History Forum / General / General Topics / December 2006

Book on Gandhi banned

By Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
The Tribune
Friday, September 8, 2006

Chandigarh, September 7 - Close on the heels of the
controversy sparked off by two NCERT history books in
Haryana, timely action by the state government has
scuttled the possibility of unrest on account of another
book.

The government has decided to ban a book on Mahatma
Gandhi, written by Anand Prakash Madan of Panchkula, for
remarks made in it about the Father of the Nation.

Madan's book, ‘‘Mahatma Gandhi - A Curse for Bharat’’, is
in the nature of propaganda material and should under no
circumstances be compared with the NCERT books written by
historians of some repute.

In the latter books some observations were made about the
nature of the Jat rebellion in North India at the fag end
of Mughal rule. The Opposition INLD twisted the strictly
academic exercise suitably to corner the state
government, which fell into the trap rather easily.

Madan's book, on the other hand, is full of invectives
against the Mahatma and can well qualify for a textbook
for the training of Hindu fanatics. The title of the
book, brought out by a Delhi-based publisher, is itself
suggestive of the contents and so is the cover. The word
Mahatma is defaced by a red line cutting right through
the word to show that Madan did not agree with the
appellation given to Gandhiji by Tagore. Gandhiji is
portrayed as anti-Hindu while Jinnah gets a pat on the
back from the writer for being a "reasonable man". Nehru,
too, is not spared and is written off as a dandy.

The government, "after carefully going through the book",
has come to the conclusion that it contains
"objectionable and derogatory" remarks against Mahatma
Gandhi and "tends to promote feelings of enmity, hatred
and ill-will between different communities".

The government has found the publication an offence under
Section 153-A of the IPC. The government, in exercise of
powers under sub-section (1) of Section 95 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973, has decided that every copy of
the book in Haryana will be forfeited with immediate
effect.

A notification in this regard is being issued tomorrow.
It is not really too bad for the writer, who may actually
have written the book only to get himself some publicity.
What he may not have bargained for is a police case,
which is going to be registered by the Panchkula police
against him soon.

More at:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060908/haryana.htm#1

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