People's Democracy

  Secular Historiography Still Under Attack

Nalini Taneja

MOST people think that with the RSS defeated and a secular party at the helm of affairs, secular historians can breathe easy and secular historiography is now safe from attack by the goons of the RSS. That this simply cannot be taken for granted is clear from the recent orchestrated attack by the RSS and its media on senior teacher, Zahoor Siddiqi, of School of Open Learning, Delhi University. A vilification campaign against the said teacher is going on in Panchjanya, the RSS mouth piece, and in the Jagran owned TV channel, which has been organising so-called discussions by ‘experts’ like Tarun Vijay of Panchjanya and leading member of the RSS think tank to not just to misreport what has actually been written by Zahoor Siddiqi in the reading material prepared for the correspondence course of the university, but also to falsify history itself.

The Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) of Delhi University has issued a strong press release on the matter (see box) and is also writing to the university officials. As the press release makes clear the reading material targeted is not new, and neither is the attack on it by the RSS a first time attack. Similar attempts were made in 1979 and 1983, questions were raised by RSS linked MPs in parliament, and the usual vilification with peppering of words like ‘sons of Macaulay’ and ‘agents of madrassas’ was carried out through out the city of Delhi and in national newspapers. It is to the credit of the Department of History that it had stood steadfast in defense of secular historiography and academic freedom of a teacher. Under the headship of Prof D N Jha, the well known historian, the department unanimously defended the reading material, and a report clearly stating that there was not only nothing unobjectionable but also nothing factually wrong in the material being objected to by the RSS was sent to the university and the then vice chancellor, Moonis Raza.

One can of course then wonder what all the fuss is about once again — except that by now we are only too familiar with the fascist Goebelsian methods perfected by the RSS over time, and that it is not willing to lose any opportunity. The teacher, Zahoor Siddiqi, has now retired, and the RSS probably thinks the university and teachers organisations will perhaps not take that much of an interest. He has, of course, impeccable secular and Left credentials. He has taken the initiative to bring out an Urdu fortnightly Altamash, which obviously is Left and anti-communal, and he has also been an active member of the BJP Harao Manch.

The RSS has sent a legal notice to Zahoor Siddiqi, as well as to the university and the college, the main points of which are that he has “distorted” history with reference to the RSS, and also the Indian Constitution, made certain negative references about Sardar Patel etc. In other words, the RSS thinks he must be penalised for showing the RSS and its leaders as communal, for referring to constitutional debates which did not allow for greater democratic content, and for pointing towards the role of Godse brothers in the Gandhi murder — all of which, as we well know, are commonplace facts available in all secular history texts, including textbooks prescribed in the university.  Zahoor Siddiqi had quoted some of these in the preparation of the reading material.

Dinanath Batra, convenor of the RSS history cell, has in a pamphlet called the reading material a “serious criminal conspiracy to distort history”. He has called for meetings, demonstrations and using all other avenues of protest they think suitable for expressing their anger to the Delhi University VC.

While the Democratic Teachers’ Front has come out in Zahoor Siddiqi’s defense, the same cannot be said for the college and the university, whose definition of academic freedom is that it is a teacher concern what he/she writes and says!

This, as we can clearly see, is an attitude that has broad academic, political and legal implications. Any reading material, published by the university, and circulated by it must be assumed to have the sanction of the university, and the university must hold itself accountable for it. An academic institution must defend academic freedom against any unlawful and unwarranted attacks. Such defense is not the responsibility of the teacher alone, who has written or delivered a lecture or made a presentation at a seminar etc in the service of scholarship and his academic contribution to the institution.

On the flip side, any reading material which may be communal and against the spirit of the Constitution, and which is prepared by any individual teacher or department, and is being circulated in the name of the university, must not only not be defended, it must be withdrawn after adopting the proper procedures and ascertaining its unsuitability. This is the real meaning of academic freedom. 

An institution of repute cannot absolve itself of defending secular history or letting communal history be circulated in its name, in the name of academic freedom of the teacher concerned.   

If the circulation of RSS sponsored textbooks is being tolerated in our country today it is a reflection of the weakness of our secularism, of the lack of political will of the government and the bourgeois political leadership, not because academic freedom demands that that myths be taught in the name of history in schools.

Zahoor Siddiqi has prepared the reading material as part of his duties as a teacher of the university, and was assigned this work by his institution, through his department. His is not a speech made at some open forum or a book published by him on his own, which may be a matter of citizens’ concern, but with which the university officially has an option to involve itself or not. This is an officially approved reading material belonging to the university, and circulated by it. Moreover, it is material, which already having come under controversy earlier, has been unanimously supported and approved of by the History Department of the university in 1983. The Delhi University is therefore, bound, from all points of view, to defend it against motivated communal attacks by the RSS, and to stand by the teacher. 

It is, therefore, regrettable that in this case the university is yet to make its position clear and to take any steps to defend Zahoor Siddiqi against vilification and intimidation by RSS linked goons.