Title: Editorialising
History - II
Author: Anup Kumar Sinha
Publication: Organiser
Date: March 12, 2000
The Leftists continue
to crow about the ICHR non-issue, conveniently glossing over, if not to
hide, their sins committed in the past.
When, in 1967, Ram Manohar
Lohia raised the issue of writing the history of the deciding years of
India's Freedom Movement, Communists saw in it an opportunity to set right
their wrongs. The idea was lapped up by eager politicians and soon
a project was chalked out, now known as "Towards Freedom". Since
its inception, the project was dogged by power struggle among historians,
administrators as well as some busybodies. The National Archives
of India and the new-born ICHR jointly set about the onerous task.
The former opted out soon and the project fell into the lap of the latter.
R.S. Sharma, a committed Marxist historian, was then the Chairman
of the Council. The work chugged along under the editorship of Dr
S. Gopal, another Marxist sympathiser. Funds allocated to the
project were frittered away and after a few years, the extravaganza stopped
with Dr Gopal resigning from the project "in disgust" in 1977. Government
decided to wind up the project. Somehow, the project was salvaged
with much difficulty by the then director and at present, Chairman, Dr
B.R. Grover. The project was now to be completed by the year
1985.
Not happy with the experiment
of an honorary General Editor, a full-time Editor was appointed.
Dr P.N. Chopra, the erudite scholar, was appointed, first on an honorarium
and other benefits co-terminus with the project and later, he was put on
a monthly salary.
In the meanwhile, two
large groups of research assistants were working on the project, dishing
out-no, not documents, but mostly paper-clippings from national dailies.
Funds continued to be wasted.
With Dr Chopra at the
helm, the staff was reduced substantially and the first volume covering
the year 1937 appeared in a record three years' time. The volume
was in chronological order and strictly adhered to the original guidelines.
Obviously, the volume won worldwide acclaim. Writes Prof Stanley
Wolpert, an authority on the history of this part of the globe: What a
fine work it is, and how excellent a job you have done in putting together
so valuable a primary source for that tumultuous decade of recent Indian
history, to critical a prelude to freedom and Partition. Prof Horst
Kruger of the Institute of World History called it a "must" for a scholar
working on the period. National dailies, back home, echoed their
observations.
The celebration, however,
was short-lived. The Marxist dragnet spread out in 1986 with Prof
Irfan Habib joining as Chairman of the ICHR, thanks to the left-bureaucracy
nexus prevailing at that time. The axe first fell on the published
volume and it was withdrawn from the market. The decision cost the
ICHR a heavy sum. It is learnt that by this time, the Council had
earned a royalty of more than one lakh.
Meanwhile, the second
volume pertaining to the year 1938 was ready. It was duly sent to
the honourable chairman, Dr Irfan Habib-on May 20, 1987. Dr Habib's
comments on the manuscripts came along predicted lines. He wrote
to Dr Chopra: "The year 1938 saw considerable growth of the Kisan movement.
This is not, however, reflected in the documents. The AIKS (All India
Kisan Sabha) documents themselves do not appear to have been used, nor
the papers of Swami Sahajanand, the famous peasant leader of Bihar.
"Similarly, while there
are documents concerning strikes, etc, the documents of the trade union
movement themselves do not appear to have been used. On the Communist
Party the documents are usually external and no internal party document
seems to have been used".
While, this was the "immediate
reaction" of Dr Habib, every objection was duly answered by Dr Chopra:
"Our colleagues have again made a search for the private papers of Swami
Sahajanand, but have not been able to find any relevant material for the
year 1938. As you might have noticed, there are a number of references
to Swami Sahajanand and even included some documents dealing with his activities.
We have been able to lay our hands on some additional material from contemporary
Newspaper/Weeklies, which have been included.
"There are no separate
files available on the All India Kisan Sabha. We have consulted the
Hindi Weeklies, viz. Janata of Patna and Sangharsh of Lucknow which
cover extensively the Kisan Movement and selected a few documents which
have been translated into English.
"There are hardly any
papers available on the Communist Party of India for the year 1938 as the
Party was banned during this period. However, we have looked into
some of the old issues of the New Age and the National Front and selected
a few documents."
But, the hidden agenda
was to be implemented. Neither volume II saw the light of the day
as was promised, nor was the manuscript returned to the author. (Later,
another volume appeared under the editorship of Dr Basudev Chatterji pertaining
to the same year. It contains 505 documents as against the 517 documents
in the one edited by Dr Chopra. The two volumes deserve to be compared).
What was done instead was that without consulting the Chief Editor, Dr
Chopra, a number of decisions regarding the future of the project were
taken. Not satisfied with what many termed "abject humiliation of
Dr Chopra", Prof Habib went a step further. Dr Chopra was given marching
orders on February 26, 1988, a month before his contract was due to come
up for possible extension. A terse note, accompanied by a cheque
for three months' salary informed him that his services were no longer
required. His telephone connection was also promptly disconnected
soon. The ICHR gates were flung wide open to Marxists and fellow
travellers. The project guidelines were suitably amended to propagate
the ideology. Since then what has come out in the name of history,
is known to all.
No wonder, recalling
the volumes compiled by fellow Marxists has led to orchestrated protests.
After all, it is a question of face-saving.
(Concluded)