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Log inRamachandra Guha: Ban Narendra Modi's Ban!
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Ramachandra Guha: Ban Narendra Modi's Ban!
by Guest Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:44 pm
Earlier this year, the Gujarat Government banned a book on Mahatma Gandhi by an American writer. The book was not then available in India, and no one in Gujarat had read it. The ban, ordered by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, was on the basis of a tendentious news report and a still more tendentious book review.
After Mr. Modi announced his ban, the first instinct of the Government of India was to emulate him. Congress spokesmen called for a countrywide ban. The then Law Minister, Veerappa Moily, indicated that he would follow their lead. There was a spirit of competitive chauvinism abroad; how could the Congress allow a non-Congress politician to claim to be defending the reputation of the Mahatma?
In the event, the Government of India did not enforce a ban on the book. This was principally because of two quick, focused interventions by Rajmohan Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Both are grandsons of the Mahatma; both, besides, are scholars and public figures in their own right. Rajmohan and Gopalkrishna wrote signed articles in the press saying that a ban would be contrary to the spirit of Gandhi, a man who encouraged and promoted debate; it would also call into question India’s claims to be the world’s largest democracy.
A ban makes news; the withdrawal of a ban does not. Gandhi scholars in particular, and Indians in general, owe Rajmohan and Gopalkrishna a debt of gratitude, for pressurizing the Government to allow the free circulation of Joseph Lelyveld’s The Great Soul in twenty-seven states of the country. It remains illegal to own or possess a copy of the book in the twenty-eighth state of the Union, which happens to be Gandhi’s own. By banning the book before it was available, Narendra Modi thought he could camouflage his sectarian leanings in the protective cloak of the Mahatma’s pluralism. In the event, once the Government of India—bowing to the sensible advice of Gandhi’s grandsons—allowed the free circulation of the book, the fact that it is not yet legally available in Gujarat only exposes the insularity and xenophobia of that state’s Chief Minister.
http://ramachandraguha.in/archives/ban-the-ban.html
After Mr. Modi announced his ban, the first instinct of the Government of India was to emulate him. Congress spokesmen called for a countrywide ban. The then Law Minister, Veerappa Moily, indicated that he would follow their lead. There was a spirit of competitive chauvinism abroad; how could the Congress allow a non-Congress politician to claim to be defending the reputation of the Mahatma?
In the event, the Government of India did not enforce a ban on the book. This was principally because of two quick, focused interventions by Rajmohan Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Both are grandsons of the Mahatma; both, besides, are scholars and public figures in their own right. Rajmohan and Gopalkrishna wrote signed articles in the press saying that a ban would be contrary to the spirit of Gandhi, a man who encouraged and promoted debate; it would also call into question India’s claims to be the world’s largest democracy.
A ban makes news; the withdrawal of a ban does not. Gandhi scholars in particular, and Indians in general, owe Rajmohan and Gopalkrishna a debt of gratitude, for pressurizing the Government to allow the free circulation of Joseph Lelyveld’s The Great Soul in twenty-seven states of the country. It remains illegal to own or possess a copy of the book in the twenty-eighth state of the Union, which happens to be Gandhi’s own. By banning the book before it was available, Narendra Modi thought he could camouflage his sectarian leanings in the protective cloak of the Mahatma’s pluralism. In the event, once the Government of India—bowing to the sensible advice of Gandhi’s grandsons—allowed the free circulation of the book, the fact that it is not yet legally available in Gujarat only exposes the insularity and xenophobia of that state’s Chief Minister.
http://ramachandraguha.in/archives/ban-the-ban.html
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