Wednesday 13 June 2018

Smt Roy and Gandhi (2)

 14 June 2016 at 17:01
Shrimati Arundhati Roy is now alomg with some comrades proving that Gandhiji despised the Africans, and was deeply racist.
I am amazed at these people. Does one draw the best one can and work towards building a nation's identity and confidence and goodness. Or does one search for ways to demean, reduce people far greater than oneself, and thereby try to prove one's own scholarship and greatness.
Give me my village people, and their essential sense of culture anyday.
Comments
Aparna Krishnan She's still going strong. Thats her way to Name and Fame !
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Dhandapani Murugesan They are paid for that; we cant expect simplest honesty from them
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Vijayvithal Jahagirdar She is an excellent and emotional writer and many who have read hear refuse to even listen to the other side..
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Naveen Manikandan Periasamy I'm not sure about her writing credentials. Her 'The God of small things' can be safely confined to the garbage bin.
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Dhandapani Murugesan It is a mediocre novel ; her anti indian stand is all drawing attentions from leftists and separatists
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Zulfi Haider Why do we turn people as 'Gods'; what is it about us that diefication is the only way for us? Why can't our hero's have few blemishes? Gandhi was a great man, very grate man, sure, but can he not have made mistakes, held beliefs and views that in todays world we would question? Gandhi's praise of the village was thoroughly challenged by Ambedkar, and would be challenged by many today too. That does not mean i dont deeply respect the man and the way he lived his life, what he stood for! I salute him and yet I believe i can and in very valid ways critique the 'father of the nation.
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Dhandapani Murugesan Gandhism is Always for criticisms : we can argue on his principles; but he was symbol of humanity and non violence; Roy's accusations of racist cant be accepted by anyone with simple lohic
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Aparna Krishnan who will not have blemishes Zulfi ? some god maybe. gandhi tabled them before everyone else. But 1. the whole truth needs to be tabled, and not some single remark. 2. a person can err and correct, and then that has to be also traced. 3. if someone is intrinsically great, and has much to offer the people in terms of direction and inspiration, the critique needs to be placed in that context. Smt Arundhati has defaulted on every responsible count.
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Mohanakrishnan Gopalakrishnan According to Gandhi, he had learned and grown over the years and has corrected his earlier views. So according to him, if he has held contradictory views on a topic, he should be held for his latest view. And not for his earlier stands that he himself found erroneous and corrected.
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Aparna Krishnan yes. and that holds for each of us. So Smt Roy, proves nothing by out-of-context quotes from the past, without the timeline. Also, her agenda is the matter is very intriguing. What will she get out of making a strawman out of a man who has inspired and continues to inspire millions.
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Vijayvithal Jahagirdar Every person has blemishes and should be cross examined. The charge that Rajmohan brings against arundhati is that she wilfully suppressed information to construct a strawman image of gandhi which she can then attack..
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Afsan Chowdhury This upper class elitist Westernized pontificating class is everywhere. I once got into an argument in Canada with some Indians who said that Gandhi learnt all about his social values from Africa. In fact a book exists on that I was told. I said that its not Gandhi who means much to me but the idea that he had to travel all the way to Africa to have a conscience is seriously overdoing it. I think I said, " Stop feeling guilty about the fact that you left India and now can't accept that the same India inspired Gandhi." Of course he learnt and practiced much in Africa but to say he learnt it all is more about the speaker's self and self doubt than Gandhi's life. Thanks
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Aparna Krishnan This english speaking self aggrandizing crowd is a pestilence.
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Afsan Chowdhury Aparna Krishnan Love your comment though I have many such friends. But fundamentally, life style should be an issue when one talks of values. Thanks
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Vijayvithal Jahagirdar Afsan Chowdhury Is your friend referring to Ruskin's "Unto the Last" which Gandhi later translated as "sarvodaya"? Gandhi was certainly influenced by the book but was it the first and only influence? Before Ruskin he was influenced by His friends and colleagues in Africa, Before that by those in England who tried to convert him to Christianity and before that by the values of his parents and his community...
Each laid a foundation for the next stage of Gandhi's development.
Leaders like Gokhale helped build on that foundation and even after he came back he continued his journey of self discovery.... Saying that a single person or a single incident or a single book made the mahatma would be a gross simplification of his complexity
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Afsan Chowdhury Vijayvithal Jahagirdar What they were saying is that his social activism was directly a product of his African experience not Indian. The book was a biography exploring his days in Africa. Thanks

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