V S Naipaul in Los Angeles Times - The Times of India

• Messages sorted by: [ author ]
[ publication ][ subject ][ thread ]
• Next message: Ram Swarup : "Appealing to Hindus - Minimum compromises"
• Previous message: Suresh Desai : "History of India"

"(I did not react to the Ayodhya incident) as badly as
others did, I am afraid. The people who say that there
was no temple there are missing the point. Babar, you
must understand, had contempt for the country he had con-
quered. And his building that mosque was an act of con-
tempt. In Ayodhya the construction of a mosque on a spot
regarded as sacred by the conquered population was meant
as an insult to an ancient idea, the idea of Ram which
was two or three thousand years old. One needs to under-
stand the passion that took (the kar-sevaks) on top of
the domes. The jeans and tee-shirts are superficial.
The passion alone is real. You can't dismiss it. You
have to try and harness it. Hitherto in India the think-
ing has come from the top. What is happening now is dif-
ferent. The movement is from below."

"What is happening in India is a new, historical awaken-
ing. It seems to me that Indians are becoming alive to
their history. Romila Thapar's book on Indian history is
a Marxist attitude which in substance says: there is a
higher truth behind the invasions, feudalism and all
that. The correct truth is the way the invaders looked
at their (own) actions. They were conquering, they were
subjugating. And they were in a country where people
never understood this. Only now are the people beginning
to understand that there has been a great vandalising of
India. Because of the nature of the conquest and the
nature of Hindu society such understanding had eluded
Indians before. What is happening in India is a highly
creative process. Indian intellectuals, who want to be
secure in their liberal beliefs, may not understand what
is going on, especially if these intellectuals happen to
be in the United States. But every other Indian knows
precisely what is happening: deep down he knows that a
larger response is emerging even if at times this re-
sponse appears in his eyes to be threatening. I don't
see the Hindu reaction purely in terms of one fundamen-
talism pitted against another. The sense of history that
the Hindus are now developing is a new thing. (To pre-
vent emotions from spilling over and creating fresh ten-
sions), it is not enough to use that fashionable word
from Europe: fascism. Wise men should understand (the
historical) and ensure that it does not remain in the
hands of fanatics. Rather they should use it for the
intellectual transformation of India."

• Next message: Ram Swarup : "Appealing to Hindus - Minimum compromises"
• Previous message: Suresh Desai : "History of India"

Back                          Top