I read about Sunil Khilnani’s latest book Incarnations, ordered it, and am now waiting for it to be delivered. Meanwhile, reading his list of 50 Indians in your excerpts (A Cartography of Minds, Feb 29), it struck me as an interesting fact that Jawaharlal Nehru isn’t there even though Khilnani loves him. Interesting and of course, thoroughly unsurprising. That we had Nehru as prime minister during India’s formative years has been this country’s biggest tragedy. He botched a fantastic opportunity to build a strong nation: it’s now been 60-plus years since independence and we’re still a struggling nation, while other decolonised countries have progressed much faster despite their size and limited resources.
ON E-MAIL Ravindranath Ramakrishna
Your blurb says Khilnani’s book sieves through the uncatalogued heaps of Indian history to pick out some “shining gems”. Gems? Incarnations? You call Sheikh Abdullah, Raj Kapoor, Charan Singh, Deen Dayal Upadhyay and V.K. Krishna Menon gems? Has the author gone mad?
LUCKNOW M.C. Joshi
Khilnani’s list is of people whose vision helped us to imagine an egalitarian society. Today, however, we find people forming their ideas solely through the prism of a clash between the traditional and modern. This rudimentary schema, though, is ruining the nation’s chances of evolving ethically.
CHERTALA M.K. Somanatha Panicker
Apropos Khilnani’s list, there’s no denying how Buddhism and Jainism waned over the centuries in ancient India: through calculation and inherited privilege, Brahminism suppressed both and perpetuated caste hegemony.
ON E-MAIL Nasar Ahmed
Cho Ramaswamy once described Periyar as someone who started as an educationist and ended up as an entertainer. How true. Rich, arrogant, full of empty words and achieving nothing, he was the Donald Trump of his day. Perhaps his greatest achievement—like Trump—was marrying a woman far younger than him. On the other hand, Chidambaram Pillai’s was a great life, which also illustrates how fleeting public adulation is. He had tremendous influence at one time, but he lost all he had and died a pauper. Any list of top ten Tamilians should include his name.
CHENNAI Akash Verma
The book details in last week’s review pages were incorrect. It should have read: Gandhi An Illustrated Biography by Pramod Kapoor, Publisher: Roli Books, Pages: 324, Price: Rs 2,495.
Outlook frustrates me with its factual errors: the photograph going with Khilnani’s excerpt on Mahavira is that of Parshwanath, the 23rd teerthankara.
ON E-MAIL Ashwin Kumar D.P.
I have no doubt for a moment that JNU is an outstanding university (In the End, It Was Raining Slogans On Main Street, Feb 29). The problem, I think, lies with a few students of the JNUSU who have decided to endanger the values of a state-funded university for the rather predictable motives of self-interest and need for notoriety. Outlook is failing its own standards by publishing material in defence of such insurgents.
Delhi Shiv Prakash Pandey
This Breezy Grove of Academe (Feb 29) gets one thing completely wrong: there is no such concept as ‘left-liberal’. At best it is an oxymoron, because leftists are only liberal when they are not in power. Let these JNUSU folks come to power and they will be no better than those Stalinist dictators who so filled the world map at one time with lurid red.
Isere G. Natarajan
As the JNU fiasco has made extremely clear, the Modi government needs to understand that its right to rule is neither inviolable nor immune to sharp opposition. It needs to leave the academia and cultural centres alone for its own good.
On e-mail Jinu Matthew
Our policymakers are determined to destroy one of the most long-standing crucibles for creating independent minds in this country. If critical thinking itself is to be abolished, or aborted, what will stand in the way of eternal BJP raj?
Dehradun Rakesh Agrawal
The Sangh parivar is scoring in the battle over a ‘leftist’ JNU by invoking the oldest trick—patriotism. And the Left has fallen into that trap. The way the Left in this country has ceded the centre of the discourse and allowed the Right to move in and set up camp makes me wonder if they are in a self-destruct mode or being sabotaged. We all knew that no political party would accept the validity of the arguments of JNUSU. Yet Rahul Gandhi and Sitaram Yechury were pretty much competing with each other to extract political mileage out of this dubious minefield. Right now, we really don’t need tweets from our Opposition. Just stop the charade. Accept your loss of the centre and move on. This is all I can say to the entire lot.
On e-mail Aravind Raj Sanjeevaiah
It’s really telling that institutions—from JNU to the Supreme Court—are being tainted by a few discontented elements. The JNU fracas cannot be seen in isolation as it is connected to everything that is happening across the country. We are living through a strange time when crass attacks on the fatherland are no longer seen as sedition. It is our misfortune and we must resist the takeover by insurgents with all that we can muster.
Ahmedabad Vinod Dixit
On the ethos of JNU, I guess one thing could be added as a caveat. It’s only a haven of tolerance, open debate and pluralism when it comes to various streams of left thought. Outside it, it’s as intolerant as any standard leftist bastion. Ask JNU students about Friedrich Hayek and they’ll start calling you a running dog of capitalism.
Delhi RSM
They were always small chessboards for political parties to practise on. Now academic institutions are being slowly converted into centres for spreading Islamic fundamentalism. SIMI’s activities in Aligarh University have been commonly known. Now, sedition with shades of religious bigotry go hand in hand in JNU. It’s even spread to Jadavpur University! Does it not behove the government to intervene when unsavoury activities on campus are not checked by those institutions?
Warangal Seetharam Basaani
'Bharat mata' is currently a shorthand and warrant for any discontent with progressive politics. The Sanghis need a totem with which they can end the remnants of their accountability to the educated electorate. It is so easy to convince the insulated rural population that the BJP alone understands patriotism and loyalty. The irony is that anyone with a solid understanding of the history of India will remember the sympathy that Savarkar had for the colonial rulers. Sedition is a very big word and it cannot be lobbed by those who live in glass houses.
wASHINGTON T. Nayak
It’s bad luck for Modi that his magnificent Make in India week in Mumbai could hardly make news because his home minister chose to drag Kanhaiya Kumar off to Tihar Jail. The ill-advised arrest has brought every leftist politician suddenly out of the woodwork, all galvanised.
Bangalore K.S. Jayatheertha
While people may feel JNU is the sole repository or fount of ‘liberalism’ and intellectual culture, there is no need to believe it. Most students and faculty there are incorrigibly biased. That explains the strain of radicalism now seen on the campus.
Hyderabad J.S. Acharya
Marxist leaders who have come out in favour of the JNU student activists are refusing to condemn the pro-Afzal Guru and anti-India slogans raised at the varsity. And now, though Kanhaiya is all over the media, the tragic death of an RSS worker is not covered. Is this anything but unfair?
Chennai K.S. Padmanabha
I was appalled by the videos of protest at JNU. I am no great nationalist but totally object to students demanding that India be broken into pieces. Equally shocking to me was how political leaders showed up in JNU with their glib solidarity.
On e-mail, M.A.
Even if we think the JNU slogans are distasteful, it is their right and we have to respect that.
Perth Sanjiv Gupta
In the February 1 Letters page, ex-NSG DG A.K. Mitra, writing on the response to the Pathankot attack, makes a rather snide comment: “Is it because he (the army chief) was aware of his troop’s capabilities and did not want to take a risk...." On the question of capabilities, Mitra may not be aware that a regular infantry batallion is far better suited than any special force for combat operations. The NSG, as Mitra might be aware too, is essentially a specialised, niche outfit. Its role is limited to specific tasks, as part of a larger operation, which might have been relevant in the case of Pathankot. Hence the army chief’s assent.
On e-mail Col Rajiv Nair (retd)
This refers to the item on Justice C.S. Karnan and the staying order on his anticipated transfer (Reckless Lordship, Seven Days, Feb 29). We are aware of judges recusing themselves because of conflict of interest, but it is not so in this instance. In a surreal turn, he has become the judge, jury and executioner. Some police officers in the colonial era were known to have played a similar role—it will do doubt make him proud.
Bangalore H.N. Ramakrishna
The lack of comment on the atrocious behaviour is truly surprising. The fact that Justice Karnan advertises his Dalit origins is extremely unworthy of his position. It’s time authorities and public began to see through the abuse of caste as a ‘card’. Being a Dalit should not in any way be a licence for wrong-doing, blackmail and sheer arrogance at the workplace.
Mysore J. Akshobhya
This is apropos S. Nihal Singh’s column (A Turning Storm, Feb 29). The sight of riotous mobs of lawyers in the Patiala House courts was disgusting. Delhi Police commissioner Bassi’s brazenly partisan attitude in claiming Kanhaiya Kumar was only “jostled around”, when he was punched and kicked by lawyers, was unacceptable behaviour from a police chief. India’s first PM would be shedding tears of dismay if he could witness the farce that is happening in the hallowed institution named after him.
Mumbai K.P. Rajan
I refer to the story about TERI and R.K. Pachauri (The Council In Thrall of King Tereus, Feb 22). For a long time, Pachauri was regarded as one of the saviours of the planet. Lately, his credibility has seen a steep fall. For over three decades, Pachauri had built TERI as his personal fiefdom: it’s alleged that he treated women employees as part of his entitlement. Sexual harassment thrives on skewed power relations, the fear of stigma and women’s anxiety about their careers. This is one climate that surely needs to change.
New South Wales Meghana A.
The web interview with Shehla Rashid was a good read (“Student Movements Will Be the Deathbed of RSS agenda”, Feb 29). Rashid spoke from her heart; it showed her courage under fire. We need more young people like her now.
On email S.M. Ali
I write in response to the story on the torture of adivasis (The Pegdapalli Files, Feb 22). Security forces are meant to help and protect downtrodden people irrespective of their religion, creed or region of origin. It is sad that the forces themselves are exploiting the helpless and raping defenceless adivasis in Bastar, as if it’s a matter of course in their line of duty. The forces are failing in their duties and all of it is being emboldened by the knowing silence of the government.
Chennai, M.Y. Shariff
The government’s handling of the JNU sedition case has prompted me to write. The idea of ‘negative news’ will be ‘tracked’ by the government. This is an irrational, infantile reaction. The rational thing is to improve the implementation of welfare schemes and look after the weaker communities instead of playing censor. This sarkar seems to have no interest in listening to the voice of the people. It’s all about sensationalism and PR.
Delhi, Mukul Dube
