Dear Editor,
How time flies! To think that Ghadar Jari Hai is completing five years of its exciting life is as much a matter of pride and satisfaction for its multifarious readers as for its editor and his editorial staff. I have no hands-on experience of bringing out journals on time but I do, rather did, have some experience of deadlines and working with colleagues. So my admiration for you and your team continues to be high.
Dear Editor,
How time flies! To think that Ghadar Jari Hai is completing five years of its exciting life is as much a matter of pride and satisfaction for its multifarious readers as for its editor and his editorial staff. I have no hands-on experience of bringing out journals on time but I do, rather did, have some experience of deadlines and working with colleagues. So my admiration for you and your team continues to be high.
GJH makes one proud of his or her Indian inheritance and induces him/her to know more about it and every next issue of GJH fulfils that desire in a larger or lesser measure.
Wishing GJH a long, long life and its editorial staff the necessary initiative and strength to sustain it.
Having been an admiring reader of Ghadar Jari Hai right from its first issue, I must confess to a feeling of dismay at receiving the rather thin copy of its Jan-March 2012 issue. It felt thin to touch but its contents, as usual, made up for its thinness. Like all its earlier issues, this one also carried weighty and thought provoking articles.
Congratulations to the Editor and his editorial colleagues for continuing to keep the good work going.
I was particularly struck by the Cover Story Angels and Demons in Indian Thought written by the editor of the journal, Shri S. Raghavan. I do not claim to understand and appreciate the philosophical nuances of everything said in the article but cannot help admiring the limpid prose style of presentation. The second paragraph of the piece is, in my opinion, one of the best pieces of English prose that I have read. Keep it up.
Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Pleasure and Pain, and for that matter, on the physical plane, Tall and Short, Stout and Lean are concepts, in which one cannot live without the other. Each lends meaning and dimension to the other. There are no absolutes in these concepts. Raghavan’s lead article provokes even lazy minds like mine to think a little more deeply about these abstruse concepts. Hope the editor receives more worthwhile comments from other readers which will fertilise thinking, with particular reference to abiding Indian thought on these matters.
T S Sankaran
Chennai
Dear Editor,
My very best wishes to Ghadar Jari Hai on its 5th anniversary.
I think it is making a very important contribution by spreading the realization that the ghadar needs to continue until we achieve full independence, especially mental independence, best described as true swaraj. Please keep it up!
C. K. Raju
Malaysia
Dear Editor,
On the 5th anniversary of the founding of Ghadar Jari Hai we are commemorating an idea born 105 years ago, but as yet not fully realized – that India (and by that token the Indian Subcontinent) should progress and develop in the light of its rich, variegated, enlightened heritage. Colonization and foreign domination no doubt profoundly impacted on the morale and self-confidence of the Indian peoples. They generated demoralization and despair. The British, who ruled India for more than a hundred years, bequeathed egregious problems of social and political nature. When they left, the Subcontinent had been partitioned into two separate states, India and Pakistan. The subsequent relationship between the two states has been marred by wars, fear and suspicion. In 1971, Pakistan was further divided into two as its eastern wing broke away to become Bangladesh. We have to deconstruct the colonial legacy and analyse the post-colonial period to find out what went wrong.
However, it is imperative that we do not begin an exercise in myth-building about golden ages. There is no need to conceal our own failures to address the aspirations of our people to a dignified and meaningful life. Equally, there is no need to pander to national pride or religious arrogance, just as it is vital that we expose the double standards and manipulative nature of the colonial intervention and experience. Ghadar Jari Hai can play that historical role in setting the record straight.
Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed
Professor Emeritus of Political Science
Stockholm University
And Honorary Senior Fellow
Institute of South Asian Studies,
National University of Singapore
Dear Editor,
I must congratulate you and your GJH Team for continuing your campaign to fight Eurocentric distortions in the field of History of Science and Technology. GJH also fights the saffron version of History of Science and Technology. At the same time it does highlight the great achievements of Indian science in various fields.
I personally feel that we need to do more in emphasizing the importance of Traditional Knowledge Systems as it has been denigrated by the western science and also belittled and ignored by the elite tradition of Indian science.
I think we also need to emphasize its relevance and importance today. In fact, we can provide an alternative model of eco-friendly and equitable model of development in contrast to the Indian Government’s model of giving total freedom to the multinationals who have become richer by exploiting mineral resources in the tribal land and depriving them of their livelihood and destroying their environment and culture. The result is Naxalism. We need to develop new models of development which will use traditional technologies and local resources without damaging the environment.
I would also like to convey a personal message to the GJH team as also its readers that old models of communism have failed even in Russia and China as also elsewhere. The Indian version of socialism has also failed miserably. The proletarian revolution we wanted to bring about during our adolescence now seems to be a dream that can not materialize. I feel Gandhi’s utopian swaraj seems to be more practicable and desirable. Even in our personal lives we should be able to share our wealth with the poor people. If we are able to combine Gandhi’s swaraj and the ecofriendly and equitable model of Socio economic development, I think the world would be a better place to live with more harmony and less disparity. I hope the GJH will be in the vanguard of this new revolution (Ghadar).
Best wishes
D P Agrawal
Almora
Dear Editor,
I am delighted to learn that GJH is completing five years. At a time when all opposition to the market consensus is deemed cantankerous, it is even more important to have contesting voices that reveal the crevices where uncomfortable truths lie. Having one’s say is almost as important as where it reaches and I laud GJH for having its say in loud and full measure.
Warm regards
Mahmood Farooqui
Delhi