Author: Sidharth Mishra
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: April 12, 2005
This has the potential to bring
the Congress and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) on the same platform.
A text prescribed in the Campus of Open Learning of Delhi University has
held Mahatma Gandhi and the RSS equally responsible for inciting minority
communalism in the country. No prizes for guessing that the text has been
scripted by a Left party cadre working as Reader at the campus.
Authored by Zahoor Siddiqui, Reader
in the Department of History, the text while giving credit to the Left
parties for combating the communal elements blames the Mahatma of following
unscientific premises of secularism. "Khud Gandhiji ke dharam nirpekshta
ke siddhant ka aadhar vaigyanik nahi tha (Even the basis of Gandhi's theories
on secularism were not scientific)," says the text, which is part of the
study material for the students of the BA (Pass) course. It would be pertinent
to mention here that Siddiqui, a former president of the Delhi University
Teachers' Association (DUTA), belongs to the Janwadi Shikshak Manch, an
affiliate of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
He blames Gandhi for failing to
enthuse the Muslim populace by presenting Ram Rajya as ideal Swaraj and
goes to add that on the contrary it fanned secessionist tendency among
the minorities. Siddiqui blames the Congress, which was at the helm of
the freedom movement, for failing to devise appropriate political, social
and economic programme to bring the minorities under its fold. A fact which
should be contested by the Congress leaders as there were many prominent
Muslims in the front rank of Congress leadership including Badshah Khan
and Maulana Azad.
The text repeats the often made
reference to nation's first Home Minister Sardar Patel as being hand-in-glove
with the 'Hindu communal organisations', like the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha.
However, his comments on Nehru are
surprising as it stops short of calling him incompetent. The text says
that Prime Minister Nehru did not command control over his Cabinet colleagues,
who ran administration on their whims and fancies.
While Siddiqui opens floodgates
while pouring vitriol over the functioning of the RSS, the text makes a
subtle defence of the working of the Muslim League. Though the League is
largely credited with the drafting of the two-nation theory and held responsible
for fanning minority fundamentalism, Siddiqui makes attempt to attribute
certain anti-imperialistic traits to the outfit.
It claims that the Muslim League
participated in the anti-Simon Commission agitation on the same scale as
the Congress or other nationalist organisations.
Though League leaders had participated
in the proceedings of the Commission, Siddiqui claims that there was split
in the party on the issue. "1928 mein Simon Commission ke boycott ke prashan
ko lekar Muslim League mein phoot padh gayi. Boycott na karnewalon ka ek
chota sa gut Muslim League se alag ho gaya. Muslim League ne bhi Congress
ki tarah Simon Commission ka boycott ki ghoshna ki. (In 1928 on the question
of the boycott of the Simon Commission there was a split in the Muslim
League. A small faction not boycotting the Commission separated from the
main party, which launched an agitation like the Congress)," illustrates
the text.
Reacting to the contents of the
text, president of the Congress-controlled DUTA Aditya Narain Mishra said,
"The syllabus and study materials must be above petty political considerations.
There has been a consistent attempt by the pro-Left ideologues to dilute
the gains of the Congress during the freedom struggle."
