[Reader-list] Intentions behind an Open Letter To Indian Cricket Team Captain

Fri Feb 16 00:33:56 IST 2007

Dear Ms Jogi

The intention was to have people read the Open Letter.
To give some of them pleasure.
And to give some others a chance to condemn the letter and its author.
Is that enough reason?
Sorry don¹t have more at this time.

Best regards

Sanjay

------ Forwarded Message
> From: Vedavati Jogi <vrjogi at hotmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 09:09:28 +0000
> To: octave at bol.net.in
> Subject: RE: [Reader-list] An Open Letter To Indian Cricket Team Captain Rahul
> Dravid By Shamsul Islam
> 
> dear mr. kak,
> 
> may i know your intention behind forwarding this letter to reader-list?
> 
> i condemn this letter & the author!
> 
> vedavati
> 
> 
>> From: Sanjay Kak <octave at bol.net.in>
>> To: Sarai Reader List <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Subject: [Reader-list] An Open Letter To Indian Cricket Team Captain Rahul
>> Dravid By    Shamsul Islam
>> Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 07:54:52 +0530
>> 
>> An Open Letter To Indian Cricket Team Captain Rahul Dravid
>> 
>> By Shamsul Islam
>> 
>> 13 February, 2007
>> Countercurrents.org
>> 
>> Dear Rahul Dravid,
>> 
>> Namaskar!
>> 
>> You, presently, lead the cricket team of India and wear the National Flag,
>> Tri-colour while playing for India in different parts of the globe. You
>> must
>> be well aware of the fact that this Tri-colour represents a
>> Secular-Democratic India and team led by you which includes players from
>> different religions and regions of the country, undoubtedly, symbolize the
>> same reality. I hope you are familiar with the glorious heritage which the
>> National Flag and a Secular-Democratic polity represent. These are the
>> products of great anti-colonial struggle and ruthless fight against
>> theocratic politics represented by organizations like the Muslim League,
>> the
>> RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha. Despite the partition of India on the basis of
>> religion mainly forced by Muslim League and dastardly killing of Father of
>> the Nation by persons affiliated to the Hindu Mahasabha and the RSS, India
>> chose to remain a non-theocratic state. That is the significance of the
>> Nation which you and your team represent and the Flag which you display on
>> your costumes.
>> 
>> I am sorry to write that by participating in the birth centenary programme
>> of M. S. Golwalkar (Guruji), the ideologue of the RSS, in Nagpur on January
>> 20, 2007, you have not only violated the trust which this country has put
>> in
>> you but also saddened large sections of your fans who love and adore you
>> because you and your team represent a Secular-Democratic India. According
>> to
>> a report which appeared in the Hindi organ of the RSS, Panchjanya (February
>> 4, 2007, p.11), 'Indian cricket captain inaugurated the Surya Namaskar
>> Mahayagya programme in the Vidarbh region (of Masharashtra)'. This campaign
>> was organized by RSS 'to commemorate the birth centenary of Shri Guruji'
>> who
>> happened to be the second chief and the most prominent ideologue of the
>> RSS.The cover page of Panchjanya also shows you lightening the lamp before
>> the garlanded photograph of Golwalkar.
>> 
>> I do not know who led you to join this programme of the RSS but I feel
>> duty-bound to bring to your notice few crucial facts about the RSS and
>> Guruji who led it from 1940 to 1973.
>> 
>> The first Home Minister of independent India, Sardar Patel, held the RSS
>> responsible for the assassination of Gandhiji. He in a letter to Golwalkar,
>> dated 11 September 1948, clearly stated that it was communal poison spread
>> by the RSS which was responsible for this tragedy. Without mincing words he
>> wrote: 'As a final result of the poison, the country had to suffer the
>> sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji. Even an iota of the sympathy
>> of the Government, or of the people, no more remained for the RSS. In fact
>> opposition grew. Opposition turned more severe, when the RSS men expressed
>> joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji's death.' I hope you know that
>> consequently the RSS was banned for its role in the assassination.
>> 
>> Dear Rahul Saheb! Golwalkar whose birthday centenary programme you
>> inaugurated was a die-hard fascist who rejected any talk of a
>> democratic-secular India. In 1939 he penned a terrible book We or Our
>> Nationhood Defined which ousted minorities like Muslims and Christians from
>> the Indian nationhood. Even after Independence, in another book his Bunch
>> of
>> Thoughts, Golwalkar declared Muslims as enemy number one and Christians as
>> enemy number two of the country. I wish you had boycotted such a programme
>> as you can vouch to the fact that many Muslim and Christian players playing
>> cricket with you have done proud to the nation.
>> 
>> Golwalkar also glorified dictators like Mussolini and Hitler and insisted
>> on
>> adopting their methods for cleansing minorities in India. In his 1939 book
>> while eulogizing Hitler he wrote: 'German race pride has now become the
>> topic of the day. To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture,Germany
>> shocked the world by her purging the country of the Semitic Races - the
>> Jews. Race pride at its highest has been manifested here. Germany has also
>> shown how wellnigh impossible it is for Races and cultures, having
>> differences going to the root, to be assimilated into one united whole, a
>> good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.' It is really
>> astonishing that a renowned sportsperson like you went to be part of
>> programmes dedicated to such a nasty person.
>> 
>> I also would like to draw your attention to what RSS thinks about the
>> Tri-colour which you so proudly wear. When the Indian Parliament decided to
>> have Tri-colour as the National Flag, the English organ of the RSS,
>> Organizer, ('Mystery behind the Bhagwa Dhawaj', August 14, 1947) denigrated
>> this great choice in the following words: 'The people who have come to
>> power
>> by the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour but it never [sic]
>> be respected and owned by Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil, and
>> a
>> flag having three colours will certainly produce a very bad psychological
>> effect and is injurious to a country'. The RSS has been demanding the
>> adoption of saffron flag as the National Flag of the country. It also needs
>> to be known that when the Constituent Assembly of India finally passed the
>> Constitution on 26 November 1949, the RSS demanded that it should be
>> replaced by the Codes of Manu (Organizer November 30, 1949) which openly
>> glorified Casteism, upheld persecution of Untouchables and denigrated
>> women.
>> 
>> Dear Mr. Rahul! You went to commemorate the birth centenary of a RSS leader
>> who hated democracy and declared (while addressing the top cadres of the
>> RSS
>> at its Reshambagh headquarters, Nagpur in 1940) that Hindu India of his
>> dreams needed only 'one flag (saffron), one leader and one ideology'.
>> 
>> Let me end with the hope that a great cricketer like you who stands as a
>> symbol of Democratic-Secular India will not betray the trust the country
>> has
>> shown in you and fall prey to the designs of Hindu Separatism.
>> 
>> Wishing you all the best.
>> 
>> Shamsul Islam.
>> 
>> February 6, 2007.
>> notointolerance at hotmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> You can see this page at:
>> http://www.countercurrents.org/comm-islam130207.htm
>> 
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