Rajiv Malik, HPI Correspondent
DELHI, INDIA, August 26, 2004: “We cannot see the Indian history through the eyes of the West. India today is stretching for its honor. A great struggle is going on. Another Veer Savarkar is coming. In the 21st century India is recognizing its own soul. India will again be the Jagadguru [the guiding light for the whole world],” so stated Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, former Human Resources Development Minister in the Government of India. The senior BJP leader delivered the keynote address at a function held in New Delhi by Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti to felicitate and honour Shri J. S. Rajput, Former Director, NCERT [National Council Of Educational Training And Resarch] who was recently conferred with the Jan Amos Comenius Award for the year 2004 by UNESCO. On this occasion Dr. Joshi also launched the website of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, www.shikshabachaoandolan.org.
Dr. Joshi strongly defended him against recent criticisms by saying, “What Shri Rajput has done is not something without basis. No body can find fault with whatever he has done. Thousands of people including journalists, members of parliament, educationists and intellectuals were sent the information about the amendments in the text books. The material was even put on the internet. No one raised any objection on the basis of it being against the constitution or against the principles of secularism. Even in the parliament, we said that if you have any objection, please let us know but no one came forward. Suddenly this talk of saffronisation of education was started. We have only promoted education which is value based.”
He went on to say, “The thing is that we have to learn viewing the things from Indian perspective. What is seen as middle east from Britain is seen as west Asia from India. Similarly what is seen as far east from London is seen as near east from India. So the location is the same but what matters is from where do you view it from. Whether you would like to see something from Moghul, British or Indian perspective. For instance, for some people in this world the earth is just a material being, whereas we treat the earth as mother earth. That is because earth provides us food, water and nature. So earth from our perspective is not just a piece of property. A piece of property can be divided but motherland or mother earth can never be divided. Rivers were treated as something sacred in our culture. And today when they are no more treated as sacred, the result is there for everyone to see.”
Dr. Joshi said, “Today people like Savarkar who sacrificed everything for their country are being labeled as terrorists. Veer Savarkar was someone who inspired everybody. It was he who said that what happened in 1857 was not a mutiny but a fight for the freedom of India. It was a fight for self honor and Savarkar said it for the first time. Today there are forces that call the bhakti movement of India as feudalistic. For them people like Tulsi, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Dadu are all feudalistic.”
He went on to say, “Today we are insulting our ancestors and tomorrow the young generation will insult us. Today in USA a student kills his father or teacher as there is no respect for them. A 10-year-old student kills the teacher who is giving more attention to some other student. So if proper sanskars are not given all this can also happen here. In the name of secularism, no morals are there. Today’s generation does not know Kalidasa the poet, but they know Adidas the shoe manufacturer.”
He finally said, “Today there are many who are unhappy that there is a lot of ancient history in our text books as compared to medieval or modern history. What can we do about it when we have such a rich and varied ancient heritage? These people smell Hindutva in ancient history. They are upset that they can remove Hindutva from the medieval or modern history, but they cannot do so from the ancient history.”