INDIAN INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH INTO TRUE HISTORY
NEWSLETTER NO. 44 OF
1. NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
1.1
Godbole retires
After working for London Underground Railways for nearly 20
years Shree Godbole took early retirement in July 2005. He can now concentrate
fully on his historical research.
1.2
Rationalism of Veer Savarkar.
1.3 DVD of
film on Savarkar
This is now
available from all well-known music shops in Mumbai /Pune. Godbole also has
some copies.
1.4
Museum dedicated to Indian Revolutionaries.
Guy Aldred, a
British sympathiser of Savarkar had published much information on Savarkar and
the hardships suffered by political prisoners on the
1.5 Archiving
of old documents
Our friend Dr
Bedekar from Thane has realised that unless we take steps to preserve old
documents they will soon vanish forever. He has therefore bought a machine for
archiving. Shree Godbole has some articles from Sobat weekly of Pune. These
will soon be archived.
If you have any
such documents (paper cuttings, photos, letters, books) please contact Dr
Bedekar.
1.6 Japanese
History books
In April 2005
there were many violent demonstrations in front of Japanese shops and
businesses in
The Chinese
accuse Japanese of hiding from their school textbooks, atrocities committed
when occupying parts of
Ministers hit
back yesterday at Chinese claims that new schoolbooks whitewash
(Metro
Your books
distort past too, Japan tells China.
On 25 April
Richard Lloyd Parry from
The Japanese
Government is to conduct a survey of bias and propaganda in Chinese school
textbooks to counter claims that it distorts its own history.
Nobutuka
Machimura, the Japanese Foreign Minister announced the survey yesterday after
an inconclusive summit on Saturday between Junichiro Koizumi, the Japanese
Prime Minister, and President Hu Jintao of
“From the
perspective of a Japanese person, Chinese textbooks appear to teach that
everything the Chinese Government has done has been correct.” Mr Machimura told
a television chat show.
“There is a
tendency toward this in any country, but the Chinese textbooks are extreme in
the way they uniformly convey the ‘Our Country is correct’ point of view.
He defended Mr
Koizumi against charges that the hour-long summit had achieved nothing. “It was
fully significant that the two leaders met and spent a message that the
friendship between
Mr Koizumi and Mr
Hu avoided mutual recrimination after three weeks of violent anti-Japanese
demonstrations in
There were
significant anti-Japanese demonstrations in
However, the
issues causing greatest resentment concern interpretations of the Second World
War when the Japanese Imperial Army occupied much of
Hence
Our comments – *
We should never forget barbarity of Chinese rule in
* We need not
take the side of the Japanese either. In any Indian dispute with
We should
always try to see if such disputes could be used to our advantage.
1.7 Language war flares in
On
Johan Vande
Lanotte, the vice-premier, warned of a government crisis if
1.8 EU bars showing of van Gogh film
On
The EU
Parliament has scrapped the screening of the film made by the murdered Dutch
director Theo van Gogh, which criticised the treatment of women by Islam. It
feared a lawsuit from the film’s owners and there were security concerns. Submission
was shown at the EU press centre yesterday.
1.9 All Muslims are not the same
On
The outline of
the recent Van Gogh case is relatively clear. A provocative Dutch filmmaker
makes a film that many Muslims find offensive, since it involves a veiled woman
with verses of the Koran inscribed on her naked body. The filmmaker is then
horribly and publicly murdered by a Muslim extremist. The balloon goes up,
racists attacks an Islamic school, there is much agonising about the question
of Muslims and free speech, and –remarkably – Index on Censorship (which is
supposed to be in favour of unfettered freedom of expression) carries an
article by an associate editor, Rohan Jayasekera, which seems to blame the
victim himself for the crime.
In one way,
the answer is obvious. Some folks just don’t seem to understand that free
speech is about tolerating opinions that you find offensive, and such people
need to be re-educated into what a democratic society is all about. And, if we
were being honest, and remembering the Rushdie affair, aren’t the most
sensitive and those most in need of re-education to be found in the Muslim
community?
Yesterday I
watched the Van Gogh film on the Internet. And the first thing that I though
was that it would never have been shown on British television as it was on
Dutch TV. It begins and ends with the intoning of Prayers to Allah. In between,
the camera passes over the woman’s eyes (the rest of her face is covered) and
thinly veiled naked body, her voice telling how she has been the victim of
domestic violence, of rape by a relative, and how she dislikes to cover her
entire face. When her face is uncovered, it is bloody and bruised.
What the film
suggests is that, somehow, domestic violence and rape are linked to
specifically Muslim ways of seeing the world and the relationship between men
and women. Given the fact that the film is made by a non-Muslim (indeed by a
noted critic of Islam), the effect is disturbing. What is the film aimed at?
…… Murder
maddens and some good people have accordingly gone mad. On one centre-left
website, a Dutch writer expressed fury that a TV presenter had argued that the
killing meant Dutch society had to do some “soul searching”. Dutch society has
(to do) much soul searching?” the writer (taking the handle of “Voltaire”)
asked angrily, adding; “Theo was not killed by Dutch society but by a Muslim.
But then Muslims rarely do much soul searching.”
See that? In a
blink of a cursor? See how ”a Muslim” so quickly became “Muslims?” There are a billion Muslims with a hundred thousand interpretations
of the Koran, but they
are all now transformed into the Muslim who killed Van Gogh.
Note – so,
unknowingly the author has confessed that there are hundred thousand
interpretations of the Koran. And who is going to decide which interpretation
is correct? The force of sword!! That has been the history of Islam.
Von Gough was
murdered on
1.10 How history gets twisted – even today
On
It’s all
the Raj again.
Nostalgia for
Imperial India is all around us, but our mist-eyed view of the sub-continent
needs an update.
…. We treat
Note –(1) see how the imperial arrogance springs? Who
told the writer that the British ruled
British rule
in
The English
got foothold in
* The Marathas
were not defeated till 1818 and the Sikhs till 1848.
We do not deny
that the British Raj did not exist, but let us the correct picture.
(2) The writer
however mentions a new book – The Butcher of Amritsar by Nigel Collett, (a
biography of Brigadier General Reginald Dyer) published by Hambledon and
London, price £25. offer £20 from Books First,
Tel
0870-160-8080
1.11 How the British see us Indians today?
World
Environment Day was celebrated on
Picture taken
by Reuters.
We don’t know
if the Indian High commission condemned this news item but on Wednesday 8th
June Metro published a letter from Martin Atkinson of
Why choose a
picture of
1.12 The Tsunami disaster in December 2004
We all heard
the terrible news about the earthquake in
(i) At the
start
(ii) Our
friend Dr Anand Joshi was in
(iii) Indian
Government gave aid to Government of Shree Lanka but NOT to Tamils. Of course
the Indian Navy co-operated fully to curb activities of Tamil Tigers. But when
it comes to supplying essential goods to flood victims Indian Navy could not
help. We all know damn well that the Government of Shree Lanka will NOT pass on
the aid to Tamils. Indians are still wedded to the traditions laid down by
Gandhi and Nehru. We despise helping our kith and kin.
(iv)
2. AROUND
Godbole conducted one tour on
During the tour it was noticed that a plaque has been fixed on the
house where Shyamji used to live. On making further enquiries it was revealed
that this was done by our friend Shree Hemant Padhya of
Caxton Hall
At a later date Godbole visited the famous Caxton Hall and noticed
big construction works between the back of the Hall and St James’s Park
station. It seems that once the building of offices is completed the front of
the Hall can be seen again. It had been shrouded in scaffolding for a number of
years.
Dr Agarkar of
Kalyan made a show of the slides of the tour for 20 members of Rotary Club of
Chembur (Mumbai). It was well received.
3. BEHAVIOUR OF CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS TODAY
3.1 THE CHRISTIANS
The new German
Pope called himself Pope Benedict XVI. On
Pope calls for
unity and Muslim friendship.
Pope reached out
to other faiths and Christian denominations yesterday with a message of
reconciliation that was welcomed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan
Williams (seen in the picture).
The new Pope
thanked religious leaders for attending his inauguration Mass when he met them
for an audience at the
[It is
astonishing that one of the invitees was Robert Mugabe, the butcher of
On
Is it not time we
became wiser by such events?
3.2 THE
MUSLIMS
3.2.1
A serial killer
who raped and murdered at least 16 children was executed yesterday. Mohammad
Bijeh, 22 was flogged 100 times in front of a 5,000 strong crowd before being
hanged from a crane, a slow death where his neck is not broken. The mother of
one victim put the noose around his neck in Pakdasht, 50 km south of Teheran.
Bijeh, dubbed the ‘Teheran desert vampire’ poisoned his victims before sexually
abusing them and burying them in shallow graves last year. The children, aged
eight to fifteen were mostly illegal refugees from
(Metro, published
in
Comment – We can
understand the horrific punishment, given the crime of the offender, but how
come such a situation exist in an Islamic state?
3.2.2
On 7 July,
four Muslim suicide bombers detonated bombs on three underground trains and one
Bus in
On 21 July,
Police foiled another series of attempts by arresting four suspects.
Here are some
of our thoughts -
(a) The
bombings were no surprise.
(b) Muslim
leaders condemned the suicide bombers. But was it out of horror or the
realisation that it only needs one crackpot to kill many Muslims who always
gather on Fridays. Moreover, NO Muslim leader has said that such actions are
against the principles of Islam.
(c)
Journalists gave background of the suicide bombers and told us how
young Muslims
became fundamentalists or Radicals after visiting
(i) When the
Tsunami struck in December 2004 where were the Muslim Fundamentalists flocking
to help fellow Muslims in
(ii) When
various countries announced their aids why was the Muslim contribution paltry?
Why did we not see the same Muslim bombers demonstrating outside the embassies
of rich Arab nations?
(iii) Was it
NOT against the tenets of Islam to accept aid from non-believers? Why did no
Muslim Fundamentalist protest?
(iv) Whatever
one thinks of military action of US and
(v) Remember
the case of Zahid Mubarek the young Muslim who was murdered by his racist
cellmate Robert Stewart at Feltham Young Offender’s Institution in February
2000? At the public enquiry in November 2004 it was revealed that Warders
‘missed 14 chances’ to halt race killing in cell. Did any of the suicide
bombers get angry? Did they want to teach a lesson to the prison authorities?
Did they want to avenge the death of a Fellow Muslim right here in
(vi) When King
Fahd of
Similarly all
the shrines in
(vii) Jinnah’s
picture appears on all currency notes of
3.2.3 Shariah law for Muslims in
BBC Radio 4
broadcasts the programme Sunday dealing with religious matters (0710 to
0800 hrs on Sundays).
On
Could it happen?
YES. Let us look at the Daily Mail of
SHAMELESS
Labour’s
cynical bid to win back the Muslim vote it lost over
Graeme Wilson
the Political Correspondent wrote –
Labour assures
Muslims of the major influence they have on Government policy – and delivers an
explosive attack on opposition leader Michael Howard.
The offensive
comes in an ingratiating article in Muslim Weekly, one of the biggest selling
papers in the community, written by Energy minister and loyal Blairite Mike
O’Brien.
A ban on
religious discrimination was delivered just two weeks after a request from the
Muslim Council of Britain, he says. A clause recognising religion as a factor
in cases of violence and harassment was delivered in response to Muslim
demands.
Mr O’Brien
also reminded Muslims that Mr Blair has read the Koran. And he claims a
personal empathy with their fears over anti-terror laws as an Irish Catholic
who lived in
But perhaps
the most controversial passages are the attacks on Mr Howard, the most
prominent Jewish figure in British politics. He questions whether the Tory
leader would defend Muslim rights or stand up for
‘Ask
yourselves what will Michael Howard do for British Muslims?’ he asks. ‘Will his
foreign policy aim to help
‘Will he give
you the choice of sending your children to a faith school? Will he stand up for
the right of Muslim women to wear the hijab (traditional dress)? Will he really
fight for
… Mr O’Brien
argues that the Premier’s decision to send British troops to Kosovo was based
on his determination to stop Muslims being murdered by the Serbs. Many Muslims
in Kosovo owe their lives to British intervention.’ He declares.
The lengthy
list of benefits Mr O’Brien says Labour has delivered included decision to send
doctors to help British Muslim pilgrims to
Mr Blair had
also been ‘appalled’ that Muslims used to be excluded from Remembrance Day
ceremonies and had ordered changes to give them a prominent role.
Labour had
also scrapped the Primary Rule, which Mr O’Brien claims discriminated against
people coming from Muslim countries. Under the rule, people applying for a visa
who were already married to someone living in
Notes (1)
Conservatives were upset by the article, but their policies are essentially the
same!!
(2) Muslim
Weekly was launched September 2004 as the first national weekly for the Muslim
community. It sells around 20,000 copies a week
On
Hundreds of
biblical artefacts in museums all over the world could be fakes, it has emerged
after Israeli investigators uncovered what they claim is a sophisticated
forgery ring.
Four men have
been charged with faking of some of the most important biblical discoveries in
recent years. The artefacts in question include an ossuary which was believed
to contain the bones of James, the brother of Jesus, and a table with written
inscription by a Jewish king in the ninth century before Christ. The indictment
against the men in
The forgers not
only conned buyers out of millions of dollars, said officials of the
Doubts about the
artefacts emerged after Israeli police began to hear rumours of an Egyptian
craftsman living in
The indictment
lists 124 witnesses including antiquities collectors, archaeologists, officials
from Sotheby’s auction house and representatives of the
The fakes
fooled experts for years
and the virtually worthless artefacts were grossly multiplied in value.
The four men
indicted are a Tel Aviv collector, Oded Golan, owner of the James ossuary and
the Yehoash tablet; Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert who teaches at
Shuka Dorfman,
head of the Israel Antiquities Authority said the forgery ring had been
operating for more than 20 years and has been “trying to change history”.
Scholars said the forgers were exploiting the deep emotional need of Jews and
Catholics to find physical evidence to reinforce their faith.
“ This does not
discredit the profession. It discredits unscrupulous dealers and collectors.”
Said Eric Myers, an archaeological professor at
Other forgeries
included an ivory pomegranate which scholars believed was the only remaining
artefact from King Solomon’s
Shaul Naim, of
the Israel police, said, “We have reason to believe that many more forged
antiquities which we haven’t uncovered yet are being held by private collectors
in Israel and abroad, and in museums in Israel and abroad.”
Shimon Gibson, an
Israeli archaeologist, said museums should review items of questionable origin.
“Now it looks like we are going to have to go backward and double-check all our
facts to make sure that what we thought was really is.”
4.2 The
inconvenient lessons of papal history
The Independent of
The question no
one seems willing to ask is why the cardinals picked someone so old. It’s
hardly worth their while going home as they’ll all be back again in a few weeks
to pick the next one. Maybe if they keep popping back every few months they get
a cheap deal with the hotel.
One spokesman for
the Catholic Church, replying to someone who suggested the new Pope’s attitudes
were a tad mediaeval, said, “ What we do know is he’s a man of holiness and
prayer.” It is as well they picked him then. It would have been embarrassing if
they’d sent him out to do mass and he’d said, “ I’ve never really seen the
point in praying. Anyway, I don’t do Sunday mornings’cos that’s my day for
playing snooker.”
Supporters of the
new pontiff insist his aim is to preserve ”eternal truths” handed down
from Jesus, guidance that can’t be compromised by changes in human society. For
example, there can be no reversal of the ban on marriage for priests. Except
that this rule wasn’t introduced until the 11th century, so for the
first thousand years of the church the heathen bastards were ignoring their
traditional values, until they got a grip and invented them. Even the first
Pope, Saint Peter himself, was married. So hopefully the new Pope Benedict will
atone for having St Peter’s Square hosed down every day with holy water, dirty
filthy sinful concourse that it is.
Then there’s
tradition introduced by Pope John XXII. Various movements had been set up in
opposition to the church hierarchy, which had become grotesquely and publicly
decadent. The new churches insisted the priesthood should live humble lives
among the poor, in accordance with the methods of Jesus. So the Pope declared
it was heresy to suggest Jesus was poor. Sermons under his rule must be
brilliant. “ Jesus looked upon the famished thousands and sayeth unto them,
‘Fear not for thou shall be fed,’ Then he rang Fortnum & Mason and ordered
two vanloads of loaves and fishes. ‘Sticketh it on the American Express card,’
he sayeth.
Or there were two
members of the Borgia family that made it to Pope. Leonardo da Vinci worked for
one of them, but became concerned when, as his colleague wrote, “All Rome was
trembling. Each day there are at least four murders.” Eventually Leonardo fled
when Pope had his best friend strangled. I wonder how the
Perhaps the
ceaseless traditions the new Pope will adhere to include the doctrine of Pope
Gregory XVI, who declared in1832 that democracy was sinful, and freedom of the
press was “heretical vomit”. And decreed that any Jews who insulted Catholicism
should be killed. Or maybe the rules of Pope Urban II, who had priests’ wives
sold into slavery.
Then there was
the vilification of science; the persecution of Galileo and attitudes that led
Isaac Newton to believe the Pope was anti-Christ. All these rules were based on
eternal principles. So, if the new Pope’s going to stick to papal traditions,
he could manage to be the one person in history of whom it could be said as a
child he was in the Hitler Youth, but once he grew up he went further to the
right.
The Catholic
Church has proved ingenious at adopting its eternal truths. Finally giving in
to the real world but not until it’s succeeded in holding back social
advancement for three or four centuries. Just as eventually they’ll have to
come to terms with divorce, women priests and condoms. It seems the one thing
that never changes is their involvement in child abuse. It must be worth them
formulating this by writing it into a canonical doctrine, so a priest comes out
and reads, “Kiddius fiddius our little secretum.” and makes the sign of cross.
No other
institution could get away with reversing such a record, or to choosing its
leader in such an archaic manner. Couldn’t they be prosecuted under an equal
opportunities act for advertising a job to Catholics only? Surely there must be
Jews, Muslims and atheists capable of doing the work. And there is the Health
and Safety issue of what would happen if there was a real fire in the
But this Pope
could settle the social debate about what is natural, as ordained by God. Take
a new born baby, isolate it from all human, and therefore sinful contact, and
as it grows up, see what comes naturally to it first – transubstantiation or
tossing itself off.
4.3
D-Day to
On
Unless you’re a
Second World War fanatic you may be feeling all D-Day- ed out after last
summer’s exhausting collection of programmes marking the 60th
anniversary. But don’t let that put you off – because this new three part
series is something different.
It charts what
happened after the success of D-Day – a story sometimes glossed over in the
history books as a simple march to victory but which, as this series
illustrates, was anything but.
The Allied plan
was to set off for
But it took the
Allied forces a hard fought and bloody 33 days to capture the nearby French
city of
The programme
uses a blend of dramatic reconstructions and archive film to recreate the
campaign, plus the recollections of an amazing range of interviewees – from
members of Monty’s staff through American soldiers to German tank commanders.
Note – the series
was shown on BBC1 at 2100 hrs on Wednesdays 20/27 April and
4.4 History
behind May Day
1st of
May is celebrated as Labour Day in many countries. But very little is known
about the history behind this day. On
With May Day
imminent, we should remember what it represents. Our modern celebration of May
Day as workers’ holiday evolved from the struggle for the eight-hour working
day, which, on
In
In one of the
most infamous show trials in the
Albert Parsons,
August Spies, George Engle and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and executed.
In
The red flag
became the symbol of blood split by workers in their battle for rights against
both state and capital.
4.5 Pagan
celebrations predate Christmas day
An interesting
letter appeared in the Metro on
Federico
Moscogiuri mentions that Christmas is a secularised Christian holiday (Metro,
The early
Christians never celebrated it, the Bible doesn’t tell people to observe it,
and the biblical references to shepherds tending their flocks indicate that
there is no way that Christ was born on December 25 in winter. This date was
originally celebrated by pagans in the North who refused to stop their winter
solstice celebration to celebrate the return of the sun. Pagans in the South
celebrated the birth of Mithras (a God predating Jesus) on December 25.
Our current
traditions of festive singing, exchanging presents and having Christmas trees
again hark back to the pagans. They decorated their evergreen trees with
decorations, food and runes to help keep the tree spirits close to their
village, sang joyous songs and swapped presents. The Christian authorities
tried for years to stamp this out; so the pagans merely took their trees
indoors, which is why we are still doing it to this day.
I find it
fascinating that we are still following these traditions now, with the large
majority of us having no idea of their true origin.
4.6 Americans
today
An interesting
news item appeared in The Metro paper on
It deals with the
treatment meted out to actress Jane Fonda and reads –
For further proof
that Americans sure are gung-ho when it comes to patriotism, look at the
indignities heaped upon former