INDIAN INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH INTO TRUE HISTORY

Newsletter No 31 of 16 June 1997

1 News and current affairs

1.1 Our Day of Remembrance

In our newsletter 29 we called upon you to observe 25 October as a Day of Remembrance in memory of 150,000 Hindu men women and children who were killed by Muslims in Noakhali ( now in Bangladesh ).

Two minute silence was observed on that day by Arya Samaj of Ealing, West London, and our friends in RSS Shakhas at Mandir Restaurant, West London and Milton Keynes.

Our friend Mr Arvind Ghosh of Houston, Texas, America has published Mr Godbole's information sheets as a booklet and has also put it on Internet.

1.2 Around London Tour of places associated with our freedom fighters

* On 21 December 1996 a special tour was arranged for Mrs Dhadaphale and Mrs Khot both of Mumbai ( Bombay ). Though it was a very cold day Mr Godbole came all the way from Bedford. The two ladies are grandmothers, but they were prepared to put up with the hardships to see places associated with our freedom fighters.

During the tour Mr Godbole realised that bus 134 is convenient for reaching Shyamji Krishnavarma's house and the old India House. Get the bus at Archway tube station. It goes past Highgate tube station and turns right into Musewell Hill Road. We can get down at the second stop. No. 60 is nearby. Also while coming back we can get on the same bus going in opposite direction. We pass Highgate tube station on the left, pass the traffic lights at the junction of Shepherds Hill, get down at the second stop. Walk to Cromwell Avenue and find number 65. That is the old India House.

* Dr Bilolikar of Enfield, Middlesex wanted to show to his parents the house where Veer Savarkar lived during 1906-1909. He asked for the information on E Mail to one of his friends in America, who gave Mr Godbole's phone number. Bilolikar accordingly contacted Mr Godbole and obtained the necessary details..

* A second video of this tour is being prepared.

1.3 Taj Mahal : Facts and Fantasies

A slide show on above subject was made by Mr Godbole at Glasgow on 27 April 1997. It was held at Anderson Mel Melap Community Centre, Berkley St. Thirty people attended.

1.4 Visitors

* Our friend Arvind Ghosh was in London on his way to India. He met Mr Godbole on 3 February 1997. He gets quite a response to his research work on the Internet. He requested copies of Mr Godbole’s research on Gandhi

Murder Trial, as this too can be made available on the Internet.

* Miss Nandini Gondhalekar is studying for Ph.D at Cambridge University. Her subject is History of Hindu Mahasabha. She met Mr Godbole once and he has promised her all the help he can give..

1.5 Mr Godbole's visit to India

Mr Godbole was in India from 3 to 26 April to attend some family functions. He delivered public speeches as follows :-

(i) Rationalism of Veer Savarkar

10 May at Vartakashram, Pune. 50 people attended

23 May at Savarkar Memorial, Dadar, Mumbai ( Bombay ) 125 people attended. Part of the speech was shown on TV.

(ii) Around London tour of places associated with Veer Savarkar & other revolutionaries

14 May at Bharat Itihas Samshodhak Mandal, Pune. 45 people attended

24 May at Institute for Oriental Studies, Thane. Again about 45 people attended.

(iii) Taj Mahal Shavalaya ( tomb ) or Shivalaya ( Shiva temple ) ?

18 May at Masurashram, Goregav ( East ), Mumbai. 40 people attended.

* Mr Godbole has obtained a copy of Manusmruti with a translation in Marathi.

* During his visit Mr Godbole met Prof Asnani, a Sindhi gentleman who worked for United Nations and is now retired. He has internet facility and is going to act as a source of information for like minded people. He has started a reference library. If you need any information please contact him. He is compiling a list of staunch Hindus all over the world. His address is :

Prof Asnani

822 Sindh Colony

Aundh

Pune 411007

Telephone No PUNE 380347

E Mail address asnani@giaspn01.vsnl.net.in

If you visit Pune, Prof Asanani's house is not far from Pune University entrance gate

* Mr Godbole also met Mr Tasgavkar, a travel agent who is interested in promoting our Around London Tour.

2. History today

2.1 Does teaching of History matter ?

Irish Potato Famine

On 13 October 1996 John Burns and Eamon Lynch reported from New York for Sunday Times. They say :- US ' clarifies Irish history '

Children in schools across America look set to be taught that the Irish potato famine last century was an act of genocide by the British government, comparable to the Holocaust. To the dismay of British diplomats, Bob Menendez, a New Jersey congressman, has introduced a bill to Congress which would force the American education department to include the famine in its national curriculum. Last week it emerged that schools in New Jersey and New York state have already been forced by legislation to include the famine in studies of genocide. But now it appears the topic could be included in a " human rights " curriculum right across the United States. Pennsylvania and Illinois are already considering bills to make the topic compulsory. While politicians in several other states - many of them seeking to win Irish-American votes in next month's election - are also backing the scheme.

The " human rights " curriculum is taught to children as young as eight, and includes lessons on slavery and the Holocaust.

Menendez, a Cuban-American, supported by at least two senior congressmen, is proposing that primary and secondary school students throughout America be educated about the famine and the positive impact mass emigration of famine refugees had in the United States.

" The Irish famine teaches an important lesson about intolerance and inhumanity and the indifference of the British government to the potato blight that led to the mass starvation of 1 million people." Menendez said.

Prominent American supporters of Sinn Fein are also involved in the " famine as genocide " campaign.

Joe Crowley, New York state representative who has attended fund-raising events for Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, was one of the sponsors of the New Jersey bill. " It is important that our students be educated as to the factual causes of one of the greatest calamities of humankind," said Crowley. " Hunger is still used as a tool of subjugation."

British diplomats in America are horrified by the portrayal of the Irish famine as a genocide comparable to the extermination of Jews by the Nazis. George Pataki, the New York governor, directly blamed the British ruling class of the 1840s for the famine when he signed a bill introducing its study into schools in his state last week. In the presence of Mary Robinson, the Irish president Pataki said : " History teaches us that the great Irish hunger was not the result of a massive failure of the Irish potato crop but rather was the result of a deliberate campaign by the British to deny the Irish people the food they needed to survive." His comments were rejected by Peter Reid, an official in the British consulate in New York. " The famine was terrible tragedy, but 150 years on I know of no serious historian who argues that those people lost their lives due to some malicious intent on the part of the British government" he said.

A group of Irish-American lobbyists, called the Irish Famine Curriculum Committee, is leading the efforts to have the Great Hunger of 1845-1850 studied throughout America. It has drawn up a school textbook quoting extracts from books by historians who support the " famine as genocide " theory.

.

Alert as the British are there was a flood of letters to the editors. Here are some letters in the Daily Telegraph of 2 April 1997.

* Ian Hughes, QC says " Assemblyman Joseph Crowley of New York ( letter, March 31 ) accuses the British Ambassador to the US, as well as British journalists, of a grossly distorted reaction " to the introduction in October 1996 of a law requiring students to be taught about the Irish potato famine of the 1840s. In asserting that his motive was simply to " raise the factual causes of the mass starvation and continue discussion of its lesson for humanity " Assemblyman Crowley is being disingenuous. The press release issued by Governor George Pataki, who signed the instrument into law, said : " History teaches us that the Great Irish Hunger was not the result of a massive failure of the Irish potato crop, but rather the result of a deliberate campaign by the British to deny the Irish people the food they needed to survive." History teaches nothing of the sort. However, I doubt that the students of New York will be taught that the havoc was caused by a then unrecognised potato fungus, nor of the efforts of successive British governments and private charities to cope with the unfolding tragedy, such as the importation from America in 1845 of £100,000 worth of maize as a precaution; the prompt dispatch of government scientists to try to discover the cause of the blight; the suspension and repeal of the Corn Laws, which had hindered the free importation of grain; price controls; food depots; public works and relief missions. By August 1847, three million people a day were being fed at public expense. With hindsight, these efforts were wholly inadequate, but it was not British policy to starve the Irish.

Assemblyman Crowley has espoused an unpleasant policy of political correctness, victim politics and the distortion of history. He should not be surprised at the adverse reaction to his offensive allegations in this country."

* David Hart of Harrogate wrote, " .... The propensity to reduce this ( and other aspects of Irish history ) to a simplistic lowest common denominator is rapidly producing a Disneyesque view of history which bears little resemblance to reality. We may smile indulgently at the antics of American politicians currying favour based on naive historical " realities " and imagined personal ancestry. But it becomes less amusing when their highly selective views of history give encouragement and credibility to political extremists collecting dollars in the bars of Boston..... "

* Art Howe of Thorton-Cleveleys, Lancashire wrote, " .. The school children of New York state would perhaps better understand the reality of racial subjugation if Assemblyman Crowley organised a school " field trip " to search for the last of the Mohicans. During this trip they could discuss the Massacre at Wounded Knee and the Dawes Act of 1887, which forcibly migrated Native Americans to the western side of the Mississippi. He could tell them how citizenship of the United States of America was not granted to its original inhabitants until 1924, almost one-and-a-half centuries after the Declaration of Independence and over 130 years after his own state had ratified the Bill of Rights and the constitution."

* Flt Lt Frederick Weston of Copthorne, Shropshire wrote, " Assemblyman Crowley states that the school textbooks of New York may require more of a

" stare " back at history. Surely he need not lift his head much above his own doorstep to " stare " at his forebears' treatment of American natives. Here is the world's worst example of genocide, of the annihilation of 32 nations of American natives, of the starvation of millions of people by the destruction of their whole basis of life (buffalo) and by the movement of whole populations to die in inhospitable and inappropriate land. A story of treachery, lies and complete denial of human rights. This story makes Stalin's treatment of the Russian people sound like a Sunday school picnic. It can be compared only to Hitler's philosophy of the " Final Solution. "

Surely the great nation of the United States of America should disclaim any support for such evil small-minded men, whose sole object seems to be encourage hatred in the minds of the young.

Could I end this letter by pointing out that only in 1972 did Congress give recognition to the American natives as an ethnic race ? "

* Tony Douglass of Chiddlingfold, Surrey wrote, " Assemblyman Crowley says " We must all reconcile ourselves to our past... " The problem is deciding which bit of our past we adopt ...... To look at perceived wrongs of centuries ago and apportion blame to today's inhabitants of certain countries is as wicked as it is illogical. ...... "

2.2 Horrors of white rule in Australia

On 11 April 1995 Roger Maynard reported from Sydney for The Times. He says :- ' Stolen ' Aborigines sue over childhood trauma.

One of the most shameful episodes in the history of modern Australia will go before the courts today in a case that could ultimately win compensation for thousands of Aborigines.

Six Northern Territory Aborigines will issue a writ in the High Court claiming that the " assimilation " policy in which mainly mixed-race children were removed from their families, was constitutionally invalid. The challenge also alleges that the programme was in breach of the International Genocide Convention, and argues that the state should make amends to those who became known as the " stolen generation."

The " assimilation " policy was introduced in the 1920s and continued largely unquestioned for 40 years. Thousands of children were taken from their homes in the hope that they would integrate into white man's culture. The official view was that full-blooded Aborigines would die out and the mixed- race children would eventually merge into white society. Removing the children from their families and placing them in church-run institutions was seen as merely helping the process.

Such attitudes produced a generation of people who grew up in a grim, unloving environment where food was scarce, bed was a blanket on the floor and minor misdemeanours incurred vicious beatings.

Hilda Muir, who is one of the six Aborigines mounting today's challenge, remembers every detail of the morning a policeman came to take her away in 1928 when she was eight. She was known as a " brownskin " the daughter of an aboriginal mother and an unknown white father.

She never saw her mother again. Miss Muir's new home was the Kahlin Compound, one of the first centres set up for the mixed-race in Darwin, and described in the novel Capricornia by Xavier Herbert as a " miniature city of whitewashed hovels crowded on a barren hill ". The children were allowed outside on one day a year - May 24, Empire Day. Miss Muir became a nurse at the local hospital. It was 50 years, however, before she made her way back to her family home in the Gulf of Carpentaria, only to learn that her mother had dies the previous month.

Such tales are common among Australia's middle-aged and elderly Aborigines. The filing of the High Court writ represents the " culmination of a tragic, and in many cases, forgotten history ", according to Wes Miller, who helped to put the case together.

The challenge will claim that the Northern Territory administration committed " cultural genocide " because it destroyed the language and culture of Aborigines by forcibly transferring children from one group to another. The six are seeking unspecified damages for their traumatic childhood and spiritual and family loss.

If it is proved that the policy of " assimilation " was illegal, lawyers believe that thousands of Aborigines from the "stolen generation " might take legal action.

2.3 Racism in Yugoslavia

2.3.1 Racist demands by Croatians

We have heard enough about inhuman behaviour of inhabitants of former Yugoslavia. But very little has been reported about racism in that part of the world.

Eve-Ann Prentice reported for The Times on 11 April 1995. She says :-

Tudjman calls for all-white peace force in Croatia

President Tudjman of Croatia wants all non-white peace keepers removed from the former Yugoslav republic in a move that has plunged the troubled United Nations operation there into a new turmoil and which is likely to be seen as offensive by Boutros Boutros Ghali, the UN Secretary General who is Egyptian.

Dr Tudjman has told the UN that he thinks only " First World " troops understand Croatia's problems, but his position is being seen by many UN peace keepers as " old-fashioned Croatian racism ", one diplomatic source said yesterday.

The UN Protection Force ( Unprofor ) has had to change its name and mandate in Croatia to placate Dr Tudjman, who earlier this year threatened to expel it. The new, smaller force is to be called the UN Confidence Restoration Operation in Croatia ( Uncro ) to sound more Croatian.

The Croatian desire to remove African and Asian troops has caused special bitterness among Jordanian, Kenyan, Nepalese and Argentinean peace keepers who have risked life and limb trying to bring stability to the republic. Twenty-one peace keepers have been killed in Croatia in pursuit of their duties and 173 injured since the operation began in 1992.

The latest casualty was a Polish soldier who was shot dead yesterday after the Croatian army fired on a UN observation post along a demarcation line between Croatian forces and Croatian Serb fighters.

Belgian, Russian, Danish, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech and Canadian troops are also based in Croatia, and it is not clear whether Dr Tudjman regards those from the former Eastern Block as suitable.

Paul Beaver, editor of Sentinel, a defence bulletin, said : " There aren't enough white-faced troops to deal with Croatia anyway and if you look at the Somalia pullout, it as the Indians who coped with it. "

On 29 December 1995 Daily Telegraph reported :-

US colonel warns men of ' Racist Croats '

While his GIs are up to their shins in mud crossing the river Sava, an American colonel is up to his neck on controversy for speaking his mind about Bosnia, writes Robert Fox.

Col Gregory Fontenot, commanding the 1st Brigade of the 1st US Armoured Division, is reported to have warned his soldiers against the racist tendencies of the Croat population in Posavina Corridor, where his men are about to deploy. " It will be interesting to hear what you see." he told two black soldiers in his command, according to reporters present, " because the Croatians are racist ..... they kill people for the colour of their skins. "

The Wall Street Journal quoted the officer as saying : " They think I don't trust them - and they are people who kill women and children and attack their neighbours.

" They're offended by me ? Hell, I am offended that I have to come here because of all their fighting. "

Yesterday the colonel's divisional commander, Major-Gen William Nash, said he was looking into the matter. " I'm very disappointed in what I've heard. " he said.

During the UN's deployment in the Krajina region of Croatia acquired a reputation for racism. President Tudjman asked that " European forces " should be sent when he demanded a change in the UN Protection Force mandate last year.

In the Krajina, Kenyan and Nigerian soldiers were given a hard time by local Serbs as well as Croats.

During the fighting between Muslims and Croats in central Bosnia in 1993 and 1994, the local Croats acquired a gruesome reputation for two massacres, at Ahmiet and Stupni Do, in which several dozen Muslim women and children were shot, hacked and burned to death.

Col Fontenot's remarks are likely to have touched raw nerves in the Croat community round Posavnia. The area was settled in the 13th and 14th centuries by Croat missions who named it Bosnia Srebrena, Silver Bosnia. The Croats of northern Bosnia blame the Americans for persuading President Tudjman to hand over Posavina to the Serbs in order to secure peace at Dayton. So Col Fontenot, described as " an intellectual commander " appears to have added American military insult to diplomatic injury.

2.3.2 Croats Honour Fascist Soldiers

On 28 October 1996 the Independent reported : The remains of about 100 soldiers from Croatia's Second World War fascist army were reburied in a low-key ceremony alongside anti-Nazi partisans despite Jewish outrage. Some 6,000 people followed the coffins, wrapped in the Croatian national flag, to a cemetery outside the Adriatic seaside town of Omis.

A memorial ceremony there was attended by state officials. Roman Catholic priest and members of Croatia's contemporary armed forces.

Omis - Reuter.

3. Book Reviews

As promised we have separately reviewed Disastrous Twilight by Major General Shahid Hamid. The book relates to events of 1946-47 in India.

4. Truth

4.1 Why we cannot speak the truth

Daily Telegraph published a feature by Elizabeth Grice on 3 October 1995. It reads : Punished for telling the truth.

Mrs Jemi Watson had been suspended. Her crime ? She uncovered apparent discrepancies in the school caretakers' overtime claims. Later, she was dismissed on the grounds of " gross professional misconduct " for allegedly acting against the headmaster's instructions. She felt it must all be a ghastly mistake. " I naively thought when people knew the truth it would be all right".

What seems to have played a significant part in her undoing was that she had captured some of the caretakers' movements on video, and then stretched thread across the school boiler house door to prove it had not been entered

on a particular weekend. " I didn't like doing it " she told me, " but I felt it was the only way to make people see what was going on. The camera was set up in an empty classroom and left to record what I suspected."

Mrs Watson, 48, is not emphatic person. She has none of the obvious zealotry or obsessiveness that is often associated with whistle-blowing, her level stare from behind big spectacles is unusually calm.

She has had her case re-opened in a rare intervention from Mrs Gillian Shepherd, the Education Secretary, who criticised the governors for recommending her sacking, saying there was " clear evidence of bias " on the disciplinary panel. But instead of celebrating the end of four years of humiliation Mrs Watson is preparing for her next fight : to clear her name and find out why a panel was chosen which made it almost impossible to give her a fair hearing.

What kind of woman risks her livelihood to tell a story nobody apparently wants to hear ? Mrs Watson explained - as head of finance and personnel she had been asked to look at potential savings in the budget. Before long she discovered the school's three caretakers were more than doubling their pay in overtime earnings. In the year 1990-91 they were paid a total of £28,000 in overtime, on top of their combined basic wages of £23,000. They were able to claim special allowances for moving furniture, carrying frozen chips from kitchen, rolling and unrolling a thermal cover on the swimming pool and even changing light bulbs - practices for which extra payments had been allowed, as long as they were not deemed excessive, since Humberside County Council took over the running of Hull schools in 1974.

Her examination of time sheets produced " a glowing feeling of coldness as the picture opened up and I realised what they meant when they said they'd been doing it for years. " she told Radio 4's Face the Facts programme recently ( But did she ever wonder how the poor caretakers would survive on their paltry salaries ? ). When she first reported her findings to the headmaster, Roy Cooke, he was shocked and resolved to bring things under control, she said.

Then, suddenly the interest in her investigations inexplicably waned. After asking an LEA officer to conduct an enquiry, the head said there was no case to answer. " I was filled with total disbelief," she said, " It was so clear." The governors accepted the decision, and the cold-shouldering began. Her office was moved from the administrative to the outlying science block.

" My time sheets were locked up, so I couldn't do the job. Bits of my job description were taken away and given to others. I felt my personal integrity was being challenged, as well as my standing as a teacher and a member of a management team. I just came home and blew my stack at the family. Why didn't people have the moral fibre to look at the evidence ? " Some did. Ray Webster, then chairman of the governors, was disturbed by what she had to say, but others were less impressed. She describes how at a visual presentation of her findings, one governor sat pointedly with his back to the screen. Frustrated by the lack of concern, she and Webster devised the video and thread tests.

" We were up against 20 years of vested interest. We risked the wrath of the Left-wing council and the caretakers' union. We did it in full knowledge that it was the end of the line, we knew what was coming. "

She was pilloried by her critics at the school as fixated and eccentric, a product of the so called " sneak society " undermining the smooth running of a vital institution. " spy teacher points the finger" is the sort of headline that has wounded her over the breakfast table.

In November 1993, a week after the caretakers had been exonerated by a panel the head picked to look at the video evidence. Mrs Watson was suspended. Neither the head nor any members of the panel have ever publicly explained their reasons. " I felt betrayed and very isolated. I grew up believing that if you told someone something was wrong, it would be sorted out. I couldn't believe people would actively and deliberately do the opposite. For five months, most staff at the school believed that Mrs Watson was ill. She told her two teenage children what had happened, but could not bring herself to tell her elderly parents. " My parents were the sort of people who had always supported authority. As a child, if I got into trouble at school, I got into trouble at home because they thought I must have done something to deserve it. I didn't think they would understand." So every day for a year Jenni would keep up the pretence that she was working and nip out of the house, returning at her normal home-coming time. " They were lonely, frightening days when we were keeping it to ourselves.

Misfortune has brought her a new useful role. As her case became national news, others in a similar position began to contact her, and they have now formed a national a bullied teachers " support network.

She is still receiving her £32,750 salary, but her legal fees have reached £21,000 and are rising. The head has invited her to attend negotiations to consider a possible return to work with " revised " duties. But she will not go back to work unless her job description remains unaltered.

4.2 Do we want to know the truth ?

In June / July 1996 Channel 4 carried a series entitled Secret Lives exposing some unknown aspects of lives of famous people. For example, Walt Disney was a racist, and anti-women, anti union man. He worked for the FBI and ruined the lives of many actors and actresses by denouncing them as communists. Here is one reaction of a reader of Evening Standard. In his letter of 15 July S Jarrett says :- Truths we would rather not hear.

Are all heroes to be shown to have feet of clay by revision of history ?.Now we hear that George Orwel whom I had always considered he fount of all wisdom on questions of liberty and freedom of conscience, was, in his declining years, an informant for Big Brother.

He provided names of other writers and journalists he thought were " anti- British ", crypto-communists " or fellow travellers " to the secret services - in the form of an organisation with the very Orwellian sounding name, the Information Research Department.

It was a revelation about an English hero I could hardly believe ..... These are some things about great people of the past that perhaps its better not to know, even if they're true.

4.3 Gulf War Victims

It is no longer a secret that British soldiers suffered due to chemicals used in the liberation of Iraq in 1991. But why has it taken six years for the British Government to accept the truth ?

Roland Watson and Ian Cobain reported for The Express on 1 December 1996 :- MOD error caused more injuries than Saddam. Heroes Poisoned by Army Blunder.

A probe was ordered yesterday into the Gulf War Syndrome crippling thousands of heroes.

Defence Minister Nicholas Soammes announced a £1.3 million investigation and apologised for repeatedly misleading MPs.

Troops were given a cocktail of vaccines and chemicals to protect them against biological or chemical attack.

After the war many began suffering a range of illnesses respiratory disorders, neurological ailments, skin problems and memory loss. Some fathered children born with defects. If scientists can establish a link between the inoculations and the symptoms, the veterans could claim compensation running into millions ( was this the reason why the claim was repeatedly rejected ? )

The campaigners branded the move as too little, too late. Many veterans could die before compensation claims are settled.

It is claimed that nearly 1,200 UK troops have suffered since coming home from the Gulf - and experts reckon they are only the tip of the iceberg. Twenty-six have died. This compares to 42 deaths and 44 injuries sustained by British forces in the war itself. Mr Soammes admitted that dangerous pesticides were used " on a much wider scale than previously reported " and conceded that the programme set up to assess the conflicts impact on troops had been adequate. .........

Up to now the Government has insisted there was no scientific evidence to link soldiers' sufferings with their service in the Gulf. ......

.... A separate internal investigation is to be launched to discover why the advice to Ministers was flawed. It could lead to ' the disciplining or dismissal of service chiefs and MoD officials, though Mr Soammes said he would not resign over the matter.

...................

On 11 December 1996 the Daily Telegraph gave a chronology of events under the title ' Five years to force an inquiry '

One should now understand why the Indian historians are still too scared to tell truth about Taj Mahal.

5. Behaviour of Christians and Muslims today.

5.1 Scandal of the maimed beggar children

On 15 January 1997 Rahul Bedi reported from New Delhi for Daily Telegraph Saudis Deport 76 Indian Girls sold or abandoned on Mecca Pilgrimages

The authorities in Bombay were trying last night to unravel the mystery of a plane load of young Indian girls who, dazed and bedraggled and many of them scarred or maimed, arrived at the city's Sahar airport after being deported from Saudi Arabia.

Apparently abandoned or sold by their Muslim parents during a pilgrimage to Mecca, the children, some as young as six, huddled together on the floor in the arrivals lounge, after officials seemed to be taken by surprise by their arrival on the Saudi plane. Many of the children slept while the officials were deciding what to do with them.

Astonished travellers passing through the airport watched as some of the girls, all of them Bengali speaking, tried to explain their plight to police. They were safely housed overnight in a Bombay Juvenile home.

Indian embassy in Saudi capital, Riyadh, had issued emergency travel certificates to the children, on the basis of which they were allowed entry into Bombay. An embassy spokesman said the Saudis had informed India's consulate general on Jan 5 that a total of 77 children were at a deportation centre in the Saudi port of Jeddah. " Consular officials visited the deportation centre immediately to ascertain the identity of these children," he said.

Police at Bombay airport had difficulty communicating with the children, but said 60 of the 76 girls had either a broken arm or leg, burn scar across their bodies, broken teeth and hearing problems. Their hair was matted with filth. Fourteen-year old Hasina was the worst affected. Speaking through an interpreter, she haltingly told police that her hand had been amputated in Saudi Arabia, but she was unable to explain the circumstances under which it happened. Another girl, aged six, said she had lived in a mosque and begged for food. Many others said they had been taken to Saudi Arabia by their relatives for the express purpose of begging. Poor Indian parents are known to cripple or disfigure their children to make them more successful beggars.

Police said photographs of all the children would be published in newspapers and on television, particularly in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal, the eastern Indian state from which most originally came. It is hoped that their parents will respond and claim them. But social workers said there was little chance that they would be claimed, and because most of them were handicapped, emaciated and unable to speak clearly it was unlikely that they would ever be adopted. " In all likelihood they face a wretched future as beggars alongside thousands of others in Bombay " said a social worker.

A foreign office spokesman in New Delhi said the deported girls had been taken by their parents to the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Madina to perform Umrah ( pilgrimage ) and had been lured away by " unscrupulous " locals and pressed into prostitution and forced labour.

He said the Indian embassy had been on the lookout and had sought the Saudi's help in locating them.

But Special Branch officials in Bombay suspect the girls were " brought " by labour contractors, who are known to lure children away from poor parents in India for small sums of money, to work as prostitutes and labourers in the Middle East. They said about 400 boys and girls from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, who had Ben working for years.

The Saudi Arabian consulate in Bombay said it had no information about the latest deportation. But social activists said thousands of Muslim girls from all over India had been "bought" by rich Arabs with the aim of selling them to Middle Eastern sheikhs or local brothels. In the past two decades there have been several instances of minors being forcibly married to octogenarians with physical disabilities and then legally taken out of India. Once in Saudi Arabia, their passports are confiscated and they are completely at the mercy of their " masters " or " owners ". The Indian government cannot annul such marriages, as they are solemnised under the Islamic law whereby a Muslim can marry a girl as young as nine. Political fear of offending Muslims - India had 120 million - and angering Arab governments, on whom India depends heavily for oil, has so far prevented any decisive action to stamp out this trade in children. Young boys are bought and smuggled to the Middle East where they are used as camel jockeys. The boys, aged mostly between five and seven, are lashed on to the backs of camels which are then goaded to run As the animal lurches forward, the screams of the terrified child make the animal run faster. The winner is usually the one which has the most terrified child lashed to its hump.

5.2 A fatwa that could save ( Muslim ) lives.

On 3 October 1995 Jeremy Laurance reported for The Times. He says :-

Kidney failure is three to eight times more common among blacks and Asians than among whites, a result of high rates of diabetes and raised blood pressures in the ethnic groups. Their chances of a transplant, however, are disappointingly small.

The reason has been the reluctance of the 1.3 million Muslims in Britain to become organ donors. A Muslim asked to sign a donor card is likely to reply that his body belongs to God and he has no say over it. This may now change as a result of a fatwa issued during the summer by the Muslim Law Council, an authority that is to Muslims what the Vatican is to Roman Catholics.

The fatwa - essentially a religious opinion - says Muslims may donate organs, carry donor cards and permit the removal of organs from next of kin. It says a diagnosis of brain-stem death is an acceptable measure of when life ends and that doctors are to be trusted. It prohibits trading in organs.

Bad news for us!.

5.3 Killings in Arab countries

On 6 January 1997 Times reported : 60,000 dead in Arab toll of terror

About 60,000 people have been killed in the past five years in terrorist-related attacks in the Arab world, mainly in Algeria and Egypt. The Algeria toll in a conflict which Muslim extremists was 50,000. Arab interior minister said in Tunis yesterday.

Eleven journalists were also killed last year in Algeria. Both Egypt and Algeria called for greater co-operation between Arab countries and particularly with Europe to combat terrorism.

5.4 Muslim Vote Bank in Britain.

On 4 March 1997, at 0630 hrs BBC Radio 4 reported, " Kashmiri Muslims have come together and formed a pressure group. They will ask each candidate seeking election to British parliament on 1 May whether he/she will support them in their demands for a separate state of Kashmir. If they do, they will get Muslim votes. This is likely to be crucial in marginal constituencies. "

In the end Labour Party won a landslide victory ( a majority of 179 M Ps ). So Muslims cannot dictate their terms. But at last they have the vision to use their votes to their advantage. We Hindus do not even think as much!

5.5 Teaching of Christianity in schools

The weekly Observer reported on 5 January 1997 London Father Sparks School Faiths Row.

The father of a seven-year-old is demanding that his son be withdrawn from religious instructions classes in a row with an inner-city education authority over the teaching of non-Christian faiths.

Mark Salisbury wants his son, Dominic, to be taught about the Judeo-Christian faith, rather than the traditions of other religions such as Sikhs, Hindus or Islam.

Mr Salisbury, 38, a self-employed carpenter, has been waging the battle against Labour-controlled Newham council in east London for the last 18 months.

In addition to withdrawing his son from classes at Ravenscroft primary school in Canning Town, Mr Salisbury had also asked for a full list of parents so he can canvass them to support in his campaign to persuade the school to opt out of local authority control.

Under present legislation, schools, are obliged to teach a Christian-based RE syllabus, but many local authority schools prefer broad-based multi-faith lessons.

If Mr Salisbury is to succeed he will need the backing of at least 60 other parents at the school to force a ballot. Already the Department for Education and Employment has instructed the governors to hand over the list,

But the school, backed by Newham Council has declined. In the past, the borough's multi-faith syllabus has been praised by the DfEE.

Last night the row took a nasty turn, with education committee chairman Graham Lane - also a governor at the school - alleging he has been harassed by Mr Salisbury with abusive calls.

But Mr Salisbury, father of two mixed-race boys, has denied the allegation. He said he is motivated only for the welfare of his son.

His Malaysian-born wife Simbee, 40 - who was brought up in the Buddhist faith but converted to Christianity as an adult -is behind him all the way.

' I believe the school would be better off outside local authority control because it was riddled with political correctness - not just religious - sexual as well. It's nonsense' said Mr Salisbury.

' We went down to the school two years ago and I saw that boys were being taught the multi-cultural and ethnic stuff, and I said I didn't like it. I said I wanted the boys to be taught the Judeo-Christian religion only, they were not happy with this and refused my request.

Mr Salisbury's son, Dominic, seven and Matthew, 11 were excluded from religious education classes. Dominic said he sat outside and did maths when these classes were taught.

Matthew, who now attends the nearby St Bonaventures secondary school, which is mainly Christian, will not be returning to school tomorrow.

Mr Salisbury says while the school is mainly Christian he is not happy that other religions are being taught.

He continued, ' I don't care what any of the politicians would make or say about what I am doing. It's laughable to say I am a racist when my wife is a Malaysian. I could be spending my time with my kids, but this situation has possessed me.

' If their education suffers because of my decisions, it's not my fault. It's in the head teacher's court now. I have stated my case, and it is up to the teachers to comply with the wishes.

' This has taken up my whole life. I am getting fed up with it.' he said.

To allow an opt-out ballot, however, said Mr Lane, could stir up racial tensions in the area, where the anti-immigrant British National Party is known to be active.

About 50 per cent of the children in the school come from non-Christian families.' We think that putting out the names and addresses of parents could harm race relations in the area. The maintenance of good relations over-rides any legislation.' concluded Mr Lane.

The authority has banned Mr Salisbury from the school premises for allegedly threatening staff with physical abuse.

He has tried to become a school governor three times, but failed on each occasion.

6 Letters to editors

Times of India is not known for publishing any anti-Gandhi anti-Congress views. It was therefore a surprise to read a letter from Mr S B Khambete of Thane in June 1996. He says :- On Gandhi and Godse.

With reference to Mr Anand Agashe's article ' June 1 1996 : a throwback on Jan 30, 1948 ?' ( Pune Plus, May 30 ), I was perturbed to see a Brahmin that

too a Chitpavan ( assuming he is not one of our Dalit brothers who adopt Brahmin names ) condemning the act of Nathuram Godse killing Mohandas Gandhi. How fallacious, hollow and deceptive were the principles and teachings of Mohandas Gandhi was evidenced by the horrifying persecution Brahmins were subjected to after the assassination of Gandhi. Not a whisper of protest or condemning was raised then against the atrocities perpetrated on Brahmins.

Mr Agashe has begun his article with words to the effect that ' most of us would want to forget the fateful day of Jan 30, 1948' In so saying he has assumed to himself the role of representative of " intellectuals". This is highly objectionable. He should write what he feels and not what he presumes others to be thinking. As far as Maharashtra is concerned, the word 'Gandhiji ' is synonymous with hypocrisy. Lord Shivaji, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Vinayak D Savarkar, Chaphekar and Kanhere are is ideals. Before venturing to write an article of this kind it was expected of Mr Agashe to have known the vices and virtues of the man he's crying for. This very man had called the assassinator of Bhai Shraddhanand (staunch advocate of purification of converted Hindus)

Abdul Rashid, his brother. Instead of condemning Abdul Rashid for its heinous crimes, Gandhi blamed Hindus for his act.

Gandhi, who held out himself to be preacher and practitioner of ahimsa toured the whole of India to join the British Army for fighting against Germany, a country which was befriending us and was sympathetic to our cause of freedom. Many more instances of doublespeak and deception practised by Gandhi can be given. However, the above two instances are illustrative of the character of Gandhiji. Instead of going far behind in the history one can very well refer to an article which appeared in the issue dated January 26 the Times of India in which it was candidly admitted that impracticable, non-pragmatic principles of Gandhi were responsible for the degenerated and corrupt politics of today. If Mr Agashe is honest to himself he will admit that Ghandhian philosophy has given rise to non-violent crimes which are more dangerous than violent crimes. Non-violent crimes take a long time to be detected and are difficult to be proved. Various scandals we are faced with daily are legacies of the 'Father of our Nation ' Mohandas Gandhi was never true to his words. He had said that if country is bisected it will be done only after he was cut into pieces. By killing Gandhi Nathuram Godse has only helped him to honour his words.

Organising felicitation programmes of Gopal Godse and others is only on emulation of Gandhi. If Gandhi can call the killer of Shraddhanand, his brother, why can we not honour Nathuram and his kind ? Are only Mahatmas authorised to do so ?

On being enlightened about his aforesaid facet of the character of Gandhi, I hope Mr Agashe, as a worshipper of truth, will try to get more information on the true colours of Gandhi and attend the forthcoming function of the death anniversary of Nathuram Godse.

7 Research Findings

7.1 Falsity of Indo Saracenic Architecture

Mr Godbole typed up his ideas and thought running into 100 pages on above subject three years ago. He hopes to complete this work as soon as possible.

7.2 Savarkar's Rationalism

Mr Godbole's book in Marathi on the subject is now likely to be published by the end of 1997. It runs into 450 pages. The contents are :-

Freedom of expression

Sense of justice and fair play

Fraternity / Humanism

Six reasons for misconceptions about Savarkar

Savarkar - the social reformer

Untouchability

High and low castes among untouchable

Savarkar - a doer.

God

Realism.

Eternal change inherent in nature

Reforms does not mean blind following of the Europeans

Religion and religious books

Utility of all our activities and resources

Mr Godbole will start its translation in English as time permits. Would you help him financially ?

8. We Hindus are treated badly, but do we deserve better ?

8.1 Remembrance Day

(A) The British observe Remembrance Sunday to mourn the dead of the 1st and 2nd world wars. The tradition was started in 1919 by King George the fifth. People used to observe a 2 minute silence at 11 a.m. on 11th day in November each year. But that became inconvenient. It was therefore decided to observe remembrance on the nearest Sunday to 11 November.

Royal British Legion proposed in 1996 that the tradition should be revived to emphasise the solemnity of the occasion. It was accepted and according to the Sun 30 million people ( i.e. 70 % ) observed a 2 minute silence at 11 a.m. on 11 November. But many did not. And who should get angry at them ? Right wing politicians ? NO. Mr Apu Bagchi, mayor of Bedford! Bedfordshire Times & Citizen reported on 14 November 1996 Lest We Forget : Mayor's fury as buses fail to recognise Remembrance tribute.

Bedford Mayor Councillor Apu Bagchi has slammed a bus company as " insensitive " for running services during the two minutes silence in Harpur Square on Monday.

While many businesses and companies stopped at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, buses from local; operator Stagecoach drove through the square ruining the Remembrance tribute attended by a number of war veterans.

Furious Mayor Apu Bagchi, who was present stormed : ' I am absolutely disgusted that the buses did not stop during the two minutes silence on Monday/

Some national papers in Britain also published this news.

But does Mr Bagchi remember the massacre of 150,000 Hindus of Noakhali ? NO. Does he talk about 3 million Bengalis starved to death by the British in 1943. NO. He has no time for such petty issues.

(B) On remembrance Sunday we observed that Bishop of London conducted a religious ceremony. He was accompanied by representatives of all Christian denominations such as Roman Catholics, Free Church, Methodists, United Reform Church, the Salvation Army. Even Chief Rabbi was present. But there was no Hindu priest. Surely at least 10 times more Hindu soldiers were killed during two world wars than Jew soldiers. But who would protest ? After all we are secular.

Why should others treat us with respect ?

9. Hindu awakening at last ?

* Nathuram Godse shot dead Mahatma Gandhi on 30 June 1948. His testimony in court was proscribed immediately by Nehru, Patel and co. It was

published by Gopal Godse in 1977. It had a title May it please your honour. After reading the title who on earth would think that it contains the reasons for assassination of Gandhi ? After much criticism from Mr Godbole Gopal Godse has changed the title to Why I assassinated Mahatma Gandhi ? He has also asked Mr Godbole for suggestions of improvement. These were sent. Gopal Godse has promised to make necessary changes in the next edition.

Mr Godbole has a few copies of the book.

* Savarkar Memorial committee, Mumbai had produced a short video on life of Veer Savarkar, in 1992. But it was in Marathi. Now they have produced it in English.

Mr Godbole has a copy.

* Battle of Baharaich

We gave details of this episode in our newsletter 13 of 16 June 1984. After arguing for 13 years Balarao Savarkar has now included it in Savarkar's famous book Six Glorious Epochs of Indian History.

Here is a brief account to remind our readers :-

Mahmood of Gazni attacked Sorti Somnath for the last time in 1026. Mahmood Ghori defeated Prithviraj Cahuhan in 1192. Why the gap of 166 years ?

Iranians and Pathans did attack India in 1031. After several battles the entire Muslim army was wiped out by the combined force of Hindu Kings on 14 June 1033 at Baharaich, 60 miles North East of Lucknow. So decisive and severe was the Muslim defeat that they did not raise eye brows for 166 years!

* Hindu Festivals

In the past we have pointed out how British mass media deliberately avoid mentioning of any Hindu events. Mr Nawathe, a socialist friend of Mr Godbole felt hurt. Due to his efforts Whitaker's Almanac, an annual reference book has started to give details of Hindu festivals since 1993. The information is regularly supplied by Hemant Kanitakar of High Barnet, London.

10 Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the following for their help :-

For posting parcels in India

Mr Arvind Ghosh of USA, Balraj Palia of London.

For organising a slide show Taj Mahal : Facts and Fantasies, in Glasgow

Sudesh Sangray of Luton. .

For making copies of our newsletter and distributing them to friends :-

Dina Nath Behl of London, Dr Godbole of Rochdale.

For making six copies of our newsletter and posting them to our friend in

America

Pradyumna Godbole

For donating money for publication of Mr Godbole's book on Veer

Savarkar's Rationalism.

Arun Bhat of Selsden, Surrey, England ( £15 )

Mrs Anuradha Khot, Mumbai, India ( Rs 250 )

Air Commodore Valavade, Pune, India ( Rs 5,000 ):-

11 Publicity and Appreciation

11.1 Mrs Anuradha Khot's article about Godbole's Around London Tour appeared in March 1997 issue of Dharmabhaskar of Mumbai. It was also published in Prajwalant, another Marathi magazine of Mumbai.

11.2 Following books are available from Mr Godbole :-

1. Taj Mahal : Simple Analysis of a Great Deception.

2. Why Rewrite Indian History ?

3. Taj Mahal and the Great British Conspiracy.

This book has 338 pages and describes our mental bankruptcy over last 200 years. Price £6 including postage, or £5 if you collect personally in London.

4. Chhatrapati Shivaji by Setu Madhavarao Pagdi

English biography of Shivaji. Price £3 plus postage.

11.3 Please help by :-

* acknowledging the receipt of this newsletter to the following address

Mr V S Godbole

14 Turnberry Walk

Bedford

MK 41, 8 AZ

U K

* sending money to Mr Godbole ( in pound sterling or Indian rupees )

* making 5 copies of this newsletter and sending them to your friends.

* circulating this newsletter among your friends.

* trying to get parts of this newsletter published in various newspapers,

magazines and periodicals.

* arranging slide shows by Godbole at various social functions.

* purchasing books from Mr Godbole.