tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post340838281295118557..comments2024-03-29T12:59:00.612+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: On liberal reformers, Muslim modernists, subaltern feminists and Rediff.com: a conversation with Ramachandra GuhaJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-52405027609275633282012-09-20T22:01:17.742+05:302012-09-20T22:01:17.742+05:30Jai: I know this is an old post.
But re-reading th...Jai: I know this is an old post.<br />But re-reading this interview was such fun. Guess you ought to give this more footage.<br /><br />I got around to re-reading it today after discussing something closely related with a friend.<br /><br />Some great vignettes -<br /><br />1. The first universities in this country were founded at around the same time that Bahadur Zafar was battling the British.<br /><br />2. The sheer wonder of being Rammohun Roy - This guy was born in the 1780s! You almost sense the first intellectual meeting of the Orient and Occident when you think about him. Imagine his shock when he'd have visited England in early 19th century. It's a bit like Gulliver traveling to Brobdingnag or Lilliput.<br /><br />3. And yeah. I agree with Guha on Visveswaraya being a very glaring omission.<br /><br />shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-25533623143890183382012-01-11T09:53:28.168+05:302012-01-11T09:53:28.168+05:30BTW, it is not only Gandhi who referred to Tagore ...BTW, it is not only Gandhi who referred to Tagore as the Poet - in those days, he was very often addressed thus (or Kavi in Bengali), both in oral and in written conversation, as a mark of respect. I don't think sarcasm was involved - to my mind, it is a bit like the way Sherlock Holmes referred to Irene Adler as "the woman."<br /><br />Interesting points of view, though I suspect the final basis for selection was biased towards literary merit. And any list like this will always have exceptions.Anustuphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13513484100213091839noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-36640656992395515122010-11-09T12:15:18.085+05:302010-11-09T12:15:18.085+05:30Hi. (This is not connected to the post.) I'd l...Hi. (This is not connected to the post.) I'd like to read something on books from the National Book Trust (NBT) treasure and Nehru Bal Pustakalaya from you, considering you have a large readership and also mainly because I don't know too many people who have read these books as children. Possible for you to highlight them? I read some of them as a child (I'm an '80s-born; my father brought me up on Indian literature for children more than the usual Cinderella and Snow White fare) - Ruskin Bond's World Of Trees, Uma Anand's Be Prepared and Mahashweta Devi's Ekkori's Dream. It'll be great to have you write something on them.Mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07206454739634162901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-16149269365197641372010-11-09T12:05:40.241+05:302010-11-09T12:05:40.241+05:30Sorry. Just discovered that it is a four-volume wo...Sorry. Just discovered that it is a four-volume work though I possess only the first two volumes (thanks to the family heirloom!)shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-78522334146550200412010-11-09T11:48:19.471+05:302010-11-09T11:48:19.471+05:30But Nehru aside, I hope some young scholar does a ...<i>But Nehru aside, I hope some young scholar does a good, one-volume anthology of Rajagopalachari’s political writing</i><br /><br />I guess Guha must be aware of this. But a two-volume collection of all his political writings (fifties onwards) does exist. Titled <i>Satyam Eva Jayate</i> published by Bharatan publications in 1961. Over 1000 pages in all priced at Rs.12!shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-75304655418851513352010-11-09T01:43:34.818+05:302010-11-09T01:43:34.818+05:30A nice read, Jai. The first question was the best ...A nice read, Jai. The first question was the best of the lot (ignored by a battery of journos who had been lined up by PenguinPR). And of courser your proddings on gandhi, ambedkar and golwalkar (how you missed a query on jinnah is surprising when everyone wanted to score a point on inclusion of Jinnah and exclusion of any leftistP) were well thought-out. You should join a media school as a guest lecturer,. It will do good to your bank and prospective media thinktank. (kuch jyada tareef toh nahi ho gayi,bhaijaan; since I am a little tipsy right now).<br /><br />ps: being an old school journalist, I sincerely avoid use of 'very' but I feel this comment deserved the adjective at least twice. I need to learn the art of interviewing from you, boss.Hill Goathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17602386756415628453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-44345022284718635172010-11-09T00:07:56.932+05:302010-11-09T00:07:56.932+05:30Swami Vivekananda influenced people but he could n...Swami Vivekananda influenced people but he could not influence himself.<br />Vivekananda hated hypocrisy. But he himself, was a hypocrite, like hundreds of other world leaders.ybr (alias ybrao a donkey)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13635995478285822763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-153562180186326772010-11-08T23:47:22.966+05:302010-11-08T23:47:22.966+05:30I loved the way he replied to your query concernin...I loved the way he replied to your query concerning rediff troll. He could've taken the bait and launched into a tirade against the growing "intolerance" among middle-class youth. Instead, he wisely chose to underplay it and question the representativeness of the sample. <br /><br />That's what I like best about him. He is probably the least ideological among all the liberal commentators one gets to hear.<br /><br />I wish he had also discussed the writings of Western intellectuals who have significantly influenced Indian intellectual life. Thomas MacCaulay and the Sanskritist William Jones for instance.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-56204604092914462652010-11-08T15:59:06.060+05:302010-11-08T15:59:06.060+05:30Waiting you hear your review on the Difficulty of ...Waiting you hear your review on the Difficulty of Being Good by Gurcharan DasTTGnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-79495247573131633612010-11-08T14:08:29.727+05:302010-11-08T14:08:29.727+05:30You know, this Guha guy may be a popular historian...You know, this Guha guy may be a popular historian in India. But having read bits of his new book, he is almost completely out of his depth on most non-Hindu issues and shapers of modern India. It's just that he toes the prevailing "convented" brand of secularism (or anti-Hindutavism that demands an equal and countervailing rejection of religion by other believers, only since it seems fair to him that if he is willing to bash saffron others should do likewise in what he thinks is a parallel context), so he gets a lot of media oxygen. He is quite shallow, but he works to keep the Indian peace. So in that sense, some filmi type shallowness is good for us all. More power to Guha. Just let him not pretend he has any intellectual standing beyond the backbenchers who need to be told that non-Hindus are not evilAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com