'INDIA ABROAD' on new textbooks

[Michael Witzel]

It is amusing, and entirely expected, to see how the messenger (PB) is
beaten,  not the message....

In my original message  I intentionally included INDIA ABROAD's last line:
that PB "is  a political commentator".  His severe comments were excised
from my 'gem' quotes...  Read the full story at:
http://www.indiaabroadonline.com/PublicAccess/ia012100/Opinion/ConcernExpressed.
html

Perhaps the respondents, members of the usual list of suspects, did/do not
realize that they supply abundant material for a future study of the Indian
post-colonial, and emerging nationalistic set of mind. So it is worth
saving these letters after all...

The message is,  of course,  the steadily increasing proliferation of
politically motivated, enforced changes by Govt. in culture and science ...

Politicians everywhere (ultimately, futilely so far) strive for  mind
control, to quote a case for balance:

Don Davis on the RISA list: (Tue, 29 Feb 2000 00:51:55 )
"... the ruling Communist Party of Kerala ... tried to censor a book by A.
Sreedhara Menon called ... Freedom Struggle in Kerala.  Menon is a
respected general
historian of Kerala .... the day he submitted the manuscript, he
received an official letter from the State Gov't informing him that he would
have to work with a committee of people, all party members, including the
grand old man of Kerala communism, E.M.S. Namboothiripad.
... Menon published the letter in the Kerala press ...  Eventually, Menon
withdrew his
submission and DC Books published his book independently. "

((NB: Remember how the COMMUNIST PARTY OF KERALA saved 11 goats' lives at
the great 1975 Agnicayana? Everything for a raise in popularity -- even,
using religious sentiments! ))

Still, the saga continues, no wonder after the resecent changes at  ICHR:
Following is a copy of a letter sent to the Prime Minister by university
faculty members in Delhi:

"The latest order from the ICHR directing the Oxford University Press to
stop  midway the publication of two volumes on the freedom struggle by two of
India's leading historians, Prof. Sumit Sarkar and Prof. K.N. Panikkar, has
shocked the academic community in the capital. ....

...the typescripts were in press when the Oxford
University Press received the letter directing it to suspend production
of the two volumes and return them to the ICHR for review.  ...

... it appears that the letter was
written bypassing even the ICHR and at the behest of the HRD Ministry...

We, the teachers of the four universities of Delhi, strongly protest
against this despicable attack on freedom of scholarship and urge you to direct
the ICHR to immediately retract its order to stop publication of these two
volumes."

Which *western academicians* are misled here?

Looking forward to...
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Michael Witzel                          Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies
Harvard University                  www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
my direct line (also for messages) :  617- 496 2990
home page:     www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm


Michael Witzel
Department of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge MA 02138

ph. 617-496 2990 (also messages)
home page:     www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm

Elect. Journ. of Vedic Studies:         www1.shore.net/~india/ejvs
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