National Book Trust halts Bipan Chandra reprints

Hindi reprints of a popular book Sampradayikta: Ek Praveshika by late eminent historian Bipan Chandra has been stopped by its publisher, National Book Trust. A move is now on to stop the Urdu and English editions of the book Communalism: A Primer, which spews venom at the BJP and RSS and attacks these outfits over the rise of communalism in the country. It says: “Communalism is basically seen as an ideology.”

The Rs 49-lakh print order for the 104-page book had been issued for 3,100 copies, which was withdrawn at the last moment on August 9, sources said.

Established in 1957, NBT is an autonomous apex body under the human resources development ministry and is now headed by its chairperson, Baldeo Bhai Sharma, a former editor of the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya.

Bipan Chandra, a former head of the NBT, was known to belong to the left-of-centre nationalist school of thought. The central theme of the book is the argument that “while communalism is very often equated with religious fundamentalism, it actually represents an ideology. To counter it successfully, communal thinking has to be uprooted from people’s minds”.

The book says: “Communalism is today the most serious threat facing the Indian people and India as a nation.” In a direct onslaught on the BJP and RSS, it said: “It is no longer a local or regional phenomenon. It has become a nationwide phenomenon as the electoral success of the BJP and the growth of the other frontal organisations of the RSS in the last few years indicates...”

When contacted, both on the phone and over email, the NBT chief, Mr Sharma, declined to comment, saying he was travelling and was busy at a function.

While nationalism has emerged as the main theme of the Narendra Modi government, Chandra had written back in 2008: “The real struggle against communalism will take place on the terrain of nationalism, for the communalists claim to be nationalists and communalism masquerades as nationalism.” The book states: “The BJP and its parent body, the RSS, recruit their cadres through strong and naked communal ideology.” It adds: “The BJP and its sister organisations, the VHP and Bajrang Dal, all carefully controlled by the RSS, have succeeded in harnessing the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and its religious appeal to gain entry into the minds of a large number of Hindus and to weaken their resistance to communalism.”

The book claims that “to acquire the necessary political legitimacy and to grow nationwide on a scale large enough to acquire a hegemonic (dominant) position in Indian politics, the BJP must take recourse to a more universal doctrine and appeal to nationalism. It must give communalism a nationalistic garb.”

Talking of the 2002 Gujarat riots, it states: “The 2002 Gujarat violence, which horrified the entire nation, was the consequence of the prior spread of communal ideology or way of thinking through the BJP’s and RSS’ propaganda machinery, school textbooks etc for several years.”

Referring to the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, the historian had written: “The BJP government at the Centre had consciously removed model textbooks and replaced them with new textbooks which reproduce all the communal prejudices of the colonial and communal writers of the pre-1947 colonial era.” The book said the BJP government “vigorously and relentlessly pursued its ideological agenda through such education bodies like the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla, and University Grants Commission (UGC)”.

In the segment “What is a communal party ”, Chandra argued: “It is futile to talk of reforming the BJP in a secular direction... as many NDA allies believed they could do, or to ask the RSS to give up its anti-minority outlook, or to suggest that minus communalism the BJP would be all right. The BJP minus communalism would not be all right, it would be politically a big zero and the BJP leaders know it. They know even the effort to disguise their communal ideology after they dissolved the Jan Sangh and joined the Janata Party weakened their organisation.” Stressing the point, the author said: “Many secular parties tended to ignore the ideological character of communalism... like the secular allies of the BJP in the NDA.”