Dear Editor,
Reading you on our past and future in Ghadar Jari Hai, I was happy that there is someone at least who thinks in these days of thoughtless changes that it is necessary to pause and reflect. Renewal of a people of an ancient nation like ours lies neither in rejecting the past, nor in reviving the past, nor in entirely manipulating our future as we desire it in our immediate greed. T S Eliot has these lines in support of the need I speak of:
Dear Editor,
Reading you on our past and future in Ghadar Jari Hai, I was happy that there is someone at least who thinks in these days of thoughtless changes that it is necessary to pause and reflect. Renewal of a people of an ancient nation like ours lies neither in rejecting the past, nor in reviving the past, nor in entirely manipulating our future as we desire it in our immediate greed. T S Eliot has these lines in support of the need I speak of:
‘Time present and Time past
Are perhaps present in Time future
And Time future contained in Time past’.
These lines also conclude on a philosophical sense of resignation and acceptance of human predicament in Time.
‘If all Time is eternally present
Then all Time is unredeemable’
The last line is profoundly Indian in spirit and not European- a civilization that seems to believe that the earth is a cornucopia and therefore eternal material progress is possible.
Our journey which was renewed in 1857 for self rule has received a good description in the journal.
Warmly
U.R.Ananthamurthy
Bangalore
Dear Editor,
More the things change, more they remain the same. One hundred and fifty years do not seem to have made any qualitative change to the living and working conditions of the vast majority of our people. The reasons for people’s dissatisfaction and anger and the systems that led to this are not materially different, either in 1857 or in 2007.The remedy that Bahadur Shah Zafar enunciated in 1857 is valid fully in 2007 too!
Volume 1, Number 1 of Ghadar Jari Hai brings out all these aspects of our contemporary and earlier history. Our humble appreciation of the dedicated efforts put in by a very large number of men and women. That this dedicated effort by an ever-widening circle of men and women is called for to keep this momentum going to bring out further issues makes the task both satisfying and challenging. We shall not; we cannot fail in this effort.
One thought. The happenings that took place in "1857,” mostly in the Gangetic plain and surrounding areas had their earlier forebodings all over the country and more particularly in South India. Apart from the patriotic wars fought against the British by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan, there were other household names like Kattabomman, Velu Nachiyar, Marudu Brothers, Dheeran Chinnamalai, Kerala Varma and Rani Kittoor Chennamma, and incidents like the Vellore Sepoy Mutiny, whose bravery and achievements do not seem to have reached the ears of most comman men and women in North India. This is a serious omission and must be remedied through the pages of Ghadar Jari Hai.The fiery speech made by Chinna Marudu at Trichinopoly seems to anticipate Bahadur Shah Zafar’s Firman sixty years later, for its patriotic single- minded appeal to throw the English out of our country!
Yours
Mr and Mrs T S Sankaran
Chennai
Dear Editor,
Ghadar Heritage Committee, Toronto, whole-heartedly welcomes the publication of the magazine Ghadar Jari Hai. As you have correctly pointed out in the cover story of the inaugural issue, the aims of the Great Ghadar of 1857 were not fulfilled in 1947 or even in 2007 and that is why ghadar continues. It is with similar sentiment that Ghadar Party came into being in US and Canada in 1913. The revolutionaries of Ghadar Party did enormous service to the cause of India’s liberation through international propaganda against British colonialism and material assistance to India’s liberation struggle. They also tried to organize an uprising in India in 1915, attempting to organize mutinies in the British Indian Army, simultaneously, in a fashion similar to 1857. Though this uprising was suppressed due to its discovery by British intelligence, it fired the imagination of many revolutionary youth like Kartar Singh Sarabha and Bhagat Singh.
Today the Canadian state and the Indian state say that conditions have changed and youth of Indian origin in Canada should integrate with multiculturalism of Canadian state. However it has been our experience that Canadian state is racist and at the same time is spreading illusions among the youth that they should look after themselves and not worry about society and grab every opportunity in this “land of opportunities.” Ghadar Heritage Committee is organizing socials, cultural and sporting events and political discussion among the Indian community in Canada so that the rich democratic and revolutionary heritage of Indian people’s struggle is kept alive among our youth. It also builds unity between the Indian community and all other oppressed and immigrant communities in Canada.
Ghadar Heritage Committee will certainly popularize and distribute this magazine in Canada and contribute to the discussion that is being generated in the magazine about India’s heritage and problems of today, which have their origin in Euro-centrism and the colonial legacy.
Greetings
Gurdev Singh
Ghadar Heritage Committee
Toronto
Dear Editor,
I am writing to you for the marvellous production of the very first number of Ghadar Jari Hai, dated May 15, 2007. This is a momentous occasion in publishing, coming in the 150th year of the anniversary of the great Ghadar of 1857, and also in the 60th anniversary of the transfer of power from the British into the hands of the ruling elites of India. Despite the fact that the forces that rule India today are closely tied to those that colluded with the British in the defeat of the peoples of India in 1857, the same ruling circles have been unable to ignore the anniversary and continue to be haunted by the ghosts of that shameful past. What came into being after the defeat of 1857 was the direct rule of the British as declared in Victoria’s Proclamation of 1858, where she simply states that by dint of being the `Defender of Faith’ and by `Grace of God’ she is to take over the government of India, in contradistinction to the vision of Bahadur Shah Zafar who presented the thesis that it should be the people of India who should decide what kind of sysem they would have. The rule of Victoria, it must be recognized, came into being to defend a very specific economic and political system that serves the former at a specific time. The present day rulers of India are acutely aware that the Parliamentary Democracy that was established in India in 1947 is a continuation of, firstly and most importantly the economic system instituted by the British, and secondly the political system instituted by the British which has been suitably modified. The latter is one where the supreme power in India today rests in the Cabinet of Ministers and the Prime Minister, and is a version of the `Divine Right to Rule’ of European kings and queens, and strips the people of India from any kind of participation in their self-governance. The economic system prevailing in India is one which merely serves the interests of the big money bags in the country, when the power passed into their hands from the British money bags, and when the camps made suitable compromises to render powerless the Indian masses in 1947.
By reprinting Victoria’s Proclamation, several of Bahadur Shah’s Firmans, and Hardial Bains’ article on `The Last Reform: Breaking with the Past’, you have brought to the forefront these burning issues facing the Indian polity. The Indian rulers, on the other hand, while failing to resolve the unresolved questions of the polity, seek to project India today as an emergent imperialist power, as a country that would be developed by the year 2020, and as a country whose success is to be gauged through that of its booming industrial class presided over by the houses of Tata, Birla, Reliance, etc., while its masses remain impoverished, unfed, unhoused, uneducated and with a standard of living way below anything that could be deemed fit for human beings.
In this scenario, the battle is also taken into the field of media and imagery, print and electronic, where rosy visions of India as such a power are projected, where day in and day out paens are trotted out on the greatness of `Indian democracy’, `values’, `indivudal liberty’, all of which are for the ruling elites, while the grim reality is that the trampling with brute force of anyone who might oppose this vision. GJH has appeared on the scene at this important moment in history, where through its work it will advance a different vision of India: an India where the peoples of India will play role in determining their destiny, where the peoples constituting the different nations that constitute India will be able to articulate their aspirations for a voluntary and equal union of nations, where the women of India would be able to break free of their bonds of chattel slavery, where the youth of India would be able to breath the fresh air of freedom to choose a future of their liking.
I look forward eagerly to elaboration of such burning themes on diverse subjects such as political economy, political philosophy and history in the pages of GJH in the coming months and years. Without such an elaboration, Indian society cannot get out of the impasse in which it finds itself.
Sincerely,
Prof B Ananthanarayan,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Dear Editor,
I have received the first issue and liked it. It is refreshing in a rugged sort of way without the usual petty bourgeois frills.
I welcome the appearance of the new journal, Ghadar Jari Hai, an imaginative and creative enterprise, initiated by a group of committed friends in the Capital. It fulfils a badly needed front steering between the severely and narrowly specialised academic journals and middle-brow popular journals, mostly obsessed with a politics in a superficial sense, while offering a courtesy nod to cultural and intellectual matters. This crucial contribution, I anticipate, will lie in its ability to fuse intellectual concerns with the problems facing the lives of our ordinary citizens.
Greetings
K Raghavendra Rao
Dharwad
Dear Editor,
I would like to extend hearty congratulations to you and your associates for taking the historic initiative of launching “Ghadar Jari Hai”. You have provided your readers with an intellectual feast, in the form of the Cover Story and features such as “Peepul Ke Neeche”, “Study” and “Reflections”.
Given the miserable conditions of our people today, everyone would agree that India in 2007 is crying out for an all-round renewal. To grapple with this problem it is absolutely essential to know our history without the bias of Eurocentrism. I do not claim that everything was perfect in our past and that we have to go back to some mythical golden age. However we do we inherit a rich body of thought material from our past. We have to look at it from the vantage point of the needs of the present – preserve or renew what can help us and get over whatever is acting as a road block. At the same time we have to look at other cultures and incorporate what is progressive and in tune with our needs.
In this I believe that your magazine will play an important role. Thank you once again. I will try to help your venture in whatever way I can.
Yours sincerely,
Sangeeta Joshi.
Mumbai
Dear Editor,
After reading the first issue of “Ghadar Jari Hai”, members of our Lok Raj Sangathan Committee felt so inspired that we decided to try and promote it in whatever way we could. We have decided that studying its articles and disseminating it would become a permanent item on our agenda. The response we have got is tremendous. We have taken it to various meetings as well as to a number of educational institutes. Various people have expressed their appreciation for this venture due to the following reasons:
- There is widespread ignorance about our past.
- There is a tendency today to label people – “Marxists”, “Hindutvawadi”, “Ambedkarite”, and so on.
- There is a need to re-establish our collective identity. The British not only committed genocide, but they also committed cultural genocide, destroying the self-confidence, self-belief and morale of our people. On the other hand, our rulers today try to promote a chauvinist, jingoistic identity, which is definitely harmful.
Your magazine is seen as a forum that can answer these needs of our people. I would venture to suggest the following: You should start a subscription – many people had wanted to become subscribers after seeing the first issue. You should also start to raise donations and encourage your well-wishers to do the same. We would not want this venture to die out due to paucity of funds.
I wish you every success in this extremely important and timely venture.
Yours sincerely
Dr Sanjeewani Jain
Mumbai
Dear Editor,
I am grateful to you for sending me copies of Ghadar Jari Hai. I would like to subscribe to the journal. If the original articles are in Hindi I would like to subscribe to it. If however the original articles are in English, I would prefer to have the English version.
As I would like to get associated with your abhiyan, let me introduce myself. Of late I am editing a series of books on History of Science and Technology (HST).
I worked at TIFR and PRL mostly doing radio carbon dating and its applications. I have now settled down at Almora, my home town, after retiring from PRL. Here I am also working on non-literate knowledge systems and also some socio- economic projects.
During our work on the HST project we realized that we had to do a tight rope walking avoiding the Eurocentric distortions of our HST legacy and the exaggerated chauvinistic claims from the saffron brigade. I would like to contribute short essays on them.
Prof. D.P. Agrawal
PhD, FNASc, Director
Lok Vigyan Kendra, Almora
Dear Mr Raghavan,
You have launched the magazine with a bang, to use an expression you have employed elsewhere in another context. The 1857 episode has been aptly presented in your first issue highlighting certain aspects little known and less debated. The contemporary scenario is one in which we need to draw inspiration and guidance from the events of 1857 in order to counter the mammoth offensive against our sovereignty today. To be equal partners in development is not the same as serving while being subordinates. The heroes of 1857 refused to be subservient to authoritarian masters as you have brought out in the magazine. There is an imperative need to assert the positive aspects of our legacy so that we may move forward with dignity and confidence. Your venture contributes a lot in that direction. I only hope that the response from your readers will be equally encouraging. Jingoism and irrationalism have to be eschewed for any meaningful advance, which you mean to accomplish in the days to come.
Regards and best wishes.
Dr G. Ramakrishna
Editor, Hosathu
Bangalore
Dear Editor,
I am ready to provide all assistance I can…the only proviso is this, mujhe ek chhoti si kitab research karke pichhle saal deni thi, magar talash-e rozgar aur idhar udhar ke tamashon ne usko hone nahin diya, ab aainda char maheenon mein voh mujhe khatm karni hai, par aap hukm karein..
Mahmood Farooqui
Delhi
Dear Editor,
I have read the maiden issue of "Ghadar Jari Hai" and found it to be a very progressive take on the great 1857 Indian war of Independence. The layout is very creative and I especially liked the story about the "Tax Collector" and the poems. People should contribute their creative inputs to this magazine and I hope that its readership expands. The articles are all well written and provide much food for thought about the condition of people today and the magazine’s name fittingly says "Ghadar Jari Hai"-The struggle goes on ! I wish that articles about the lesser-known facts of 1857 be published so that we may be able to appreciate the history better. This is an extremely laudable endeavour by Lok Awaz Publishers and Distributors to spread the message of people’s power so that more people join the "GJH" campaign. All the best and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the coming issues.
Nirmala Mathew,
Mumbai
Dear Editor,
Ghadar Jari Hai magazine is a breath of fresh air in the heavily polluted media that exists today. The media, by and large, is polluted with trivia, narrow mindedness, irrationality, euro-centric and other biases and pornography. Today’s media is a reflection of the domination of big moneyed interests in society and it is aimed at disorienting the masses from seeking solutions to the serious problems facing the society. Bringing out Ghadar Jari Hai magazine at this time is a welcome step.
With regard to the premier issue of Ghadar Jari Hai magazine focusing on the Ghadar of 1857, it is refreshing to see serious effort being put into freeing scholarship from Euro-centric biases.
Challenge before us is to popularize Ghadar Jari Hai magazine and other similar media initiatives so that Indian history and thought material can be rescued from the euro-centric rendition.
Yours,
Prof. Bharat Seth
IIT Bombay
Dear Editor,
After attaining independence in 1947, the citizens of this great nation consciously or unconsciously accepted Democratic Republic as a system of governance. Theoretically, Democratic Republic through ‘RIGHT TO VOTE’ provides equal opportunity-liberty-right to contest election and to cast his/her vote in favour of the candidate nominated by himself/herself only to every voter of the constituency/electoral college in particular and of the country in general.
In order to get rid of the slavery of the political parties, there is an urgent need to give birth to Revolutionary Democratic Movement in India in particular and in the world in general. For this purpose one has to mobilize each one of one hundred and ten crores Indians mentally and physically. Publication of ‘Ghadar Jari Hai’ may certainly prove effective in mobilizing one hundred and ten crores Indians and in giving birth to Revolutionary Democratic Movement in India. It would be more effective if every issue of the magazine, ‘Ghadar Jari Hai’, is released through Press Conference highlighting the objectives and programmes of the Abhayan.
With best wishes and heartiest regard.
Yours sincerely,
Jag Pal Singh
Meerut
Dear Editor,
I would like to congratulate you for this great initiative. Going through the inaugural issue of this journal, reinforced the conviction in me that what is being attempted through this journal is arguably the most important need of the times for us Indians — the development of modern Indian thought. As you have so cogently argued in the editorial, this is needed to address the problem of ending the arbitrariness of power and the colonial style plunder in new and old forms. In your Editorial you argue succinctly for the necessity for direct democracy and a people centric economy in its place.
Indians are second to none in nothing. When we enquire more deeply into our past, we will see that Indians have contributed in all fields of knowledge. Yet the colonialists never stopped for a moment from spreading the notion that Indians are backward, uncultured, in need of the civilisational “assistance” of the white man, in the form of their rule, their education system, their theories etc. What is really tragic is that a section of Indians, took up this propaganda, and adopted it as their own. It is also tragic that we are ruled today by precisely this section of Indians.
It is not without significance that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, while receiving his honorary doctoral degree at the Oxford University, thanked the British for the “gifts” of the judiciary, and the Indian Administrative Services (IAS), two of the instruments of the “rule of law” and “good governance”. These institutions were established precisely to carry out the plunder of India and legalise this plunder. There is great need to explain to the younger generation, the origin and evolution of these institutions as well.
It is extremely important to have pride in the revolutionary and progressive heritage of our motherland. A thick fog has covered up this heritage, the fog of Eurocentrism. I am so confident that this magazine will contribute to clearing this fog.
In the Indian community in Canada, to which I belong, the word Ghadar immediately strikes a deep emotional chord. A century ago, around the time of the 50th anniversary of the 1857 Ghadar, Indian revolutionaries abroad formed the Hindustani Ghadar Party to organize for revolutionary overthrow of colonial rule. Their heroic words and deeds will always inspire successive generations of Indians. Later on, in the 1970’s, my younger brother, the late Hardial Bains, led in the work of organising the Indian revolutionaries abroad in the Hindustani Ghadar Party (Organisation of Indian Marxist Leninists Abroad) to uphold the legacy of the Ghadar of 1857 and carry it to completion in contemporary conditions. That struggle still continues.
The enemies of the Indian people ardently hope that the Indian people will give up their Ghadar, give up their “jameer” (conscience) and accept the present system as the last word. That the Ghadar continues is evident from the ongoing struggle of the Indian people. I am sure that the best of Indian minds will contribute in the field of thought material, through the pages of this path breaking journal, to show the way forward for the workers and peasants, women and youth, and all the oppressed peoples and nations constituting our Hindostan.
With revolutionary greetings
Gurmit Kaur
Toronto