The recent tweets by historian Ramachandra Guha highlight the problematic nexus of Leftist Secular Liberal historians who attempt to rewrite and whitewash history to deliberately mislead and misinform people, who for various reasons, are unable to confront and correct this diabolical Break Bharat game.
I cannot comprehend why Ramachandra Guha should have put out this Tweet, grossly insensitive to the fact that Bharat and the whole world is struggling with a pandemic that has caused misery to so many vulnerable people everywhere.
"Gujarat, though economically advanced, is culturally a backward province… . Bengal in contrast is economically backward but culturally advanced".
Philip Spratt, writing in 1939.— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020
As expected, many people, especially Gujaratis and Bengalis, reacted strongly against the selective quote of Philip Spratt – both the Gujaratis (for calling them culturally backward) and the Bengalis (for calling them economically backward).
Philip Spratt was a Communist, sent to Bharat to form the Communist Party of India. In his previous Twitter introduction, Guha had labeled himself as a lapsed Marxist. Yet, he wants to glorify a Communist who really does not have any empathy for Bharat, a country and its people who have given Guha so much opportunity (to study and also financed at least his initial career). In a subsequent Tweet, Guha says:
I have been trying without success for thirty years to make the writer Philip Spratt better known; thank you to the Troll Army for accomplishing this in a day.
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020
It is well-known that the Indian Communists, a group which Guha continues to be a part of, despite his disclaimer of being a lapsed Communist, have captured the power of state patronage of so many tax-funded institutions in Bharat. Given that he has not been successful in his venture for thirty years, perhaps the rest of the Communists in Bharat really do not see him as an asset for their propaganda!
Why should Guha want to make Spratt, given Spratt’s lack of empathy, better known? It cannot be that Guha wants to expose Spratt as perhaps being a sort of charlatan, at least in his early stay in Bharat. Besides, branding those who have contested Guha’s Tweets as trolls, shows his utter lack of tolerance for a diametrically opposed point of view.
Probably the best response was from the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, who said:
Earlier it was the British who tried to divide and rule. Now it is a group of elites who want to divide Indians.
Indians won’t fall for such tricks.
Gujarat is great, Bengal is great…India is united.
Our cultural foundations are strong, our economic aspirations are high. https://t.co/9mCuqCt7d1
— Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) June 11, 2020
I thought this was a mature and dignified response, politely requesting Guha to stop his program of creating divisions amongst the people of Bharat. And, also a defence of both Bengal and Gujarat. But, given his political agenda, Guha does not seem to be capable of responding with either maturity or dignity. He tweeted:
If the Gujarat Chief Minister is, at this moment in history, (a) so keenly following the tweets of a humdrum historian and (b) so easily confusing the historian with a dead writer being quoted, the State of Gujarat must indeed be in safe hands.
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020
To me this was an arrogant tweet that creates an impression that the Gujarat CM ignores his constitutional duties and continuously follows Guha with an intention of disputing him whenever the CM objects to Guha’s Tweet. Guha’s objective seems to be to sneer at the CM.
As for accusing the CM of confusing Guha with the dead writer, it is important for Guha to have some basic knowledge of how people would view a quote put out by him. In trying to distance himself away from Pratt’s 1939 quote, Guha says:
Statutory warning; when I post quotes by others found in the course of my research, I do so because I find them arresting in some way. I may (or may not) endorse, in part or in whole, what I am quoting. Reserve your praise or your anger for the ghost of the person being quoted.
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020
To this, quite reasonably, other twitter users pointed out:
https://twitter.com/anilbhalla88/status/1271078312509652992?s=09
Guha decided to put out another tweet to push his agenda, by quoting Spratt again:
"In a free India, democratic Gandhism would be put to its most difficult test. It might be that the non-violent way towards a civilised society would prove itself. It is perhaps more likely that an effective dictatorship of the right would be set up…’.
Philip Spratt, 1939.— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020
In neither of the tweets, did Guha say that he disagrees with Spratt. But then why should Guha do so? After all he wanted Spratt to become as much as a household name, as he is in the Communist circle in Bharat. However, I am exaggerating only to make a point!
Another important BJP leader responded to Guha:
In 1939, when Philip Spratt, from Britain, belonging to the Communist International wrote, (who @Ram_Guha quotes) this was what was happening in Gujarat: Jamnagar…Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Jadeja…saved 1000 Polish children #Culture https://t.co/5XsY2cL1WZ
— Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 11, 2020
The Polish children, along with some elders (primarily their mothers) had been forced to leave Poland because of the attack by the Nazis at the beginning of the Second World War. They thought that some country in Europe would give them refuge – but no one did, and the ship came all the way to Mumbai.
Here, too, the British (as colonisers) refused permission for the people to land, even though Poland was part of the Allied Forces in the War. However, Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinhji Jadeja of Jamnagar heard about their plight, permitted them to come to his land and promised them refuge. This was similar to the gesture of the Gujaratis who gave refuge to the Zoroastrians who had to flee their homeland due to an attack by the Arabs who wanted to force Islam onto them. When the War ended, these refugees went back to Poland, and even today, Poland wants its people to gratefully remember the Maharaja’s generous gesture.
But it is not authentic history that Guha is interested in. On the contrary, he wants to use history as a tool for his political agenda. So, he again Tweets arrogantly:
I thought it was only the Gujarat CM, but now it seems even the FM is obsessing about a humdrum historian's tweets. The economy is surely in safe hands. https://t.co/bBpcK85Hel
— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) June 11, 2020
Guha can indulge in his campaign of hatred as much as he wants. If he has even an iota of shame, he would carefully study the responses to his campaign and understand that there is a Bharat that exists that he may be unable to relate with. As the Gujarat CM said: “Gujarat is great, Bengal is great… India is united. Our cultural foundations are strong, our economic aspirations are high.”
Even though the people of Bharat, over the years, have done so much for him, ingratitude seems ingrained in Guha’s DNA. In April 2010, he addressed a section of people in Canada, where he highlighted ‘Ten Reasons why India will not and must not become a Superpower’. It suited the audience not to ask him whether the then Superpowers fulfilled the ten conditions to be called a Superpower. Nor did it strike Guha to offer his opinion on the subject!
Guha is a go-to person for some among the international crowd who are curious about what is happening in Bharat. Guha makes it his mission to mislead them. Sadly, there are many of Bharatiya origin in Bharat and abroad who do not think it necessary to confront and correct him. But then they too are on the same asuric trip as Guha.
(Featured image source: Twitter)
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