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Memories of Another day

Memories of Another day
While my Parents Pulin babu and Basanti devi were living

Monday, November 10, 2008

Sonal Shah and Her Hindutva Connections

Here is an excerpt from a sort of promotional, or just laudatory, article produced on the occasion of Sonal Shah, who has just been nominated to the Transition Team of Barack Obama, having been awarded the 'India Abroad Person of the Year 2003' by the (international) weekly newspaper India Abroad belonging to the stable of the Rediff group:

Quote
"The politics aren't usually about religion. It's usually about land or something like that. Religion is used to create a greater disparity. In local communities, a lot of the disputes are usually over things that are more tangible, and it's important to understand that."
She does, however, require that Indicorps Fellows be as informed as possible. To that end, she has prepared an Indicorps reader, which she is in the process of revising.
As it currently stands, the Indicorps reader is a solid bit of reading — three thick, photocopied volumes and just under a thousand pages of articles, novel excerpts, and chapters from historical texts.
The reader is ideologically diverse and includes the works of Amartya Sen, V S Naipaul, Salman Rushdie, Nehru, Mark Tully, and Shashi Tharoor, as well as Sunil Khilnani, Konrad Elst, Robert Kaplan, and Jeffrey Sachs. Asghar Ali Engineer is included, as is the pro-Hindutva French journalist Francois Gautier's Arise Again, O India and The Symbol of Ayodhya.
Rather than ignore any segment of the political continuum, Sonal has embraced all of them, and encourages her Fellows to make their own, informed decisions.
Unquote

[Source: http://www.indicorps.org/docs/INDIA_ABROAD_12-19-2003.pdf.]

It is significant that of the authors listed above quite a few are known staunch adherents of the Hindutva ideology: V S Naipaul, Mark Tully, Konrad Elst. Kaplan is an unapologetic apologist of US Empire over the globe.
Francois Gautier's Arise Again, O India and The Symbol of Ayodhya are - as the titles suggest - rabble rousing, fire spewing, pure hate stuff of the worst variety.
On the other side of the divide all are arguably moderates. But what would be most pertinent and revealing is the actual selection of the articles/pieces. That would show up the intent/bias in much clearer light.

It'd be nice if someone could get hold of copies of both the original and updated, if any, version(s) of the Indicorps reader.

Sukla

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