An Open
Letter To Indian Cricket Team Captain Rahul
Dravid
Shamsul Islam
13 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Dear Rahul Dravid,
Namaskar!
You, presently, lead the cricket team of India
and wear the National Flag, Tri-colour while
playing for India in different parts of the
globe. You must be well aware of the fact that
this Tri-colour represents a Secular-Democratic
India and team led by you which includes players
from different religions and regions of the
country,
undoubtedly, symbolize the same reality. I hope
you are familiar with the glorious heritage
which the National Flag and a Secular-Democratic
polity represent. These are the products of
great anti-colonial struggle and ruthless fight
against theocratic politics represented by organizations
like the Muslim League, the RSS and the Hindu
Mahasabha. Despite the partition of India on
the basis of religion mainly forced by Muslim
League and dastardly killing of Father of the
Nation by persons affiliated to the Hindu Mahasabha
and the RSS, India chose to remain a non-theocratic
state. That is the significance of the Nation
which you and your team represent and the Flag
which you display on your costumes.
I am sorry to write that by participating in
the birth centenary programme of M. S. Golwalkar
(Guruji), the ideologue of the RSS, in Nagpur
on January 20, 2007, you have not only violated
the trust which this country has put in you
but also saddened large sections of your fans
who love and adore you because you and your
team represent a Secular-Democratic India. According
to a report which appeared in the Hindi organ
of the RSS, Panchjanya (February 4, 2007, p.11),
'Indian cricket captain inaugurated the Surya
Namaskar Mahayagya programme in the Vidarbh
region (of Masharashtra)'. This campaign was
organized by RSS 'to commemorate the birth centenary
of Shri Guruji' who happened to be the second
chief and the most prominent ideologue of the
RSS.The cover page of Panchjanya also shows
you lightening the lamp before the garlanded
photograph of Golwalkar.
I do not know who led you to join this programme
of the RSS but I feel duty-bound to bring to
your notice few crucial facts about the RSS
and Guruji who led it from 1940 to 1973.
The first Home Minister of independent India,
Sardar Patel, held the RSS responsible for the
assassination of Gandhiji. He in a letter to
Golwalkar, dated 11 September 1948, clearly
stated that it was communal poison spread by
the RSS which was responsible for this tragedy.
Without mincing words he wrote: 'As a final
result of the poison, the country had to suffer
the sacrifice of the invaluable life of Gandhiji.
Even an iota of the sympathy of the Government,
or of the people, no more remained for the RSS.
In fact opposition grew. Opposition turned more
severe, when the RSS men expressed joy and distributed
sweets after Gandhiji's death.' I hope you know
that consequently the RSS was banned for its
role in the assassination.
Dear Rahul Saheb! Golwalkar whose birthday centenary
programme you inaugurated was a die-hard fascist
who rejected any talk of a democratic-secular
India. In 1939 he penned a terrible book We
or Our Nationhood Defined which ousted minorities
like Muslims and Christians from the Indian
nationhood. Even after Independence, in another
book his Bunch of Thoughts, Golwalkar declared
Muslims as enemy number one and Christians as
enemy number two of the country. I wish you
had boycotted such a programme as you can vouch
to the fact that many Muslim and Christian players
playing cricket with you have done proud to
the nation.
Golwalkar also glorified dictators like Mussolini
and Hitler and insisted on adopting their methods
for cleansing minorities in India. In his 1939
book while eulogizing Hitler he wrote: 'German
race pride has now become the topic of the day.
To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture,Germany
shocked the world by her purging the country
of the Semitic Races - the Jews. Race pride
at its highest has been manifested here. Germany
has also shown how wellnigh impossible it is
for Races and cultures, having differences going
to the root, to be assimilated into one united
whole, a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to
learn and profit by.' It is really astonishing
that a renowned sportsperson like you went to
be part of programmes dedicated to such a nasty
person.
I also would like to draw your attention to
what RSS thinks about the Tri-colour which you
so proudly wear. When the Indian Parliament
decided to have Tri-colour as the National Flag,
the English organ of the RSS, Organizer, ('Mystery
behind the Bhagwa Dhawaj', August 14, 1947)
denigrated this great choice in the following
words: 'The people who have come to power by
the kick of fate may give in our hands the Tricolour
but it never [sic] be respected and owned by
Hindus. The word three is in itself an evil,
and a flag having three colours will certainly
produce a very bad psychological effect and
is injurious to a country'. The RSS has been
demanding the adoption of saffron flag as the
National Flag of the country. It also needs
to be known that when the Constituent Assembly
of India finally passed the Constitution on
26 November 1949, the RSS demanded that it should
be replaced by the Codes of Manu (Organizer
November 30, 1949) which openly glorified Casteism,
upheld persecution of Untouchables and denigrated
women.
Dear Mr. Rahul! You went to commemorate the
birth centenary of a RSS leader who hated democracy
and declared (while addressing the top cadres
of the RSS at its Reshambagh headquarters, Nagpur
in 1940) that Hindu India of his dreams needed
only 'one flag (saffron), one leader and one
ideology'.
Let me end with the hope that a great cricketer
like you who stands as a symbol of Democratic-Secular
India will not betray the trust the country
has shown in you and fall prey to the designs
of Hindu Separatism.
Wishing you all the best.
Shamsul Islam.
February 6, 2007.
notointolerance@hotmail.com
