Posted on: 16-10-10 14:13:34
Whether it is banning "Satanic Verses" or "Such a long journey", the protests and the ban are undemocratic and threat to freedom of speech.
Shame on you Bombay university, for bowing down to goons
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/10/16/mistry-mumbai-university.html?
This is a very interesting case.
The ban was installed on this Canadian based authors book after Shiva Sena protested.
Incidentally Balasahebs grandson has also been launched into politics and they have started a movement on banning burqas.
BUT the local Congress - I government also has supported the ban on this book as the passages referred have used scatching remarks on the Marathi Manoos in particular the lunch delivery guys who system of tracking has been hailed globally.
This particular book has also blasted Mrs.Indira Gandhi in this book.
Please find here with the relevant passages and YOU decide if you want the book to be published in India or not about marathi students who study will answer questions on these passages also in their exams.
Please substitute your Name in place of Balasaheb or Indira Gandhi and read the book and will you like this book to be used as a text book.
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?267551
Such A Long Journey
'The Relevant Passages'
Some of the excerpts from the Booker-nominated novel that seem to have first given an opportunity to Aditya Thackeray and now Kangress I Chief Minister Ashok Chavan to take offence .
When it was published in 1991, Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey won Canada's Governor General's Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award. It was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize and for the Trillium Award. It has been translated into German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese, and has been made into a film in 1998 under the same name. The book has been part of Mumbai University's second year BA curriculum since 2007. Bal Thackeray's grandson Aditya Thackeray had admitted that he had not read the novel but was shown the "relevant passages". The same relevant passages were also presumably shown to Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan who, too, has admitted to not have read the book. After a quick scan we have been able to come up with the following "relevant passages" that may have offended the fragile sensibilities of Aditya Thackeray and Ashok Chavan
What kind of life was Sohrab going to look forward to? No future for minorities, with all these fascist Shiv Sena politics and Marathi language nonsense. It was going to be like the black people in America— twice as good as the white man to get half as much. [Page 55]
'He turned and slipped into my seat! Insult to injury! What to do with such low-class people [the dabbawalas of Mumbai]? No manners, no sense, nothing. And you know who is responsible for this attitude — that bastard Shiv Sena leader who worships Hitler and Mussolini. He and his "Maharashtra for Maharashtrians" nonsense. They won't stop till they have complete Maratha Raj. [Page 73]
Probably some rubbish that had been foisted on the poor fellow, he assumed, remembering the time the Shiv Sena had recruited him to distribute racist pamphlets aimed against minorities in Bombay. They had promised him a Kwality Choc-O-Bar. [Page 86]
There was report after report of the citizen's generous support for the fighting men: about an eighty-year-old peasant who traveled to New Delhi, clutching her two gold wedding bangles, which she presented to Mother India [Indira Gandhi] for the war effort (some newspapers reported it as Mother Indira, which did not really matter — the line between the two was fast being blurred by the Prime Minister's far-sighted propagandists, who saw its value for future election campaigns). . . . Of course, in the newsreels [Of the 1971 war], no mention was ever made of dutiful Shiv Sena patrols and motley fascists who roamed city streets with stones at the ready, patriotically shattering windows that they deemed inadequately blacked-out. Or the unlucky individuals mistaken for enemy agents and beaten up with great relish by personal enemies. (Pages 297-98)
“Believe me,” said Dinshawji, “she [Indira Gandhi] is a shrewd woman, these are vote-getting tactics. Showing the poor she is on their side. Saali always up to some mischief. Remember when her pappy was Prime Minister and he made her president of Congress Party? At once she began encouraging the demands for a separate Maharashtra. How much bloodshed, how much rioting she caused. And today we have that bloody Shiv Sena, wanting to make the rest of us into second-class citizens. Don’t forget, she started it all by supporting the racist buggers." [Page 391]
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Sunny Leone a true Canadian DESI now back in India !.
I don't know who nominates and decides on these so called 'literature' awards - but if this is a sample of fiction they award - they should call it 'gutter class' what with the rampant profanity in its language. It is not about whom he wrote about - it is more about the filthy language he used.
For once I support the SS or any one who supports the ban - you can read it in the library or in your bedroom, but such literature has NO place as a 'text book' in your official university syllabus, (unless of course Playboy and Penthouse are also part of it.)
My pat on his back for having the guts to bring this to the notice of the VC and organizing the protest.
Hiren
Well, why hue and cry about the ban? Just because Shiv Sena is involved? Why there was not much discussion about Stanic verses and Da Vici code?
Let me clarify, I am disappointed. I would approve of any book and /or movie which criticize Nehru dynasty as I believe they are responsible FULLY for the mess in which India is today. That said, one should also know that any book which disparages India gets instant recognition and awards. Remember White Tiger by Adiga? The central character addresses a letter to Chairman of Communist party of China which is responsible for most horrible mass genocide of their citizens and all the bleeding heart liberals went Ga Ga over the book!
Quote:
Originally posted by hchheda
For once I support the SS or any one who supports the ban - you can read it in the library or in your bedroom, but such literature has NO place as a 'text book' in your official university syllabus, (unless of course Playboy and Penthouse are also part of it.)
My pat on his back for having the guts to bring this to the notice of the VC and organizing the protest.
Hiren
Hiren
I believe you must have read the book. I haven't.
Given the amount of filth that is shown in Indian movies/TV, I doubt a small book, that too taught to few college students would do any harm. IIRC, a Shobha De novel was part of curriculum for Bombay university students doing their MA in English. I wonder if Shobha De's filth is any better than Mistry's.
My point is when did few selected goons started deciding what I should study and what not, what I should write and what not? This is not how democracy works.
Quote:
Posted by Nightmare
Well, why hue and cry about the ban? Just because Shiv Sena is involved? Why there was not much discussion about Stanic verses and Da Vici code?
I mentioned "Satanic Verses" in my OP. I am against any form of repression against artistic freedom and freedom of speech and creativity. Same should have been the case of "The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ" or Comedy Central's ban on some "South Park" eps.
On a side note, I recently tried reading "Satanic Verses" and couldn't go beyond 40 pages. Rushdie's style of writing is pretty weird, not to mention the condescending approach of the characters, denigrating anything that is Indian.
I do not know what prompted you to start this thread. I hope it was not your secular liberal bleeding heart which was at pain. You wonder how “few selected goons started deciding what I should study and what not, what I should write and what not? This is not how democracy works.” I guess you have missed understanding the functioning of Indian democracy. You worry about the book but in India, fate of democracy is decided by “few Goons” by capturing booths and intimidating voters in UP, Bihar, West Bengal and interior parts of many states. Likewise, a few bleeding heart pseudo liberals decide economic conditions affecting lives of millions of people like Medha Patkar who helped delay Narrmda project. You would have observed that all supposedly secular left liberal newspapers have stopped giving prominence to this news since Kangress has openly come out in support of the ban.
As regards your zeal to protect artistic freedom, I hope you unflinchingly tell your friends and colleagues that you support publishing Mohammed Cartoons. I always ask views of those of my colleagues / friends who talk about “artistic freedom” about that moron who paint anti Hindu paintings.
Well, I am a Mumbaikar and a marathi manoos but I don't support the thakrey clan. Balasaheb is a dead man walking and his grandson is trying to gain a footing to continue with the gunda raj that prevails in mumbai today.
The govt neeeds to take a firm stance against these morons.
Mumbai belongs to no one like any other city or town in India and minorities must be protected.
As for Rohington Mistry's book I support it. Freedom of expression is a fundemental right of every person in a functionong democracy.
