Preamble: Any resemblance to any real life characters is intentional
They say, drop a cat whichever way, it will land on four legs.... Argue with a psec, whichever way, the psec will repeat the same fantasy
A month or so I happened to talk to one Mr X , on you know, issues which usually fill up my blog.. Knowing fully well that many times such "talks" are waste of time, especially if the person on the other end lives in his/her own fantasy world - I somehow still went for it ... may be 1 hour on the phone...
I noticed that whatever I say about Islmic attrocities, and whatever I say about Quranic calls for violence, this person would say something like "But you see Hindus attacked the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute .... Hindus are equally bad as the Islamists " ....
Some recent comments on this blog has prompted me to think that the attack on BORI seems to be an obsession with this person ... you see there is this old story .... The guy and girl are in love.. but families don't agree.. they decide to both comitt suicide .. in front of the train... girl jumps, guy can't in time.. girl dies, guy goes mad ... and there after he keeps on repeating "train cam , she jumped " .... "train came, she jumped" , ........ poor him .. and her ...
Likewise, God knows who hit him on the head, but Mr X seems to be determined to keep on quoting BORI attack incident as proof that Hindus are as intolerant as the Islamists... even though Mr X as such does not seem to accept facts ( and wikipedia) and is never willing to have his facts checked or corrected, or get out of his world of imaginations, this post is for the unsuspecting readers lest, they be mislead to believe "Hindus - as a religious entity - attacked BORI"
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So here are some facts .....
1) Yes, wikipedia, Mr X is free to not accept this -
The group that attacked BORI .. sambhaji Brigade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambhaji_Brigade
The outfit distances itself from the Hindutva organisations and considers itself as the ideological descendant of the Maratha Empire. The outfit's members consists of mostly Maratha youths from the rural interiors of Maharashtra. The organisation's ideology is directed against the Brahmins of Marathi society. The parent organisation MSS's founder Khedekar is alleged to have close ties with many Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders, although the NCP denies it.
This group attacked some portions of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, to protest against the allegedly slanderous remarks about Maratha Empire founder Shivaji and Rajmata Jijau by American academic James Laine.
The group's activists were also in the news for attacking Hindutva leader K. S. Sudarshan with footwear by Mahesh Chavan, when he was in Solapur, to protest against the policies of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
May be Mr X will now quote a non-Indian non-British , but of his choice history book to still prove that "Hindus/Hindutva people attacked BORI" ... he he .. what can I do !
2) Let us hear from the horses mouth .. the BORI website itself as to what happened ...
http://www.bori.ac.in/news%20&%20events%201.htm
News & Events
“The Controversial Book by James Laine should be banned” - Appeals the BORI
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Rashtramata Jijabai and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj are the pride and inspiration of not only Maharashtra, but the whole nation. American author James Laine has made some highly objectionable and inflammatory statements about our revered deities in his book titled “Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India”.
The ban on the book is recently recalled by the Mumbai High Court. However, the Honorable Supreme Court, dealing with a case involving a different book, has recently given a Verdict to the effect - “In the case of foreseen threat to public harmony, the Governments of States are authorized to ban any book”. In the light of the same, the Regulating Council (RC) of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) has unanimously passed a resolution with an appeal to the Government of Maharashtra to ban the said book.After the book was released in September 2003, Dr. M. K. Dhavalikar, a Trustee of the BORI had brought the objectionable matter to the notice of the then RC of the BORI.
The RC had passed a unanimous resolution of condemnation and an appeal to the Government of Maharashtra to ban the book in a meeting conducted on December 4, 2003. A similar resolution was passed by the current RC on December 2, 2005 under the chairmanship of Dr. Vijay Bhatkar.The honorable High Court had recalled the ban on the book on April 26, 2007. Dr. M. G. Dhadphale, the Honorary Secretary, BORI, had put an appeal to retain the ban on the said book to release in the Marathi daily ‘Sakal’ (April 18, 2007) and the English daily ‘The Maharashtra Herald’ (April 28, 2007) on behalf of the Institute.With a view to introduce the world to the contribution of the BORI to Oriental Academia, it had launched a website in 2003. In the vandalistic attack on January 05, 2004, severe affliction was caused to the rare books and manuscripts, etc.
Numerous newspapers and journals had covered the event in the form of information and reactions. It has been found that some such coverage was mentioned in some links on the website. Unfortunately, the website was not edited thereafter. We wish to clarify that the links are not directly related to the BORI, and the BORI is not directly responsible for the matter in them. However, we are much thankful to the Shivabhakta Loka-andolan Samiti for bringing it to our notice that some of the links on the website mention some matter from the objectionable book. Immediately after the incidence was brought to our notice, Dr. Vijay Bhatkar, the Chairman of the Regulating Council, issued orders to close down the related webpage. This order has already been put to action.The Institute deeply regrets the confusion arisen due to this mere error of negligence. The BORI now plans to close the website down and launch a new one that would highlight our goals for the time to come. We are also pleased to announce that we wish to republish with English and Marathi translations, the Budhabhuushana, a work by Chhatrapati Sambhaji, published by us in 1926.
The Institute also announces that the Institute will always be proud party to any righteous and peaceful undertaking to uphold the honour of the revered and legendary personalities like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj and Raashtramaataa Jijabai, who have truly maintained the glory of religious, cultural and historical legacy of the nation.
Vijay Bhatkar,
ChairmanRegulating Council
