HYDERABAD: Former scribe and now author, Saeed Naqvi, was in town to talk about his new book ‘Being The Other- The Muslim in India’. Rains played the spoilsport, and the debate had to be cancelled but that didn’t dampen the mood of this author who engaged us in a free-wheeling chat while sipping his double espresso. One meeting with the man and you know that he can give you more takes on history than you possibly imagined. Talking about the pertinent question of deifying leaders and its pitfalls, he said, “Aastha, shraddha, reverence...ek taraf yeh metaphysical spiral pe jata hain aur dusri taraf anti-intellectual shraddha. Ek problem hain yeh, lihaza we don’t respect our leaders, instead we revere them. Once they are put on the pedestal, they become deities. Once they become deities, therein lies the danger. Its feudalism.”
Naqvi, actively advocates for “space” and “editorial place” where one can speak one’s mind. Let a million flowers bloom,” he says. “He urges people to look beyond singular narratives about any religion and sect and the need for the freedom to call a spade a spade. “You cannot libel the dead. If you cannot do that, how will you find out what a particular maharaja did in history? How do you find out what was done day before yesterday? It’s against the ethos of history.“
While speaking about his latest book, he delves into the ethos of the beautiful cultural amalgam of Hindus and Muslims. He talks about the mesmerising Holi soiree and “spectacle” that he was a part of near Tilak Marg in Delhi and the beauty of the balmy noon and the thumri, courtesy Birju Maharaj. Naqvi ended the conversation by breaking into a verse by the renowned Muslim poet Sayyad Ibrahim Raskhan that highlights the “delicate execution of an idea of Krishna leela”.