Parivar. Some appointees of the ICHR already serve the interests of the Sangh Parivar rather than their scholarship:
* Professor B. B. Lal, former director general of Archaeological Survey of India, recently published the academically weak and unscholarly book, The Earliest Civilization of South Asia: Rise, Maturity and Decline (Aryan Books, 1997). Interestingly, when Lal headed an archeological survey of Ayodhya since 1975 he did not mention any evidence of a temple in the environs of the Babri Masjid. In the October 1990 issue of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh magazine (*Manthan*), he made the surprising and unconvincing claim that the site contains pillar-bases of a temple. Professor Lal refuses to share the findings of his "research," a basic professional requirement if these "findings" are to be proven and rigorous standards of research are to be upheld. We, therefore, question the credentials of such "scholars" and their worthiness to sit on reputable bodies such as the ICHR.
* Professor Kishori Saran Lal, who although once wrote worthwhile works of history such as History of the Khiljis (Allahabad: Indian Press, 1950) and Twilight of the Sultanate (New York: Asia Publishing House, 1963), has recently focused almost exclusively on the alleged historical injuries and injustices suffered by Hindus. His recent books, all published by presses that have specialized in putting forward the Hindutva agenda, include inflammatory and unscholarly works such as Indian Muslims: Who Are They (New Delhi: Voice of India, 1990) and Growth of Scheduled Tribes and Castes in Medieval India (New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1995). He has justified the Hindutva takeover of the ICHR by incorrectly claiming that the body has always been dominated by historians of Left-wing persuasion. We assert that inflammatory individuals with a bigoted agenda have no place on a reputed academic council.
Four of the 18 new nominees were part of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's World Hindu Council panel of historians that strove to establish the existence of a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid. Another five were closely associated with the Sangh Parivar's efforts to discredit the viewpoints of more rigorous and respected scholars.
* ICHR has not been dominated by Leftist historians, since earlier councils included some historians who have subscribed to mild forms of Hindutva (such as B. R. Grover and M. G. S. Narayanan, both on the new team, but also veterans of earlier ICHRs). The councils prior to the current one may be defined less by their leftism and more by their commitment to a secular and scientific attitude.
* The changes at the ICHR reflect disturbing departures from unwritten customs as well as written mandates. As Professor R. S. Sharma (first chair of the ICHR) points out, no members have been renominated from the outgoing council (a custom to ensure continuity).
* In light of the ICHR reconstitution, we and many others fear an impending assault on the National Council for Educational Research and Training [NCERT]. In some states of India ruled by the BJP (Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh), textbooks have already been changed to suit Hindutva historiography. Now it seems the national agency in charge of pedagogy is also to be seconded to the Hindutva cause. A top NCERT official reports that he has been scolded by a BJP Union Minister for following a "useless" history syllabus in the national textbooks. The Minister reportedly said that things will soon change. This arbitrary and illegitimate attempt to disseminate biases is unacceptable and is no different from British colonial attempts to control our minds through controlling our history and our education. The BJP government does not have the mandate to destroy our educational system and poison young minds.
* Similar concern has also been expressed over the future of the Indian History Congress [IHC], a reputed national forum for historians that discusses current historical research at its annual conventions. The Sangh Parivar made an unsuccessful attempt to take over the body at the Ujjain conference in 1991. Some 360 persons associated with the various organization of the Parivar tried to become "life-members" and sought to induct their own people as new IHC members by using the "life-member" privileges. However, the IHC defeated this move by amending its rules of membership. We fear that the BJP government will try to promote Sangh Parivar outfits such as the Bharatiya Ithihaas Sankalan Samiti and the Wakakanakar Trust, etc., at the expense of established and reputable organizations such as the ICHR and the ICH. These are national organizations which should not become the jagir of a sectarian and communal group.
Given the above disturbing trend, we, the undersigned historians, researchers, teachers, activists, and others, condemn the reconstitution of the ICHR along the lines of Hindutva, and oppose the threat posed to the normal functioning of the NCERT, IHC and other such research and educational bodies