AN EMAIL EXCHANGE OF MINE WITH THE NOTED HISTORIAN SRI. RAMACHANDRA GUHA ************
On 1 Mar 2021, at 1:33 PM, Ramachandra Guha
Thanks for your most interesting feedback.
I had already indicated what history will think of the buildings Modi will build.
After my piece was published, this further instance of Modi’s megalomania has come to light:
https://thewire.in/government/india-only-nation-to-use-covid-vaccination-certificate-to-push-cult-of-leader-ruling-party
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 8:50 AM sudarshan madabushi mksudarshan2002@yahoo.co.in wrote:
Subject: When a Historian turns a hack
https://amp.scroll.in/article/988101/ramachandra-guha-despite-denouncing-the-mughal-and-british-empires-modi-is-imitating-their-hubris
THE PICTURE OF RAMACHANDRA GUHA
My respect for Ramachandra Guha as a competent historian of contemporary India suffers further erosion as I read this latest broadside of an article of his. I ask myself whether this historian has lost all sense of balance, proportion and objectivity,
The ire, bile and spleen that Guha exhibits in this article does no credit to his credibility as a historian. He takes one incident …. the renaming of a cricket stadium in Ahmedabad after Narendra Modi … and blows it up to exaggerate its historical importance out of all reasonable proportion. He uses this one isolated and almost banal incident to make his grand, sweeping and wholly untenable judgment on the entire career of a PM of just 5 years and much worse … he draws grandiose conclusions of history from it!
According to Ramachandra Guha … Emperor Narendra Modi is styling himself to be seen by the eyes of posterity as an admixture of :
Narendra Shah+ Shah Narendra Shah (of Tehri Garhwal) + Babur+ Shah Jahan+ Adolf Hitler+ King George V + Charles de Gaulle+ Benito Mussolini+ Saddam Hussein+ Kim Il-sung
all rolled into one … an admixture further flavoured by a contemporary seasoning of Jawaharlal Nehru + Indira Gandhi !
In this article of his Guha — while wearing his knowledge on his sleeve as a historiographer who has studied some of the greatest personalities of the past 500 years of Indian and World History— makes no secret of his intention viz.: to belittle and devalue through demonising our present duly (twice) elected Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi, a ruler Guha tries to convince his readers is a man besotted with himself … a man who is a narcissistic megalomaniac filled with unbounded “imperial hubris”.
Little does Guha realise that in placing Modi amongst such a pantheon of past historical leaders whose impact and imprint on the history of the modern world can neither be denied nor belittled , he achieves the very opposite of what he intends to do . He simply already concedes to Modi already … a Prime Minister who has not even yet completed 7 years in office … a place of such grand significance and eminence in history that took several years and decades in their lifetime for all the great rulers that he names and uses to exemplify his case. Implicit therefore in Guha’s ranting is a sneaking, tacit acknowledgment that in less than 7 years as a democratically elected leader of a republic as vast and populous as India , Narendra Modi has already carved out a niche for himself in future history . That tacit acknowledgment in itself is an unintended albeit rather grudging compliment to the historic impact-fullness of the man who Guha set out in his article to decry and diminish.
This is so evident in a single paragraph that Guha writes in his article :
Quote :
Hindus, thought Modi, had for too long been subservient to or ruled by foreigners. He had now arrived to give them back their self-respect and their dignity. By framing the issue as he had, said my friend, Modi was suggesting that he was the first Hindu ruler to successfully unite the country. For all their bravery, for all the folklore about them, Shivaji and Prithviraj had succeeded only in having a small sliver of the subcontinent under their control. In territorial or political terms, they had not been remotely as successful as (the Buddhist) Ashoka or the (Muslim) Mughals or the (Christian) British. Prime Minister Modi would finally redeem the Hindus by accomplishing what Shivaji and Prithviraj had failed to do.
Unquote
Please read and re-read the above passage Mr Guha ! You will understand then why I now ask you if what you unwittingly hint at above is true … then should I as a proud citizen of India be happy and honour Narendra Modi for what he aspires to do for this nation or should I condemn him for it ?!!
I’ve read more than a few of your books Mr Guha. You’re no longer really a historian .. I am afraid you’re become nothing more than a hack these days .
I am so disappointed in you !
😒😏
Sudarshan Madabushi *****************
Dear Mr Guha ,
Frankly I did not expect to hear from you in response to my email that I sent you yesterday. Thank you for the time you took to reply promptly.
Just a few words of self-introduction . I am a native of Chennai , an alumnus of Loyola College (Class of ‘77), a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India with a career record in corporate and project finance of more than 35 years , 25 of which was abroad where I have worked in multinationals and large international conglomerates . I’m now happily semi-retired and live in Chennai engaged in private consulting assignments .. but more importantly pursuing my non-professional interests and passions: reading about and writing (I have published books) on subjects of Indian philosophy, history and religion besides Carnatic music , travelling and engaging with social media .
It was through social media that I came across your recent article on Mr Modi and his “megalomania”. I have read a few of your history books and very much liked “ India After Gandhi”. I’ve held you in regard as an important contemporary historian of India for the scholarly depth of your research and the balance and responsibility with which I found you writing in some of your historical works.
Of late however I find you writing in the popular print and social media far less as a balanced, unbiased historian and more as a prejudiced, political polemicist if not propagandist. The article you wrote in the “Scroll “ a few days ago caught my attention and only confirmed my view about you. I was dismayed and disappointed when again in response to the feedback I sent you, you once again replied by referring me to the link at a news item in the Wire only to reaffirm your own conclusion as a historian that PM Modi is a “megalomaniac”.
Sir, you are entitled to your opinion of course that by having his photo affixed to all Indian citizens’ Covid Vaccine Certificates Mr Modi clearly reveals his “megalomaniacal” leadership traits. But I’m not engaging here with you over whether you are justified or not in your opinion . I’m writing to you with an altogether different purpose viz. to let you know that in expressing your opinion the way you do … in my own humble opinion … does far less credit to your stature indeed as an Indian historian than perhaps you hope it does enhance your image as a liberal-minded freethinker who is fearless in his criticism of and attack on the leadership of Narendra Modi.
Why do I say so ? Only because your opinion does not seem to me to be possess true and broad historian or historiographic perspective. In making such a mean-spirited fuss and hullabaloo as you have done about a mere cricket stadium in Ahmedabad being named after Modi, or in snivelling and snorting in your email to me about the fact that Modi is having his photo getting affixed on Covid Vaccine certificates , and therefore concluding therefrom that Narendra Modi is a pathological “megalomaniac” in the making if not already one … now by constructing such a narrative, Sir, I am afraid you only betray the mindset and worldview of a petty party apparatchik rather than that of an erudite and balanced historian which I still think you are .
For God’s sake , Sir, why have you lost your true historian perspective, historian marbles and historian muse ?!
I was expecting a reply from you that would perhaps have put in grand national perspective India’s historical experience in the last 500+ years of dealing with an unprecedented pan-nation health crisis and challenge of epic dimensions such as the Covid one that we are now still in the grip of and how an Indian Government today in dealing with pandemics and death compares with how, say, in Indian history maharajas, Shahenshahs, Nawabs, Amirs, Dewan Bahadurs, colonial British Viceroys, Governors and provincial district collectors had dealt with it …
Sir, I am sure you know that what I quote below is published history :
In India, during the 1918 influenza pandemic, a staggering 12 to 13 million people died, the vast majority between the months of September and December. According to an eyewitness, “There was none to remove the dead bodies and the jackals made a feast”. But influenza did not strike everyone equally. Most British people in India lived in spacious houses with gardens and yards, compared to the lower classes of city-dwelling Indians, who lived in densely populated areas. Many British also employed household staff to care for them – in times of health and sickness – so they were only lightly touched by the pandemic and were largely unconcerned by the chaos sweeping through the country.
In his official correspondence in early December, the Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces did not even mention influenza, instead noting “Everything is very dry; but I managed to get two hundred couple of snipe so far this season.”
While the pandemic was of little consequence to many British residents of India, the perception was wildly different among the Indian people, who spoke of universal devastation. A letter published in a periodical lamented, “India perhaps never saw such hard times before. There is wailing on all sides. … There is neither village nor town throughout the length and breadth of the country which has not paid a heavy toll.”
Elsewhere, the Sanitary Commissioner of the Punjab noted, “the streets and lanes of cities were littered with dead and dying people … nearly every household was lamenting a death, and everywhere terror and confusion reigned.”
In the end, areas in the north and west of India saw death rates between 4.5% and 6% of their total populations, while the south and east – where the virus arrived slightly later, as it was waning – generally lost between 1.5% and 3%.
Sir, and then again , I’m sure you as a historian know this too : “Between 1890 and 1900 alone , nearly 1 million Indians died of plague and many more millions died of starvation. The LANCET , a reputed British medical journal , through its Indian special correspondent, concluded in its May 1901 issue that in the previous decade India’s population has declined considerably … “an enhanced mortality must be the chief factor … it is estimated that there were 20, 000,000 more deaths than there should have been under ordinary circumstances … reason either due to disease or starvation or both” .
Now, Sir, given the kind of tragic and devastating historical experience this country has had in dealing with epidemic outbreaks and pandemic deaths , how must I as a citizen look upon how my government today has handled the current pandemic crisis which is perhaps even more global and deadly in its reach than perhaps even the 1919 tragedy ?
Would I be wrong in saying that for the very first time in the history of this country , a pandemic has not only been tamed by a government but also proactively controlled from day 1? Don’t we all know that today, on a per capita basis , India’s Covid infection rate , mortality rate and vaccination rate is one of the best in the world … not even advanced western countries can boast of it?
Under such circumstances as we see tiday around us, who gets the credit ? Our entire medical and para-medical and scientific research fraternity, undoubtedly of course … they’ve indeed done a fantastic job .They do deserve all the credit .
But I ask you Sir , they couldn’t have achieved what they did without inspiring political leadership too , could they? Just imagine for a moment, if despite all their efforts , India had had an unmitigated Covid disaster ? Tell me, who would then have been blamed and pilloried ? Narendra Modi of course, is it not?
So, when on the other hand, thankfully, we find now that they all have very much succeeded in the country’s battle against Covid pandemic , why must Modi not be given the due credit he deserves for having steered this country out of what might otherwise have been a tragedy of epic proportions ? Why must we grudge his photo on the Vaccine certificate even if it does smack a little bit of self-congratulation ? After all, Sir, it is he who has borne the heavy weight and crushing burden of apex leadership during this crisis of the last 12 months , hasn’t he? And again, Sir, I ask you, what after all is the subtext in the Certificate under his photo ? It simply seems to say “let’s fight Covid together”! … To my mind that doesn’t sound like it is “megalomaniac” trumpeting …It sounds to me more like a rousing rallying call to all citizens of India to join the government in battling the deadly virus . Tell me , Mr Guha, who else but the Prime Minister indeed of a nation has the prime duty to give such a clarion call to his countrymen at a time of grave crisis such as the present one?
Sir, as a historian you don’t seem to have got all this at all ! I am surprised! You just don’t see the larger national picture that’s there on the vast canvas of history, do you? Instead you are overly focused on nothing more than but the triviality, the banality and the frippery of local, partisan and petty-minded political anti-Modi polemical aspects of the whole issue?!
Which is why Mr Guha , I must say that you most likely have lost your historian marbles and muse.
With best regards ,
Sudarshan M K
Sent from my iPhone
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http://www.ramachandraguha.in
