By Padmashree Shravan Narayan

Soft strains of the shehnai, the mangal vadya herald auspicious occasions in India. Associated with religious ceremonies, its elevated status makes it a necessary instrument in north Indian weddings and festivals. If it is the harbinger of the arrival of the groom resulting in excitement and flurry of running feet and excited laughter, it also wails the pangs of separation as the bride departs for her new home. Traditionally, it sounded clarion calls and auspicious fares, blasting from processions and from the shrines and temples. The beautiful, controlled sound of the wind passing through the simple reed needed a maestro to arrest the mind and soul of the listeners which it found in Ustad Bismillah Khan. Khan Saheb breathed life into it, cajoled it, caressed it and engaged it, producing notes that hypnotised listeners.

It is a cliché that it was Ustad Bismillah Khan who gave shehnai its status with his unswerving perseverance and genius. Conquering the world with the miraculous sound of the music of his shehnai, he thus turned the fate of an ordinary instrument into one of the most important classical concert instruments of India. It was he who with his performance at the Edinburgh Festival in 1965 gave the non-Indian audience for the first time an opportunity to savour the enduring transcendence of his magic. In 1967 the London Evening Standard had declared ‘You are now expected to know about Bismillah Khan and his shehnai’. This quote later entered the 1986 Oxford English Dictionary. That year saw the shehnai and Khan Sahib entering the English language!

What transported the listeners? After all popular music too has its own appeal that excites listeners. It is the element of spirituality, the key element behind the Indian tradition and sensibilities that elevates and rises above mere ‘entertainment’ or ‘sensual enjoyment’. No wonder classical music has been perceived as one of the paths of meditation and no wonder that the ability and craftsmanship of Khan Sahib to craft the shehnai to become a recognised instrument in the world of classical music.

My first meeting with Khan Saheb was at the residence of the famous thumri singer, Naina Devi, way back in the 60s. His simplicity and childlike laughter were captivating as was his music even to our very youthful ears. With my parents, he re-lived his young days at Dumrao and then at Benaras. To me he epitomised Benaras – the forest of rasa. That evening seemed as though his music was pure magic, spiritually elevating and all consuming. He enthralled the already enraptured audience with dexterous interweaving of anecdotes and singing a few bandishes. His home at Benaras was close to Kabir Chura that had produced several legends in the field of classical music and dance. It was the meeting point of the sensitive, the spiritual and the sensuous!

This ‘great’ was a lesson for all in humility. Never a show of tantrum, always a welcome smile, and a kind word to all irrespective of caste and creed, served as great motivation to young performers.

Khan Saheb’s life and music brought to the fore the subtle message of love, humanity and an attitude of all encompassing, tolerance and acceptance of the other, as one beyond man-made barriers of religion, community, caste or creed. With him, the nirguna and nirakar swaroop of God became dominant for it was ‘timeless’ even while celebrating the saguna and sakar swaroop! He was part of an influx of musicality, musicianship and humanity that shaped a new consciousness. He epitomised the most appropriate metaphor to define India’s diversity and culture. Nowhere else could one find the residents of Benaras, a city considered sacred by the Hindus, waking to the musical notes of a devout Muslim.

Shehnai and Bismillah Khan complemented each other as did the emotional canvas afforded by the shehnai-shringar, viyog, bhakti. It was the mellifluous sound of Khan Saheb’s shehnai that spoke of the nation’s grief on the passing away of Panditji and Indiraji. It was his shehnai that aroused patriotic fervour in the nation on Republic Day.

If it was Khan Saheb’s shehnai that brings nostalgia in Goonj Uthi shehnai, it was Michael Jackson, one of the most gifted songwriter, lyricist and producer of his generation who delighted the world with his amazing moonwalk. Khan Saheb bridged the gap between the folk and the classical world as did Jackson bridging races between the black soul music and the white pop music and defining the video age. Like his other fans worldwide, I too was waiting with open arms and anxious heart to witness his triumphant return to the stage.

But with just 17 days for his historic return, Jackson’s sudden death brought a sad end to the spectacular life of this special, once-in-a-lifetime performer, who was as much adored around the world by millions of fans as he was mocked for his extravagant and peculiar lifestyle.

His lifestyle apart, Jackson has left behind a legacy as a musician and entertainer that anyone will certainly be hard-pressed to match again. Beginning his journey into the world of music as the 11-year-old wonder-child singer of the Jackson 5 and culminating it with his glorious days of the 1980s and early 1990s as the self-proclaimed “King of Pop,” Jackson became both a musical and creative genius in the world of entertainment.

He defined the art of music video with such ground-breaking hits as Billie Jean, Beat It” and the epic video of all-time Thriller, all the while

becoming a tremendous and enduring inspiration for the legions of artistes from all genres — rock, pop, soul, R&B and hip-hop — that followed him and even modeled their careers after him.

It was he who made me love pop and I remember the first album I ever bought was Thriller. Jackson proved that you can actually see the beat. He made the music come to life! He made us believe in magic. Life is not about how many breaths you take, but about moments in life that take your breath away.

For anyone who has ever seen, felt, or heard his art, he/she will say that they are honoured to have been alive in this generation to experience the magic of Michael Jackson.

Both were consummate artistes; both defined music; both bridged cultures. They are legends like no other. Both are no more.

– The author is Kathak exponent

By Charu Sharma

What a travesty of justice that he couldn’t finish what he had started at the turn of the new Millennium. Sourav Ganguly could only watch from the comfort of his living room – although I must admit in the same breath that recently retired cricketers seldom watch the game on television – as his former teammates marched on to be crowned as the Number One Test team in the world. There may be many other secondary issues, such as how long will the team remain on top … and whether they are playing far fewer Tests than they should. But the focus is on the one man who dreamt of this day. One man who made the cricket team of India “Team India.” He played such a key role, drove India forward and led from the front to instill a new winning mindset in each and every member of the squad.

The history of Indian cricket is studded with landmark moments, created by exceptional individuals who had the privilege of leading a uniquely diverse set of teammates. Despite some heroic performances, the Indian cricket team did not win a single Test match out of the 20 they played in the 1930s and 1940s. The 1950s marked their first Test win. But that was, expectedly, at home. It was only in the 1960s that Indian cricket registered its first overseas Test match victory, and connoisseurs will be well aware of the impact Mansur Ali Khan ‘Tiger’ Pataudi had, on raising the levels of self belief within the Indian team. Marked by the indomitable Sunil Gavaskar’s performances, the 1970s were quite glorious. But, strangely, India’s overseas win percentage was a dismal 6.67 in the draw-prone. 1980s and a very poor 5.71 through the 1990s, a decade when home Test wins became quite common place.

Clearly, the biggest cricket frontier that was left to be tamed by Indian cricket, was a respectable win percentage in Test matches overseas. For nearly 10 years before the new Millennium, the captains were not only individually gifted, but also had the services of a fine all-round team. Yet, something was obviously missing. Azharuddin was perhaps a touch too introverted and diffident. Tendulkar … well, who knows the ways of a genius? Maybe he felt too weighed down with the nation’s unrealistic expectations of Tendulkar as an individual, and the thought of also having to shoulder the responsibility of the team’s failure was too much to bear. Like the proverbial fairytale then, as the world moved into the new Millennium, the Prince of Kolkata was duly anointed as the new King.

Sourav Ganguly was born for the role. He didn’t even have to tailor a new cloak, leadership was second skin. What helped enormously was the spectacular way he burst onto the Test match arena, with that rare debut century and his swashbuckling ways as an ODI opener. And let us not even go into that “offside” ability, or we’ll never get back on track. As a batsman, he went through the usual highs and lows. As a bowler he could be relied upon to turn his arm over as a slow medium, effecting the odd important breakthrough. But, fielding? Well … what’s the 12th man there for, right? But fielding is, by extension, directly related to work ethic, fitness, athleticism and other very useful traits of a successful modern cricketer. It was this large chink in his regal armour, which was exploited time and again by the powers that be and led to his premature end. In a sense, perhaps he was a victim of being born in the wrong era. Even till the 70s, Sourav’s aversion to the boring, mundane task of fielding would have been easily excused as a privilege extended to the skipper. But the far more athletically demanding limited overs cricket arena had no place to hide. The kingdom flourished, but the King had to go.

Ganguly will forever be remembered for his imperious leadership. For reinforcing the confidence and self-belief of every team member. The process may have taken root thanks to Tiger Pataudi, but the era had changed and Ganguly had the services of polished professionals on the field, coupled with an enormously successful, powerful administration off the field. Up to the point where his leadership, and even his place in the team, was seriously questioned by Greg Chappell, Ganguly was the supreme commander. The seniors in the team were the best in the business and, fortunately for Sourav, not the rebellious type or ambitions for the thorny crown. However, it was the youngsters in the team who clearly benefited the most from Ganguly’s management style. The skipper was upmarket, socio economically able to hold his own. He was cultured and, being verbally adept, unafraid to express his opinions to the global media. Supported by his Board, he was able to engineer a few indiscretions on and off the field. It may have irked the establishment and, particularly the opposition no end, but it added enormously to his legend. Willing to take anyone on, and quick to spread a protective umbrella over his teammates, Sourav Ganguly was rewarded with the ultimate prize … performance.

Having entered 2010, the first decade of the new Millennium has yielded fantastic results. For the first time in the history of Indian cricket, the decade boasts of more Tests wins than losses — 38 to 24, with 35 draws. The home win percentage is still healthy, but away wins are the ultimate barometer of international success. And the Indian team has achieved a superlative high of 33.33 per cent. No surprise then, that the glittering mace symbolising supremacy in cricket is now housed in India. The current Skipper and his deputy received the mace from the ICC Chief, but, if you looked hard enough, you’d be forgiven for spotting Sourav Ganguly’s benign, smiling shadow in the photograph.

Rahul Gandhi

By Abhishek Manu Singhvi

Even the worst critics of Rahul Gandhi (RG) admit readily that he has grown tremendously in stature and persona over the years. His sobriety, balance, equipoise, transparent humility, willingness to experiment, to be deferential, steadfastness and relentless pursuit of grassroots connectivity have all undoubtedly contributed to his current situation in the Indian polity. But perhaps the single most important reason is that he has never treated politics or public life as a vehicle for power and is happy — indeed obstinately so — to keep away from all pelf, power and position and do public service while strengthening the Congress Party.

Consider this. No political party in India in 60 years has come anywhere near to achieving what RG has singlemindedly (and earlier single handedly) set out to achieve within a few years. He has galvanised the Youth Congress and the NSUI by having fully transparent, vigorously fought and objectively monitored intra-organisation elections in each State and university for each office. The logistics and numbers are humongous. An independent Election Commission, of independent former ECs, monitors it to the extent that established Congress faces are expelled or suspended if they interfere with the electoral process of these two organisations. Several States — Punjab, Gujarat, TN, Uttarakhand and others — have successfully conducted these elections and the whole country is intended to be covered by 2011. A huge cadre of disciplined, properly elected, non imposed, vibrant and enthusiastic youth running into lakhs and based upon unimpeachable membership lists would have come into existence. With the Congress Party following this model in the near future, this would be a revolution of intra-party democracy for the first time in any party in India.

RG is able to do this because he is not bothered about the loaves and fishes of office. Not only are ministerships not his priority, though it may be that of the Press, of his critics or of other commentators, perpetual speculators and soothsayers, but his scant regard for office gives him an innate strength which is unique in Indian politics. The very same critics and skeptics who made caustic remarks about his forays into rural India and his entry into the house of the poorest of the poor with a spontaneity which was both unprecedented and infectious, are now trying, albeit with hypocracy and artificiality, to emulate him. India has become so cynical about politics and politicians that we, perhaps rightly and based on sad experiences, take a very long time before we stop attributing motives for those who are in public life. In my opinion, RG has emerged for the first time after many decades as a politician who has largely successfully combated that innate cynicism about politics and politicians which the aam aadmi had perforce acquired.

RG has also successfully transcended the stereotyped Indian politician who speaks much and does little. If at all, RG practises the reverse ethic to a fault. He is not hesitant to muddy his hands, to wade into the dirt and to try to set things right, including the leadership and strength to bite the bullet and stand up if something, as it must occasionally, goes wrong. He also has an innately inclusive approach to life and people, which allows him to deal with the merits of an issue or situation without making value judgements about groups, castes, communities or individuals.

RG arrived along with India’s demographic revolution and is undoubtedly the single most eligible and likely individual to reap the so-called demographic dividend. The idiom, the context, the language and the approach he exhibits is in sync with and has captured the imagination of new India, an India where more and more people want their leaders to say what they mean and mean what they say, something RG exemplifies in every word, deed and action.

No doubt he has many challenges to face but none more formidable than the engulfing wave of old India and of stereotypes which the youth of today want us to jettison completely but which established political parties, willy nilly, keep thrusting upon the polity. The challenge is for RG to achieve his pathbreaking, innovative and dynamic ideas within the limitations and confines of the Indian political system and an over 100-year-old party with its own pulls, pressures, paradigms and exigencies.

– The author is MP, jurist, former Additional Solicitor General of India and Chairman, AICC Law and Human Rights Department

By Preeti John

Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan gave a concert in Berlin last week. The musician who has been touring Germany and other European nations was grateful for the appreciative audience.

He said that the audience for classical music in India is different from the audience in Germany — a land whose musicians he admires and where he believes classical music is appreciated. Khan, whose favourite musician is Beethoven, even made a visit to the house where he was born and which is today a shrine to him.

During his Berlin concert, the Ustad was accompanied by his two stylish sons Ayaan and Amaan. Ayaan claimed that though it is nice to be called stylish, ultimately it is his music that speaks for him. Being adept at the sarod is what matters.

It was an electic mix of people who came to hear Amjad Ali Khan and his sons. The Indian Ambassador Sudhir Vyas and diplomats from other countries gave it an international colour. There were German ‘India specialists’ and a lot of young students who, it seems, are lovers of Indian classical music. And the one sitting next to me even schooled me on some raga facts.

So, sarod vadaks and sitar players would be assured of a receptive audience in the West in the future, while our MTV generation sways to the next Katy Perry.

Knut’s buddy

I started the year with Berlin’s celebrity bear Knut and so it is appropriate that I end the year with an article on him. The three-year-old Knut has found a companion Gianna. Both the polar bears are in their adolescence and not sexually active but they seem to enjoy each other’s company quite a bit.

The initial encounter was not so smooth. Gianna, who is from Munich, whacked Knut on the face the first time they saw each other. Knut was so taken aback from his first encounter with a polar bear that he avoided her and went into hiding every time he saw his houseguest.

Now that the initial hiccups are over, the two are enjoying each other’s company. Vistors to the Berlin Zoo can see the two wrestling each other and swimming in the cold waters of the moat surrounding Knut’s enclosure. They have developed a friendship, but they still have their tiffs. She stole his birthday cake sometime back. The ‘cake’ was a block of ice filled with fruits, vegetables and fish, so Knut went ‘cakeless’ on his birthday.

But Knut seems not to have held this breach in etiquette against her — they are still friends. Knut’s human friends are so happy to see him enjoy some ‘bear company’ that they are now campaigning for Gianna to remain by its side. The polar bear from Munich was sent to Berlin, because her zoo enclosure was getting repaired.

Knut’s friends believe that her leaving would leave Knut depressed and have mounted a signature campaign to prevent her from leaving.

X’mas time

I have a two-year-old son and that for me means spending my weekends visiting Christmas markets which are all crowded and full of enervated parents and their bawling children, or adults just enervated at the crowds jostling and pushing for space. The smell of roasted chestnuts and the aroma of hot glühwein (hot spiced wine), the smell of which is intoxicating, is what greets one when one enters the markets.

This year I have not managed more than two sips of glühwein at a go, before being dragged by my son to the next little train he fancies sitting on. In most of Berlin Christmas markets I have visited, I come across Indians selling scarves and stoles.

By Dr Koenraad Elst

The wittiest mind in Delhi

In the long run, Ram Swarup will probably prove to have been the most influential thinker in the second half of the 20th century. He has, at any rate, been a crucial influence on most other Hindu Revivalist authors of the last couple of decades.

Ram Swarup was born in 1920 as the son of banker in Sonipat, Haryana, in the Garg gotra of the merchant Agrawal caste. He was a good student and earned a degree in Economics from Delhi University in 1941. He joined the Gandhian movement and acted as the over ground contact (“postbox”) for underground activists including Aruna Asaf Ali during the Quit India agitation of 1942. He spent a week in custody when a letter bearing his name was found in the house of another activist, the later homeopath Ram Singh Rana. After his release, and until the end of the war, he worked as a clerk in the American office in Delhi which had been set up in the context of the Allied war effort against Japan.

In that period, his wit made him quite popular in progressive circles in the capital. He was a declared socialist, a great fan of Aldous Huxley and a literary imitator of George Bernard Shaw. In 1944, he started the “Changers’ Club”, alluding to Karl Marx’s dictum that philosophers have interpreted the world instead of changing it. Of course, it was never more than a discussion forum for a dozen young intellectuals, including the future diplomat LC Jain, the future Planning Commission member Raj Krishna, future Times of India editor Girilal Jain, and historian Sita Ram Goel. At that time, Ram Swarup was a committed atheist, and in the Changers’ Club manifesto he put it in so many words: “Butter is more important than God.”

The Changers’ Club published two essays, both by Ram Swarup: Indictment, a highly critical review of the failed 1942 Quit India movement, and Mahatma Gandhi and His Assassin, written immediately after the murder of the Mahatma by the Pune-based journalist and Hindu Mahasabha activist Nathuram Godse on 30 January 1948. Written from a purely Gandhian perspective, its main thesis was that a society of small men cannot stand the presence of such a great man for very long: martyrdom was only befitting a man of Gandhiji’s greatness. Ram Swarup showed no interest in Godse’s motives, but he did appreciate that after the disaster of Partition, the urge to exact some punishment somewhere, though misguided (and in targeting Gandhi, misdirected), was a sign that Hindu society was not entirely dead, for suffering a calamity like the Partition and swallowing it without reaction would be a sure sign of virtual death.

At that time, the Changers’ Club was already disintegrating because its members plunged into real life, e.g. L.C. Jain became the commander of the largest camp for Partition refugees and organized the rehabilitation of Hindu refugees from the North-West Frontier Province in Faridabad, outside Delhi. In 1948-49 Ram Swarup briefly worked for Gandhi’s English disciple Mira Behn (Miss Madeleine Slade) when she retired to Rishikesh to edit her correspondence with Gandhiji. The project was not completed, but he was to remain close to Gandhism for the rest of his life.

Ram Swarup (R) with Late Sita Ram Goel(L).

Anti-Communism

Just around the time of Independence, Ram Swarup developed strong opinions about the ideology which was rapidly gaining ground among the intelligentsia around him: Communism. His first doubts developed in connection with purely Indian aspects of Communist policy. When the CPI defended the Partition scheme with contrived socio-economic arguments, he objected that the Partition would only benefit the haves among the Muslims, not the have-nots. His doubts deepening, he moved in a direction opposite to the ideological fashion of the day, and became one of India’s leading anti-Communists.

In 1949, Ram Swarup and Sita Ram Goel set up their own anti-Communist think-tank in Calcutta, then as now the centre of Indian Communism. It was called the Society for the Defence of Freedom in Asia. Among its first publications was Ram Swarup’s book “Russian Imperialism: How to Stop It”, written during the conquest of China by Mao Zedong, when the onward march of Communism seemed unstoppable. The book drew the attention of top Congress leaders worried about Jawaharlal Nehru’s steering the country in a pro-Soviet direction.

Still in 1949, Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel decided to set up a think-tank specifically devoted to monitoring Communism, the Democratic Research Service, which was formally started in November 1950. [Related in Minoo Masani: Against the Tide, p.54.] It was sponsored by the industrialist Birla family, and initially led by Morarji Desai, who passed the job on to Minoo Masani (1905-98), a Parsi and former co-founder of the Congress Socialist Party (1934), later founder of the pro-Western Swatantra Party (1959-75). It was as secretary of the DRS that Ram Swarup prepared a History of the Communist Party of India, which Masani published in his own name.

A lot of bad blood developed between Masani and Ram Swarup, who quit the DRS to join Sita Ram Goel in Calcutta. Meanwhile, the DRS continued to be operative, but beyond publishing the meritorious periodical Freedom First, it never became very dynamic. In his memoirs about the anti-Communist struggle, Against the Tide, Masani did not even mention Ram Swarup or Sita Ram Goel, much less acknowledge Ram Swarup’s hand in the History of the CPI.

There was yet another anti-Communist centre in India, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which was an international network with chapters in most countries of the free world. In India, it published the periodical Quest (Calcutta) and, for the Chinese public, China Report (New Delhi); Girilal Jain was among its Indian collaborators. However, it lost all credit when, in 1966-67, it was found out to be financed by the CIA (though by early 1966, its financing had been taken over by the Ford Foundation). [See K. Vanden Berghe: "Het Congres voor de Vrijheid van de Cultuur", Onze Alma Mater, Leuven, 1997/2, p.193-211.]

The most authentic and effective Indian centre of fact-finding and consciousness-raising about the Communist menace was and remained undoubtedly the Society for the Defence of Freedom in Asia. Though routinely accused of being lavishly financed by the CIA, this organization started with just Rs. 30,000, half of which was brought in by Goel personally, and continued its work with the help of donations by friends, its budget seldom exceeding Rs. 10,000. It published some important studies, which were acclaimed by leading anti-Communists in the West and Taiwan, and on one occasion vehemently denounced in the Pravda and the Izvestia. Until its closing in December 1955, the centre was the main independent focus of ideological opposition to Communism in the Third World.

Ram Swarup’s main books on Communism are:

• Let us Fight the Communist Menace (1949); Russian Imperialism: How to Stop It (1950)
• Communism and Peasantry: Implications of Collectivist Agriculture for Asian Countries (1950, but only published in 1954); Gandhism and Communism (1954); Foundations of Maoism (1956).

His Gandhism and Communism, which emphasized the need to raise the struggle against Communism from a military to a moral and ideological level, was brought to the attention of Western anti-Communists including several US Congressmen, and some of its ideas were adopted by the Eisenhower administration in its agenda for the Geneva Conference in 1955.

Later, Arun Shourie wrote about Ram Swarup’s struggle against Communism: “Ram Swarup, now in his seventies, is a scholar of the first rank. In the 1950s when our intellectuals were singing paeans to Marxism and to Mao in particular, he wrote critiques of communism and of the actual — that is, dismal -performance of communist governments. He showed that the ‘sacrifices’ which the people were being compelled to make had nothing to do with building a new society in which at some future date they would be heirs to milk and honey. (…) He showed that the claims to efficiency and productivity, to equitable distribution and to high morale which were being made by these governments, and even more so by their apologists in countries such as India, were wholly sustainable, that in fact they were fabrications. Today, any one reading those critiques would characterise them as prophetic. But thirty years ago, so noxious was the intellectual climate in India that all he got was abuse, and ostracism.” ["Fomenting reaction", A. Shourie: Indian Controversies, p.293.]

Ram Swarup as a Hindu Revivalist

Initially, Ram Swarup saw Gandhism as the alternative to Communism, and he has never really rejected Gandhism. He continued to explore the relevance of Gandhism to real-life problems, e.g. in his booklet Gandhian Economics (1977). Gandhian inspiration is also palpable in his The Hindu View of Education (1971), the text of a speech given before the convention of the RSS student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. But gradually, he moved from the Gandhian version of Hinduism to a more comprehensive understanding of the ancient Hindu tradition.

His first booklet on Hindu religion was written just after Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism in 1956: Buddhism vis-à-vis Hinduism (1958, revised 1984). It took a moderate view of the much-debated relation of Buddhism to its mother tradition, affirming that the Buddha was a Hindu (just as Jesus was a Jew), but conceding that Buddhism had a typical atmosphere setting it apart from the Hindu mainstream.

By the late 1970s, his focus had decisively turned to religious issues. Apart from a large number of articles published in Organiser, in Hinduism Today (Honolulu), and in some mainstream dailies (in the 1980s the Telegraph, the Times of India and the Indian Express, in recent years mostly the Observer of Business and Politics and the Birla family’s paper Hindustan Times), Ram Swarup’s contribution to the religious debate consists of the following books:

1. The Word as Revelation: Names of Gods (1980), on the rationale of polytheism; Hinduism vis-à-vis Christianity and Islam (1982, revised 1992); Christianity, an Imperialist Ideology (1983, with Major T.R. Vedantham and Sita Ram Goel);
2. Understanding Islam through Hadis (1983 in the USA by Arvind Ghosh, Houston; Indian reprint by Voice of India, 1984); in 1990, the Hindi translation was banned;
3. Foreword to a republication of D.S. Margoliouth’s Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (1985, original in 1905);
4. Foreword to a republication of William Muir’s The Life of Mahomet (1992, original in 1894); Woman in Islam (1994); Hindu Dharma, Isaiat aur Islam (1985, Hindi: “Hindu Dharma, Christianity and Islam“); Hindu View of Christianity and Islam (1993, a republication of the above-mentioned forewords to books on Mohammed by Muir and Margoliouth plus an enlarged version of Hinduism vis- à-vis Christianity and Islam); Syed Shahabuddin, who had managed to get Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses banned (September 1988), made an attempt to get Hindu View of Christianity and Islam banned as well, but a prompt reaction by Arun Shourie in his weekly column and a petition of intellectuals led by Prof. K.S. Lal contributed to the defeat of this attempt. [See K. Elst: "Banning Hindu Revaluation", Observer of Business and Politics, 1-12-1993, and S.R. Goel, ed.: Freedom of Expression, 1998].
5. Ramakrishna Mission. Search for a New Identity (1986), a critique of the RK Mission’s attempt to redefine itself as “non-Hindu”;
6. Cultural Alienation and Some Problems Hinduism Faces (1987); Foreword to Anirvan: Inner Yoga (1988, reprint 1995); Hindu-Sikh Relationship (1985); Foreword to the republication of Sardar Gurbachan Singh Talib, ed.: Muslim League Attack on Sikhs and Hindus in the Punjab, 1947 (1991; the original had been published in 1950 by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, Amritsar), also separately published as Whither Sikhism? (1991);
7. Hindu-Buddhist Rejoinder to Pope John-Paul II on Eastern Religions and Yoga (1995), a rejoinder to a papal statement opposing yogic spirituality.

Departing

Ram Swarup was a quiet and reflective type of person. He never married, never went into business, hardly ever had a job, never stood for an election, and never joined an organization or party. When I first met him in 1990, he lived in a rooftop room in the house of the late industrialist Hari Prasad Lohia, a sponsor of a variety of Hindu sages (including even Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh). He had been living with the Lohia family in their Calcutta or Delhi property since 1955; in 1996 he moved to his late brother’s house. At any rate, his biography is not very eventful apart from his daily yoga practice and his pioneering intellectual work.

He had been in rather good health when unexpectedly, he was found dead on his bed after his afternoon nap on 26 December 1998. The family doctor gave brain haemorrhage as the cause of death. He left no children but many Nationalist Hindus felt orphaned when the flames consumed Ram Swarup’s earthly remains.

Author is an eminent Belgian Scholar and has authored several monumental works pertaining to Indian History.