There is much confusion in people’s mind about nationalism, sedition, and patriotism. The confusion of thought extends to the country’s past and the very idea of India. Influential forces have been deliberately spreading confusion. The book will help dispel the confusion.
The three authors need no introduction: Romila Thapar, doyen of Indian history; A G Noorani, prolific writer and public intellectual; and Sadanand Menon, polymath with the Asian College of Journalism and IIT Madras. There is an insightful foreword by David Davidar, giving the rationale for publishing the book. He quotes George Orwell who distinguished between patriotism and nationalism. The latter is associated with desire for power.
Romila Thapar in her essay Reflections on Nationalism and History starts on a nostalgic note about her generation who ‘grew up on the cusp of Independence’. Nationalism cannot be reduced to waving flags and shouting slogans. The term Hindutva was coined by V D Savarkar in 1923 and adopted by the BJP in 1989. The term Hindu used in West Asia was derived ‘Sindhu’ and the Old Iranian ‘Hindush’, referring to the River Indus. It initially designated a geographical area to the east of Indus and only later the people, and finally their religion. The belief that Indian history can be divided into three periods—the Hindu, the Muslim, and the British—based on the religion of the rulers, first propounded by James Mill in his book The History of British India published in 1817-1826, is absurd. The popular impression that Hindus were ‘victimised’ during the second period with the unstated implication that they should now victimise the Muslims to settle scores is not supported by facts. The choice is between shouting trite slogans and building a secular and just society true to India’s values. “Democracy without its complement of secular thinking falls short of being a democracy.”
Noorani demonstrates with compelling logic the untenable position on sedition adopted by those in power and how they are imitating the colonial government that tried Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Mahatma Gandhi on sedition charges. Noorani traces the genesis of the sedition law. Included in Macaulay’s draft of the IPC in 1937, it was omitted when the Code was finalised in 1860, to be inserted later to punish the Indians who asked for freedom from foreign rule.
Menon points out that while cultural nationalism in the past helped the freedom struggle, in independent India it has no place. He gives an instance of pathetic cultural nationalism: In 1998, after the NDA came to power, the Harappan Gallery was renovated. A new civilisational timeline was shown with the Indian Civilisation starting around 7,000 BCE, the next being the Chinese around 3,200 BCE.
Recently, there were instances where citizens were charged with sedition. How many police officials know that Tilak and Gandhi were tried for sedition? Even the judiciary has at times shown lamentable ignorance. As we enter the 71st year of our independence, this book should be made a compulsory reading for everybody.