Discussion on Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah

suryag · Post by **suryag** » 10 Sep 2009 20:24

^^^ In the link above his travails are described

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 11 Sep 2009 02:52

Another thing. Looking back at history its incorrect to call it the Medieval India being under Muslim rule. It was under Turkic rule: Ghurid, Khilji, Tuglaq, Lodi and Chagtai. Yes they were Muslims but their hamartia was being of Turkic/Afghan/Perisan and we see that continuing in TSP. The current TSP elite are the descendents of the old iqtadars of the Slave dynasty

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 11 Sep 2009 04:49

suryag wrote:^^^ In the link above his travails are described

The posts discussing Jaswant Singh's background should be transferred to the thread discussing his book. His family are from the estate (thikana) of Jasol. In the old days the eldest son inherited the title (in this case Rawal) and the estate; Jaswant's father was the youngest son of the Rawal, hence his relative poverty and the bit about not being able to afford a university education for his son.

Then Jaswant Singh's decision to leave the army estranged him from his father, hence all his travails, which very few people know about:

For four years, Jaswant Singh worked as a sharecropper on a relative's land. That debt, he says, he can never repay: He tended land, milked animals (and would carry the milk every day on a bicycle to the nearby villages as dawn broke) and kept body and soul together somehow.

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who has come out in support of JS, is also from a humble background for exactly the same reason. He is from the estate of Khachariawas but is descended from one of the younger sons.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 11 Sep 2009 04:49

One aspect which has also not received enough attention is that of the other Muslim parties (Khaksars,etc.) against partition as mentioned in a post above.

The khaksars adapted very nicely to changed circumstances and came out as the champions of Islam in Pakistan. The first anti-ahmedia riots in Pakistan in the 50s was started by Khaksars.

They also held Jinnah and their ML rivals responsible for the losses of Jaan maal in East Punjab..Patiala etc.

svinayak · Post by **svinayak** » 11 Sep 2009 07:04

ramana wrote:Another thing. Looking back at history its incorrect to callt the Medieval India being under Msulim rule. It was under Turkic rule: Ghurid, Khilji, Tuglaq, Lodi and Chagtai. Yes they were Muslims but their hamartia was being of Turkic/Afghan/Perisan and we see that continuing in TSP. The current TSP elite are the descendents of the old iqtadars of the Slave dynasty

Very good observation. Actually the civilian leaders of the Indian Muslim royalty was week and are still weak in Pakistan.
The Muslim military class of the north India were the progeny of these iqtadars from the Mughal era. They were sent to crush the local Hindu leadership class so that the durbar can levy tax in that region. They could never really hold on to any area permanently.

When the British came over after 1750-1800 they found a zamindari system which was evolved from this huqumat and they just created their own "collector" system parallel to this. When they went to the NWFP and other nearby areas in Punjab and Pastun land they found that creating cantonment was the only option in these areas. Iqtadars had become part of the society in these areas and only a British military outpost on top of these zamindars can control the society.

That is how the current Pakistan society and the Pakistan Army has evolved in the 60 years. The ruling class and the military are the modern day iqtadars of the region.

RayC · Post by **RayC** » 11 Sep 2009 09:16

I am not too sure about Jaswant Singh's background, but anyone who has studied in Mayo (Wikipedia) and commissioned in the 3rd CAV, in his time, could not be a poor person.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 11 Sep 2009 17:16

RayC wrote:I am not too sure about Jaswant Singh's background, but anyone who has studied in Mayo (Wikipedia) and commissioned in the 3rd CAV, in his time, could not be a poor person.

Poor is a relative word, he was certainly not a pauper, but although born in a family of noble lineage, was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Many such people of his era where schooled by selling the family silver (I know many cases personally) when a family starts divesting of accumulated wealth for basics, its no longer a rich family. He could be such a case.

RayC · Post by **RayC** » 11 Sep 2009 20:09

Sanku wrote:
RayC wrote:I am not too sure about Jaswant Singh's background, but anyone who has studied in Mayo (Wikipedia) and commissioned in the 3rd CAV, in his time, could not be a poor person.
Poor is a relative word, he was certainly not a pauper, but although born in a family of noble lineage, was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

Many such people of his era where schooled by selling the family silver (I know many cases personally) when a family starts divesting of accumulated wealth for basics, its no longer a rich family. He could be such a case.

In the Armoured Corps and that too 3 CAV, unless you were supported by the family is a substantial way, there was no chance you could survive.

Each of their ceremonial dress would cost over Rs 5000; and in those days the pay was Rs 400. In the Armoured Corps, one led extravagant lives since that was the way it was. Much shikar and what have you and all at one's expense! Get accoutrement from England. Travel AC again on own expense, regular picnics and fun life. Present pure silver trophies to the Mess and so on. That is why they were called 'glamour boys' of the Army.

It is only a few years back with all this reorganisation etc, things became easier, but even now, one still has to maintain the opulence to some extent!

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 11 Sep 2009 20:35

A possible explanation:JS was supported by his father when he was in the Army.

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 11 Sep 2009 20:43

JS's tough times perhaps started after his estrangement from his family.
But still is some discrepancy in the narrative-the one about not affording university education,if one takes into account Brigadier Saab's 'insider' information.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 12 Sep 2009 01:16

Book Review in Telegragh, 9/11/09

Not yet Over

NOT YET OVER
- Invoking a mystic Indian identity

Nehru and Jinnah during the transfer of power, 1947
JINNAH: India — Partition — Independence
By Jaswant Singh, Rupa, Rs 695

If Mohammad Ali Jinnah was the first Paki and Lord Mountbatten the first Paki-basher (as an old joke went), Calcutta’s Direct Action Day was the first Jehad. Jaswant Singh records that a leaflet warning the “Kafer” of “the general massacre” on August 16, 1946 also reminded Muslims they had once worn the crown and ruled this country but “had become slaves of Hindus and the British”. Displaying Jinnah’s picture, the leaflet spoke of “a Jehad in this very month of Ramzan”.

This is worth repeating because inspired gossip accuses the author of glorifying Jinnah as the apostle of Indian unity and of blaming Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel for demonizing him. Neither charge can be sustained, confirming that the contrived furore over the book reflects the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s dislike of the author and a demoralized Bharatiya Janata Party’s internal power struggles. The ambitions of the egregious Narendra Modi, who cannot have read this massive volume of 669 pages and probably would not have understood it if he had, obviously helped to whip up hysteria.

Modi’s understanding must not be faulted too much, however, for in his anxiety to be fair to all sides, Jaswant Singh often seems to contradict what appears to be his thesis. He would like us to believe that a déraciné Nehru, his head muddled with libertarian Western notions that had little relevance to Indian reality, and avid for power, rejected the chance of maintaining India’s unity. Yet, Nehru’s moving confessionals to the Nawab of Bhopal and to European writers like Leonard Mosley which the author quotes, do not bear out this picture of crassness. Nehru’s own words paint him as a tired but sensitive man believing in high ideals, who fought for as long as he could and was sadly conscious that he had been forced at the end to settle for second best. Patel is not accorded a lead role at all, so all this gnashing of teeth over insulting a son of Gujarat is nonsense. Two other sons of Gujarat loom large in a book that is an account of the times rather than Jinnah’s political biography.

It illustrates the author’s perceptive view that the past in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh “has in reality never gone into the past, it continues to reinvent itself, constantly becoming our present, thus preventing us from escaping the imprisonment of memories”. Seemingly regretting a captivity in which he wallows nostalgically, Singh says, “To this we have to find an answer, who else can or will?” It would certainly help to loosen those chains if the leaders of opinion and events look forward to shaping the future instead of expending so much effort and time — five years in this case — in regurgitating our painful yesterdays. Let historians dissect dusty events in academic tomes, let those events not poison current life.

There is no point, therefore, in discussing the book in terms of whether Partition was a good or bad thing, whether Jinnah was the ambassador of Hindu-Muslim amity or the sole spokesman of Muslims, or at which juncture of history our leaders took the wrong turn… if, indeed, they did. Adapting the hallowed newspaper aphorism, facts are sacred, but each writer and reader is entitled to his opinion. It is the height of presumptuousness to superimpose one subjective interpretation on another and pretend that the latter is thereby demolished. As for missed opportunities, “If Cleopatra’s nose had been shorter the whole history of the world would have been different.”

But some of Jaswant Singh’s broader ideas do bear examination. He is horrified at the idea of an exchange of Hindus and Muslims because, like Nehru with his Western liberal secularism, he, too, sees India as an inclusive society. Yet, while readily acknowledging the enormous practical obstacles involved, population exchange is undeniably the logical corollary to Partition. Greece and Turkey formalized such an exchange under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne; it is the de facto order in many other places. Ethnic cleansing is the alternative to an agreed exchange.

As for why and when Muslims came to be regarded as a minority, we need only think of apartheid South Africa. Whites were in a numerical minority but not thought of as such because they were the ruling elite, as were Muslims in India for many centuries. Undivided Ireland’s majority Catholics were disadvantaged to benefit Protestants who were tellingly called the Ascendancy, never the minority. The position was reversed in Northern Ireland where Catholics were not only a numerical minority but also suffered from the disabilities associated with that status. A minority implies a majority, and even without sangh parivar rampaging, the majoritarian Indian State unconsciously but inevitably reflects many of the majority community’s cultural characteristics.

That is what also puts paid to Jaswant Singh’s novel idea that a Pakistan, or half-a-dozen Pakistans, could be tucked away without discomfort in the vastness and variety of an India whose linguistic states, fierce regional loyalties and divisions of caste and community give it a patchwork quality. It follows that he does not share L.K. Advani’s pet thesis that all Indians are by definition Hindu. But if Congress and Muslim League leaders bickered constantly even in the interim government, there was no reason for them not to do so on a grand scale once they governed adjoining territories as equals.

This is the work of someone who is even more a romantic than Nehru ever was. That explains the idealistic theories and flashes of impassioned rhetoric invoking a mystic Indian identity. But pages of pedestrian and often repetitive prose also recount well known facts over and over again, the endnotes spinning out even trivial points at great length. The idiosyncratic treatment of proper nouns suggests a disdain for consistency, and infelicities like “upto” and “the White Hall” further indicate the publisher’s ignorance and neglect. Rupa has not served Jaswant Singh well but that is not perhaps surprising in a land where the publishing industry is still so sadly lacking in professionalism.

SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY

The reviewer has his own pet biases which detract from the review. Faulting him for grammar is the least of the problems. The author is closet separtor. Despite hismodernity he wants to keep the Muslims out. look at his prescription for population exchange. No wonder he is Hindu Fake Liberal.

RayC · Post by **RayC** » 12 Sep 2009 09:27

He is from my School and the elder brother of a classmate.

He is rather good at English and so he does look even from that angle.

I think he is a Brahmo and not a Hindu.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 15 Sep 2009 10:53

ramana wrote: SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY

The reviewer has his own pet biases which detract from the review. Faulting him for grammar is the least of the problems. The author is closet separtor. Despite hismodernity he wants to keep the Muslims out. look at his prescription for population exchange. No wonder he is Hindu Fake Liberal.

I met him once on a flight to Singapore, he was rather bitter about how he was forced out of Calcutta by the lefties, apparently you can not be a neutral intellectual in Calcutta anymore.

I think this overwhelming pressure on those who make their living from words in India by the leftist Cabal, (I have die hard and total fraud lefty's in the family in that line) you can not get time of day from a publishing house to even get a book of Children's stories out if you do not in advance spend time with the editors lunching them and convincing how a leftist person you are.

This perpetual pressure muddles up thinking, and creates this fake persona of anti-Hindu and anti-national as a burden to bear for all life.

Even the self avowed Rightists like Mr Ray above cant truly be free of the mental shackles that the above imposes.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 15 Sep 2009 20:48

Sanku wrote:
ramana wrote: SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY

The reviewer has his own pet biases which detract from the review. Faulting him for grammar is the least of the problems. The author is closet separtor. Despite hismodernity he wants to keep the Muslims out. look at his prescription for population exchange. No wonder he is Hindu Fake Liberal.
I met him once on a flight to Singapore, he was rather bitter about how he was forced out of Calcutta by the lefties, apparently you can not be a neutral intellectual in Calcutta anymore.

I think this overwhelming pressure on those who make their living from words in India by the leftist Cabal, (I have die hard and total fraud lefty's in the family in that line) you can not get time of day from a publishing house to even get a book of Children's stories out if you do not in advance spend time with the editors lunching them and convincing how a leftist person you are.

This perpetual pressure muddles up thinking, and creates this fake persona of anti-Hindu and anti-national as a burden to bear for all life.

Even the self avowed Rightists like Mr Ray above cant truly be free of the mental shackles that the above imposes.

Sanku, Isn't this a wonderful opportunity to start a new publishing house with all the new tools like pdf and off-shore printing? Give it some thought. Even if we get half a dozen books printed a year it will be a great achievement. A limited run of 5000 copies at a time and rest by Kindle or E-books/pdf download distribution.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 16 Sep 2009 00:01

ramana wrote: Sanku, Isn't this a wonderful opportunity to start a new publishing house with all the new tools like pdf and off-shore printing? Give it some thought. Even if we get half a dozen books printed a year it will be a great achievement. A limited run of 5000 copies at a time and rest by Kindle or E-books/pdf download distribution.

An appealing challenge, but this is something that will truly require work, hard work.

However an excellent thought, a wonderful excellent thought -- Let me see start thinking about it. Let me talk to some folks locally and see whats the current status. I will then post a current summary on BRF and we can pick it up from there.

I promise to do it in time bound manner (unlike the previous promise on a online book distribution of Indian works, where I started on and drifted away), say by Dipawali for the first cut?

Basically -- Challenges and blueprint for a new (national interest) publishing house.

How does that sound.

samuel · Post by **samuel** » 16 Sep 2009 00:50

One of the things that happens is that we get very excited about new or otherwise interesting ideas but nothing pans. But that's not the problem. The problem is that when it does not pan, we go into a self-flagellation mode offering all sorts of apologies for things that did not happen. That's ok, but the point here is that this is not a full time job and you receive no pay for it. It is done in the null-space of your ordinary normal day to day life, and so there should and is no such burden. It only becomes a burden when you attach guilt or failure to the lack of progress. So, my suggestion is to shed that and merely focus on doing what you can. If it takes years, ok. that's what it takes. Just keep at it whenever possible is all that is necessary and there will be moments of urgency when you will drop everything else to do just this, but that's not a lens anyone judges you by. Don't know how else to put it...don't push yourself so much. You'll end up doing a lot more, if I might say so with a little bit of liberty.

S

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Sep 2009 00:51

OK. Lets take it up in the conceptual thread in GDF. Let that be our Diwali gift.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 21 Sep 2009 03:38

Has anyone noticed the thunderous silence of the JNU mafia - Hindu etc. on JSji's book.

Couple of reasons I can think of is the petty jealousy over the accolades and bountiful royalties they know JS is going to make over the sale of this book. Secondly this means that the right has finally figured out a way to gain a seat at the high table of dominating the discourse of how and what should be presented to the aam admi to manage his thought process.

Last and most crucial, the loose alliance they have with the Nehru dynasty will be at risk if the fallout is not contained. They know that this book, though ostensibly about Jinnah is leading to uncomfortable questions about the role of the INC and Nehru in India. The children of that generation of the dynasty – Haksars, Thapars, Sehgals etc. are very cosily enconsed in arms of the left. Their books are marketed by the crony secularists (I think this is a better term than the unimaginative pseudo secular term coined ).

Any thoughtful Bengali nationalist - left(FB) particularly, would use this crack to widen the crack and raise similar questions about Shri Subhash Chandra Bose and his mentor, the great Rash Behari Bose. Their silence goes to show that that their spirit is either dead in Bengal or will simmer for more time due to lack of direction.

Back to JSji’s book….I think this is basically leading to peeling of another layer of the onion that makes the Paki RAPE alliance. Gujral started the process with his Gujral doctrine many years ago....even WKKs have played a role in promoting Indian soft power in Pakistan. (left thought has been used to advance Indian interests in Nepal recently) Not very popular in BRF...more later.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 21 Sep 2009 03:43

The Sodha rajputs in Umerkot, Pakistan are distant kinsmen of JSji.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXk0ISq_ ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaIDqT2e ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_dMRT5Z ... re=related

This is why I said earlier in this thread JS has good understanding of the ground situation in Pakistan...probably better than most people in Indian establishment.

++++++++++++++

Add later: from Islamic Voice website; googled for it. confirms my hunch.

Sodha Rajputs conform to their rigid social customs and consider it infra-dig to even accept a glass of water from their daughters’ sasural (in-laws place). But the unfortunate Partition of the country has so divided the community that they have to take their offspring across the border through Wagah border every year and camp at Jodhpur to seek matrimonial alliances. Even while their relatives may stay at Jaisalmer or Barmer, border towns of India, just about 40 kms across the border, they have to take the circuitous route to Lahore in Pak Punjab, cross the Wagah-Attari border and enter India via Amritsar and travel down to Rajasthan.

The revival of the Munabao-Khokhrapar rail link has made them jubilant at the prospect of visiting their relatives the easy way. But India’s announcement that visas would not be granted to residents of border areas has a bit saddened them. However, they expect this restriction to fade soon. Even then, former Sindh Minister, Kunwar Humer Singh is hopeful about the revival of cultural ties between the severed components of the Sodha Rajputs. Jagmal Singh, a Sodha Rajput leader feels that matrimonial alliances across the border work out costly for them as often they have to visit the Indian embassy in Islamabad to secure a visa (Karachi Consulate remaining closed for almost a decade). The recent visit by BJP leader and former minister for External Affairs, Jaswant Singh to the area (he crossed the Munabao-Khokhrapar border check-point) has also led to the expectation that finally all barricades would be dissolved between the two countries. Currently Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh represents the Barmer constituency. He won the seat promising two things: water to the area and opening the border check-post with Pakistan. Several Rajput families have not seen their daughters for two to three decades after they were married away to bridegrooms on the other side.

To stop Hindu women from getting kidnapped in Sindh, it is important that the Khokhrapar-Munnabao link be stronger to enable Hindu women to marry in India.

JSji is actually doing something to help improve the situation of the Hindus in SIndh. He has used his personal influence (intercede with Mush/NS etc.) to actually bring about positive change for his people. A truely commendable effort.

Ridiculing and ruining the reputation of people down who actually deliver is a time honored Indic tradition...sadly BRF is afflicted with the same malaise. Furthermore most of us who do not been through this trauma of separation from family cannot be expected to understand the suffering that separation brings.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 21 Sep 2009 04:31

From Telegraph in 2006

In the forbidden zone, face to face with an almost-forgotten goddess
DATELINE HINGLAJ
Despatch from one of the most inaccessible pilgrimage points
AVEEK SARKAR

The entrance to the Hinglaj cave where the goddess resides: There is no imposing architecture or riveting sculpture... but there is great theatre
Hinglaj (Baluchistan): Her face may not have launched a thousand ships but it nearly ended Creation. The beauty may have been compelling but it did not lead to any seizure of the realm.

Yet for over a thousand years, the legend of Sati has held sway.

It still does. Even in Talibanised Pakistan. I accompanied the 86 pilgrims and BJP leader Jaswant Singh to find out what it means to be an almost-forgotten Hindu god in a forgotten part of the world.

This is how it all began. Sati, Shiva’s consort, ended her life by jumping into a pool of fire to protest against the humiliation of her husband by her own father.

Heaven hath no fury like a god bereaved. So Shiva responded by going into the dance of destruction. But the guiles of Vishnu saved the day. The remains of Sati were cut in 51 pieces and scattered across India. The 51 places where the remains fell are known as pitha and constitute the Grand Slam of Indian pilgrimage.

As many as 49 of the 51 pithas are within India. A few lie outside its current geographical boundary. One of them, Hinglaj, is in Baluchistan.

The scalp of Sati, replete with vermilion, the mark of the married woman, fell in Hinglaj.

On this corporeal relic grew a place of worship ?somewhat in the fashion of Buddhist stupas. Thus bloomed the Hindu flower in the barren wilderness of Baluchistan.

In truth, the goddess at Hinglaj began her reign much earlier but as an unknown regional satrap. Once assumed in the 51-strong National Democratic Alliance of Sati, her munificence stood vastly enlarged. Hinglaj, born non-Aryan, became part of the Shakti diaspora. Her humble origins were soon forgotten.

Despite the lineage, Hinglaj never quite received the attention it deserved.

The journey was arduous and long. The 250-km trudge across an unfriendly desert was an ultimate test of faith. (Every pilgrim, says Jaswant, deserved a Victoria Cross). The entire route was and remains infested with dacoits. The visitors, mainly local Hindus from Sindh, were routinely robbed.

The only other pilgrims the goddess attracted were the steady trickle of Rajputs ? kings and kin ? from Rajasthan and neighbouring Gujarat. Even that ebbed with Partition. Outside of Rajasthan, only Bengal had a certain familiarity with Hinglaj. This was due to a Bengali tantrik who visited the shrine before Partition and wrote a harrowing account.

His best-selling journal is the only modern chronicle of the pilgrimage. It later spawned a hugely successful Bengali film with Uttam Kumar as the pilgrim. Despite a fascination for Aryanised native gods, few Bengalis were willing to hazard a perilous journey.

Hinglaj for them was a romantic interlude. But as a token Bengali among the yatris, I was recognised as the representative of the state’s undying Shakti cult.

It would be quite wrong to blame the declining interest only on bigotry. The fact is, getting into Pakistan is complicated enough unless one is a cricketer.

Even for those granted a visa, Baluchistan falls in the forbidden zone.

In the best of times, Baluchistan is an Allah-forsaken country. With 43 per cent of Pakistan’s land and only 5 per cent of its population, it defines nowhereness. Hinglaj, where the goddess resides, is 110 km from the nearest police station. The village panchayat in Hinglaj rules over an area that is 160 km in length.

There is no electricity or telephone or post office. Not even a chai shop. The only local population appears to be Russell vipers and Ibex goats.

And it is hardly the best of times. Baluchistan is divided into tribes. Their current preoccupation is fighting among themselves, which, to be fair, is what they have always done. They are also fighting with Islamabad which appears to be a contemporary undertaking.

Pakistan is convinced that India is behind these troubles, as much as India believes Pakistan is behind every act of arson on its soil. Baluchistan houses the country’s missile-testing zone, making the region security-sensitive. The long and largely unguarded coastline is a standing temptation for the drug traffic. The trade’s current capo, Pappu Arshad, runs his fief from the region with, it is said, the administration turning a blind eye.

Enter Jaswant Singh. The man from Jaisalmer pestered the Pakistan government into allowing him to lead a group of Indian pilgrims by road from India to Baluchistan. Even for Singh, whose persuasive skills have put him in the race for the UN secretary generalship, it was not easy. But Singh was not one to give up easily. He met the Indian Prime Minister who agreed to speak to Pervez Musharraf and only then did Islamabad relent.

Singh’s trip marked the informal opening of the Rajasthan gateway to Pakistan. And Singh did it with great style. Some 86 pilgrims, mostly Marwari Rajputs from the Jaisalmer region, crossed the Munaba border on foot and then boarded four-wheelers to cross the Thar on an ancient pilgrim track in disuse for years. Two of them were Rajasthan-registered vehicles fitted for the occasion with special sand tyres.

Once in a while even a pilgrim needs to make his point.

Opinion remains divided as to why Singh undertook this trip. Pakistan believes that for the BJP leader, it is a positioning game. The parivar factotums in the Hinglaj entourage saw no reason why opening up a Rajasthan corridor to Pakistan will impact national politics.

But they readily concede that Singh will be seen as being occupied with larger issues at a time when the next generation in the party are busy sniping at each other. Singh’s detractors in the party point to the fact that the gateway to Pakistan falls conveniently in his son Manavendra’s Lok Sabha constituency.

While the younger Singh has done well by his electorate, the significant Muslim population could become hazardous to his political health. The opening of the borders ? the railways will begin their service later this month ? will prove a boon to the many Muslim (and some Hindu) families divided by Partition, thereby earning the Singh khandaan political brownie points.

Judging by the initial reaction, Singh may be heading for a home run. All across the route, Pakistanis lined up to welcome the Indian guests. In Umraokot, where Emperor Akbar was born, flower petals were thrown on the Indian cars. This was a spontaneous act of goodwill, given the fact that the parivar is unlikely to have engineered support in Pakistan and the ISI would hardly be that ingenious.

If politics is what brought Singh to Hinglaj, it was politics that gave Hinglaj its eminence.

Hinglaj was one of the many small-time local gods that existed all over India. They were pre-Aryan and had little or nothing to do with Hinduism as we know and practise it. Very cleverly, the early Aryans imbibed them in their midst, thus giving birth to the politics of coalition.

In contrast, the latter invaders ? Islam and Christianity ? sought to expand through conversion. Hostile takeovers, as L.N. Mittal is learning to his chagrin, leave residual bitterness. Babri being just one consequence.

The first versions of Sati’s tale were far less dramatic. The Mahabharata and the philosophical canons known collectively as The Brahmanas recount Sati’s discomfiture and eventual suicide but make no mention of Shiva’s anger. Vishnu’s delightful antic, almost Bollywood in character, of slicing the body in many pieces was introduced many centuries later.

But this simple extension, innocuous on the surface, had much larger implications. It provided the intellectual argument and a simple but clever way for the Aryans to reach out and absorb gods and ideas native to India. Existing places of worship were identified and declared Hindu pithas. Native gods were not left in the lurch but admitted to the pantheon.

In the spirit of a common minimum programme, the idols or the objects of worship were left untouched while non-Aryan rituals, such as tantra, were allowed into the fold. Even the idea of corporeal relic, the leading Indian scholar on the subject, D.C. Sarkar, has argued, was merely an early attempt to regain lost territory from the Buddhists. Subsequently, Buddha was declared a full avatar of Vishnu.

The adaptation of Hinglaj in the Hindu family was thus good politics. In the absence of local history, it is difficult to say when all this happened. But a distinguished scholar, David Gordon White, professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in his book on Siddha tradition claims that a fourth century Greek geographer, called Ctesias, has referred to Hinglaj in his work.

Little has changed in the intervening years. The early travellers used camels as means of travel. Today they use four-wheelers. But the Baluchi desert remains as ever, mildly vegetated and as uninviting. Just like Rajasthan, said Hukum Singh, the Jaswant family driver, who steered the Mahindra Scorpio all the way from Jaisalmer.

And just like Baluchistan, deserts in Rajasthan can sometimes be unfriendly. Either side of the fence, the camel drivers can be enterprising: visitors to the Jaisalmer dunes, for example, often find their burden lightened if they are not too careful.

The great desert bonhomie is, thus, one of life’s enduring fictions. Those who live with nature’s hostility learn how to avail of life’s opportunity. No one would know this better than the chief minister of the state, Mohammad Yousaf Aliani.

In yesteryears, he was the Jam, i.e. nawab, of the region. Today he is the elected chief minister. While his son, a Pramod Mahajan-like figure who sports a rather visible Giorgio Armani shirt under the Baluch tunic, is the district Nazim or head of the zilla parishad. Hinglaj is part of his charge.

The father-and-son team rule Quetta with an iron hand. Together with the federal government in Islamabad, they have assembled a 40-strong convoy to take the yatris to the shrine. The convoy included federal troops, provincial police and elite anti-terrorist commandos equipped to the teeth with German machine guns and American rocket-launchers.

The surrounding hills were “sanitised” with soldiers taking charge. The entire 250-km route from Karachi was manned by the men in black.

Even the Indian high commission was impressed. They are not leaving things to chance, said an accompanying member of the Indian mission.

Why? I asked.

“They do not wish any untoward event to take place.”

A signboard points to Nani Mandar, as the shrine is known in Pakistan
It was not only the show of strength which impressed the Indians. The Baluchistan government sent its ministers along with a Lexus 4x4 sports utility vehicle ? the sort Amar Singh uses ? at the Sindh-Baluchistan border to receive the Indians. The chief minister himself drove a few hundred kilometres from his capital just to host a lunch at Hinglaj and even left his son, the Nazim, to spend the night with the yatris. “They have spent crores,” said a member of the Indian mission, “to make you feel at home. The unused bottles of the branded water are enough to fill a swimming pool.”

Such expression of goodwill did not hinder the little one-day internationals the two foreign ministries play. Indian diplomats are rarely allowed a peep into this side of the world. The Jaswant Singh trip was, in a sense, a godsend.

There was no harm in pushing our luck, reasoned the Indians and requested a ‘recce’ trip. No deal, said Islamabad. Can we at least send an officer a day in advance to Hinglaj so that he can go through the arrangement and is in situ to welcome the Indian leader of the Opposition? the official tried again.

Shoaib Akhtar did not blink.

There is more than one reason why Pakistan is reticent about allowing Indians in Baluchistan and one good reason why it is being plain silly. There is strife and allegations of an Indian involvement and there is the missile-testing zone. But the Chinese have built them a spanking new port on the Arabian Sea with, it is said, tacit approval from the Americans. The Persian Gulf is a potential tinder-box and should the occasion demand it, Washington would have one more springboard for an operation.

But such arguments are silly because satellites have made nonsense of yesterday’s idea of security.

What is food for the mullah, though, is food for the kafir. A spanking new port requires a spanking new road. So the Chinese have built one to facilitate traffic between Karachi and the new port at Gwadar.

The road cutting through the spectacular Makran Coast Range passes through a village called Aghore which is merely 20-odd km from the shrine. (Aghore is the place through which Alexander’s army returned after the battle with Porus). The once inaccessible goddess has thus been brought to the doorsteps, ending over 1,500 years of traveller’s nightmare. So the pilgrim progresses. But the goddess?

At first sight, the She could disappoint. There is no imposing architecture or riveting sculpture. Hinglaj is not 10 Janpath but a minor coalition partner. It is tribal paganism Aryanised only at the fringe. But there is great theatre. The goddess resides in a cave sculpted by nature with wind and water in a narrow canyon.

The opening of the cave would be about 30 feet in height and around 60 to 70 feet in breadth. A river ambles its way in the bottom of the gorge. Its placid existence ? and in patches non-existence ? is misleading. With the right rain, its passion could be aroused and then it cuts completely the access to the goddess.

Inside the cave, there is no idol to speak of, though there is an object of worship. Part of the rock is dressed in a sari and painted with vermilion, invoking awe and creating an atmosphere of reverence. Here the offerings are made. There is a U-shaped tunnel just underneath the deity.

The ritual act of pradakhsheen (going round a place of worship) is done crawling in the labyrinth. The majesty of Hinglaj lies not in its details. One looks not at the snapshot of a planet but at the portrait of the Milky Way itself.

The 20-km ride from the highway prepares one for the spectacle. A lazy dirt track moving in and out of the embrace of the mountain, crawling across the river bed? the side of the mountains almost sculpted by wind from the sea? this is nature unspoilt to perfection.

Civilisation has spared Hinglaj. Barely 20,000 visit the shrine in a year and that too in the few comfortable months of the year. Then nature takes over. The angry sun of the desert and the sudden flashes of flood in the rain ensure the deity her seclusion.

All that may change with progress. The new coastal highway cutting down travelling time to a mere three hours and an improved India-Pakistan relationship could cost even the Mother of the Universe her privacy.

The gods, like men, can survive apathy. Can they, unlike men, survive the adulation?

Rahul Mehta · Post by **Rahul Mehta** » 22 Sep 2009 07:43

Paul wrote:To stop Hindu women from getting kidnapped in Sindh, it is important that the Khokhrapar-Munnabao link be stronger to enable Hindu women to marry in India.

JSji is actually doing something to help improve the situation of the Hindus in SIndh. He has used his personal influence (intercede with Mush/NS etc.) to actually bring about positive change for his people. A truely commendable effort.

Ridiculing and ruining the reputation of people down who actually deliver is a time honored Indic tradition...sadly BRF is afflicted with the same malaise. Furthermore most of us who do not been through this trauma of separation from family cannot be expected to understand the suffering that separation brings.

Paul,

Honoring people who ruin India is also a time honored Indic tradition and sadly many BRites openly practice it.

I support letting ALL Hindus from Pak/BD into India within next 5 years and give them work permit and later citizenship.( http://rahulmehta.com/bangladeshi_hindus.htm ) But we should seal ALL borders with Pak as far as possible --- no flow of goods and humans should occur except diplomats. No Paki should be allowed to enter India and no Indian should be allowed to visit Paki, except diplomats. And Sodha Rajputs should be allowed to come into India, but if they come, they cannot go back and if they go back, they will not be allowed to come into India.

Opening border with Pak is giving open invitation to terrorists, fake currency, RDX and many other nuisance creating elements. And shame on Manevendra/Jassu if they are opening borders with Pakistan at one more point. He should buy some candles and join the candle regiment.

From Telegraph in 2006

Judging by the initial reaction, Singh may be heading for a home run. All across the route, Pakistanis lined up to welcome the Indian guests. In Umraokot, where Emperor Akbar was born, flower petals were thrown on the Indian cars. This was a spontaneous act of goodwill, given the fact that the parivar is unlikely to have engineered support in Pakistan and the ISI would hardly be that ingenious.

Teesta Setalvad will get equally get welcome in Pakistan as well as Saud.

As a sign of Indian-Paki bhai-bhai, I would request Jassu to stay in Paki for rest of life and spread of the Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai message. And Manevendra, who wants one more rail link and border opening between Pak and India should take the first train to Pak and never come back.

We have enough Teesta like people in India. We dont need more. Send as many as possible to Pak.

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 22 Sep 2009 12:02

Another Pakistani review by Dr Humayun Khan former ambassador to India

In Pakistan, commentators gloated over the fact that Nehru and Patel were portrayed as villains of the piece as far as partition of the subcontinent was concerned and the writer had sought to remove the demonisation of Jinnah in this context. Some commentators even ascribed motives to the author, claiming that he was trying, either to discredit the Congress Party or that he wanted to add fire to Pakistani sentiments by denying all the credit for partition to the Quaid-i-Azam.

In 2004, I co-authored a book with Ambassador G. Parthasarthy of India, titled Diplomatic Divide. In this we spoke about our respective experiences as envoys in Delhi and Islamabad. At that time I wrote about Jaswant Singh, "I saw in him a man of keen intellect, of great character and with an impressive command of the English language. Some in Pakistan have accused him of being arrogant. He is not. He is just dignified and polished."

The heart of the country Jinnah created lay in Punjab, where the leadership had traditionally been the creation of the British, so it was always likely that, after him power would shift to the feudals and the military. Moreover, his dream of a Muslim majority entity encompassing virtually the whole of northern India, including a united Punjab and Bengal was finally translated into an untenable structure with two geographically and culturally separate wings. Mountbatten openly said this would not last more than 25 years. He was right when, almost to the day, Bangladesh came into being after another bloodbath.

Writers in Pakistan would do well to follow the example of Jaswant Singh and be unafraid of challenging old shibboleths. Hero-worship does not make nations. Jinnah’s message must not be turned on its head as a slogan in pursuit of power. In this book, we have a distinguished Indian statesman, an ardent opponent of partition, advising us that what has been done cannot be undone, nor should it be. But it is still not too late to realise Jinnah’s dream of two communities, now with their own sovereign countries, to work together and in harmony for the common good of all the millions of South Asia.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 22 Sep 2009 23:17

RMji,

WKKs can also serve as a tool for advancement of India interests if used at the right time. The leftist naxals are used as a tool by the anglo saxon right to widen the fissures in Indian polity.

JS’s book can be projected as a thought…tossed into the open to see how it works out. If his book has merit, it will survive, if not, he will retire into igonomy and treated as a pariah by the establishment. Judging from the guarded reaction of the left, they know this for what it is.

BTW….if JS is another 21st century Jaichand, why are Teesta/Aroy not making common cause with him. Why is he not getting an invitation from Mulayam to join the SP so far.

I wrote on 24september, 2008

My hunch is future generations will look at the implementation of Gujral Doctrine (not 9/11) as the catalyst which caused Pakistan to unravel. The cross-LOC trade and traffic taking place now which is attributed to JN Dixit is actually a continuation of this doctrine....as are our future efforts to get more transit points in Kokhrapar-Munnabao in Rajasthan or the ferry beween Karachi and Mumbai.

Gujral doctrine was ridiculed a lot when during it's inception, but in it's other versions it has gained acceptance across the spectrum.

History will probably judge IK Gujral more favorably than BRF is doing now

The liberal/leftist RAPES form the outermost core of the onion. They have already opened lines of communication with their counterparts across the border from the days when IKGujral was the PM. India needs to start working through it’s RAPES to influence the events in Pakistan to ensure there we have our own surrogates when the Radcliff line starts getting softer.

Rest assured the Indic mind will keep finding a way to circumvent all efforts of her enemies and short sighted wellwishers to undercut it’s interests.

JS’s work IMO will be looked at in the future as continuation of the understated approach started by Gujral in unpeeling of the onion that is Pakistan. There are several similarities here in the way USSR unravelled....I know I am in a minority or probably the only one who thinks this way...perhaps that is the way it should be.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 22 Sep 2009 23:28

There was similar opposition in BRF from several posters on BRF (Sunil Sainis etc.) when limited cross border traffic was allowed across the LOC in 2004-2005. Where is that angst now.

The late JN Dixit, NSA at that time was a strong proponent of this move.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 23 Sep 2009 00:10

Paul wrote:There was similar opposition in BRF from several posters on BRF (Sunil Sainis etc.) when limited cross border traffic was allowed across the LOC in 2004-2005. Where is that angst now.

The late JN Dixit, NSA at that time was a strong proponent of this move.

Personally I never liked that approach, then or now (no I am not Sunil Saini's and I did get into spats with him then so its not that I agree with him totally)

I would rather have a full hawk like approach, burning of bridges, with us or against us approach.

I think its not the Onion thats Pakistan which forces India to do what you refer to but the Onion thats India.

rkirankr · Post by **rkirankr** » 23 Sep 2009 17:39

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/prana ... n/508595/0
Nice article . Sorry if posted earlier

Gagan · Post by **Gagan** » 23 Sep 2009 21:22

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 963334.cms
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 940845.cms

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 23 Sep 2009 23:09

Paul wrote: BTW….if JS is another 21st century Jaichand, why are Teesta/Aroy not making common cause with him. Why is he not getting an invitation from Mulayam to join the SP so far.

Paul-ji

Amar Singh already invited JS into SP. I posted a link to that in one of these pages. Teedata/Aroy's strings are controlled somewhere else.

That said I do not think JS is modern-Jaichand. He wrote a right book on a wrong person, and at a wrong time.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 23 Sep 2009 23:34

Paul,

Honoring people who ruin India is also a time honored Indic tradition and sadly many BRites openly practice it.

Judging from the discourse so far, this honor should be bestowed on me only. Thank you RMji.

Need to do whatever it takes to re-establish Indian control west of the Indus. As long as India benefits, I don't care what people call me.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 11 Jan 2010 06:10

I am glad this thread is still around. RM-ji, lookie here, someone from the BJP is on your side.

Shourie disagrees with Jaswant Singh’s assessment of Jinnah
Submitted 18 hrs 10 mins ago
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Mohammed Ali Jinnah paralysed the interim government through Liyaqat Ali. From 1935 onwards, he worked stealthily and continuously with the British to thwart every scheme that might have preserved a united India,” Arun Shourie says in his latest book.
In his 25th book titled “We Must Have No Price And Everyone Must Know That We Have No Price”, the former Editor of The Indian Express and The Times of India and ex-union minister “profoundly” disagrees with Jaswant Singh’s assessment of Jinnah.
“Ever since I read the multi-volume Jinnah Papers brought out by the National Archives of Pakistan - the two-volume Foundations of Pakistan and four-volume History of Partition of India, he (Jinnah) seemed to me to be a schemer, one who used and was used by the British to divide India,” the BJP leader says.
The book released yesterday touches upon a variety of issues ranging from internal security, India’s Tibet policy, reforms in higher education and climate change.
Shourie also differed with those “who still dream of a grand confederation of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh” and who talk of “Akhand Bharat”.
“The best thing that has happened for us is the Partition. It has given us breathing time, a little time to resurrect and save our pluralist culture and religions. Had it not happened, we would have been bullied and thrashed and swamped by Islamic fundamentalists,” he says.

If we agree that partition has given us breathing time. The question is, do we need more breathing time.

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 11 Jan 2010 06:33

Arun Shourie disagreed with the views of JS on Jinnah, right after the book came out. I think it is captured in his famous interview with Shekhar Gupta of Walk the Talk on NDTV, which had the "BJP is like a Kati Patang" remark. That interview should set an example for all on how to have your own voice, even if you are in a political party.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 15 Apr 2010 01:47

In line with my thesis that JS thoughts stem from:

1. concerns for his kinsmen across the border in Sindh.
2. His efforts to speed up the coming anschluss between Indo-Pak.
3. He has his ears to the ground as evidenced by his pilgrimages to rarely visited Hindu holy places in Pakistan. Through his efforts he is doing what he can to preserve and revive the hindu heritage of the regions comprising Pakistan.

Bring down Indo-Pak ‘Berlin Wall’

By Amar Guriro

KARACHI: Jaswant Singh, former Indian foreign minister and author of ‘Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence’ - a book that praises the founder of Pakistan and caused his expulsion from the Bharatiya Janata Party - said Tuesday that the “Berlin Wall” at the Pakistan-India border erected since the 1965 war should now be brought down.

“Masses on both sides of the border are longing to come close to each other, therefore, we must let go of the shadows of history and let the new dawn arrive. We must create a strong relationship with each other, otherwise the poverty on both sides of the border would not be wiped away,” said the veteran Indian politician at a press conference held prior to the launch of ‘Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence’ published by the Oxford University Press at the city’s historical landmark Mohatta Palace.

Singh recalled the painful moments of his life when the copies of his book were set on fire in India.

“A book is an author’s child and when it is set on fire, the author feels the same pain that someone feels if his or her child is on fire,” he said.

“I felt very sad that a small section of people who had not even read my book expressed their anger by setting it on fire, but otherwise I am satisfied with the popularity of the book, and people in both countries [Pakistan and India] have taken interest in it.”

Long before the formal launch of the book in Pakistan, its pirated versions were available in the country. In the book, Singh opines that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s centralised policy was responsible for the Partition and Jinnah was unnecessarily demonised by India.

Speaking about strict visa policies of Pakistan and India for each other, he said the people on both sides were suffering because of them.

He said thousands of people from the Sindh province had relatives in Rajasthan and other bordering states of India but were not issued visas.

“When a person living in the Thar desert wants to meet his relatives living only 30 kilometres away on the other side of the border, he has to travel 30,000 kilometres to get there, which is not fair. I belong to the Indian Thar of Rajasthan and who else could know this pain better than me,” he said.

He said he has always advocated removal of issuing visas on a city basis.

Talking about the US and North Atlantic Territory Organisation’s intervention in India and Pakistan’s mutual understandings, Singh questioned how could the waves of Atlantic reach the Himalayas.

“The US is around 8,000 miles away from Pakistan, whereas India is only eight minutes away, therefore the people of India and Pakistan must resolve their differences themselves.

When Singh was asked during the press conference about his efforts to pacify the situation before the Kargil War when he was the Indian foreign minister, he justified his intentions by pointing out that he had arrived in Lahore with then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in a bus for peace negotiations before the war started.

“Usually a prime minister does not travel in a bus to any other country, but he [Vajpayee] did it and before leaving Amritsar, Vajpayee had said that this bus was not made of iron and other material, but of emotions. Right after the bus yatra, the Kargil War began.”

The popularity of Singh’s book could be judged from the fact that it is being translated into Gujarati, Marathi, Tamil, Marali and even Bengali.

During the media briefing, he said that he was leaving it to the people of Sindh to translate his book into Sindhi.

During his stay in Pakistan, he would also launch his book in Islamabad and visit a Hindu religious place, the Hinglaj Mandir in Balochistan.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 27 Apr 2010 02:33

X-post...

Rupesh wrote:link

Read it if you are in a mood to Puke..

During the Q and A session, Jaswant repeats his soft-spoken conviction: “The real renaissance of Islam would have taken place in undivided India if there had not been a partition.” He does not go into much detail, but here is one lead for our religious scholars/academics to follow and prove or disprove Jaswant’s contention. While such a topic can never lock in a conclusion due to the pluralistic viewpoints Hindus and Muslims hold on this sensitive subject, it does not hurt to open the forum. A Pakistani-American once said to me that Islam in its pure and unadulterated sense will descend on Pakistan one day. “It will come from outside; not from within Pakistan

“You don’t condemn a subcontinent because you are tired,” says Jaswant of the indecent haste in which the British quit India. “Nehru too was in a hurry because he too was tired. Do tired men carve out nations? Jinnah wasn’t impatient even though he knew his time on earth was ending. United India was broken hastily… great events are often accompanied by small events that leave behind issues that the coming generations have to pay for.”

We sit in pin drop silence listening to his powerful thesis delivered in an authoritatively mellifluous tone loud enough to thunder across the hall of over 1,000 initiated. He tells us how the young Nehru, “born with a silver spoon” was groomed by his father to enter politics, while Jinnah was a self-made man, who until he became a successful lawyer, would walk to his place of work and live in a shanty hotel in Bombay. Jinnah would say: “There’s a place at the top always; but you have to climb the stairs. There’s no lift”!

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 29 Apr 2010 09:46

JS talks peace Pakis talk war

When Jaswant Singh visited Lahore recently for his book launch, a Lahori pleaded with Mr Singh to ask the Indian government not to block Pakistan's water. While Jaswant Singh's answer was the usual stand of the Indian establishment that 'all matters should be sorted out as per the procedure laid down in the Indus Water Treaty', the huge round of applause that the questioner got reflected the feelings of the ordinary Pakistani. And these were the urbane, book-loving, literate Pakistanis and not the 70 per cent not-so-educated Pakistani farmers whose livelihood is directly related to the availability of water and who are not so rational with their emotions.

Emotions that water generates are far more intense than emotions generated by many other issues, as reflected by the numerous enmities and murders in our rural areas caused by disputes over water. While Kashmir is an issue which has the maximum emotive appeal in Punjab, shortage of water is one issue which directly hits most farmers not only in Punjab but in Sindh, NWFP and partly in Balochistan as well.

Tasneem Noorani is a former federal secretary

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 22 May 2010 12:36

Jaswant Singh to be welcomed back in BJP?

Senior BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told MiD DAY that he continues to have great respect for Singh. "He is a very senior leader. He has always been a true follower of the BJP ideology." A senior national leader of BJP on the condition of anonymity said, "There is a serious and conscious effort to bring back all leaders, including Jaswant Singh, who left the party for one reason or the other."

A senior BJP leader from Rajasthan said the need for inducting Jaswant Singh had become particularly pressing following the death of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 22 May 2010 14:27

I will wait before he is formally back in, before I say --> I told you so

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 22 May 2010 21:34

He should never have been let go. BJP should have shown itself to be stronger and more confident than that.

Anyway, I've been plodding thru his book - it's difficult reading. Can you imagine the guy talking in his sonorous monotone almost for an hour nonstop, that's the effect the book has on you!!! It is pure stubbornness that's keeping me at it

Muppalla · Post by **Muppalla** » 22 May 2010 21:40

JEM, I read his first book "A call to honour:In Service Of Emergent India" and I loved the style. I don't know if he has written the second one in the same style.

Regarding JS coming back to BJP, where he will go? These guys have no option other than sink or sail with the same. Advani/JS praising Jinnah is some sort of stolkhome syndrome.

JwalaMukhi · Post by **JwalaMukhi** » 22 May 2010 22:13

Sanku wrote:I will wait before he is formally back in, before I say --> I told you so

So, what will the welcome reception be like. "Welcome sir back to the clan and this neck of our woods, here is your hood and robes."

Sanku · Post by **Sanku** » 23 May 2010 11:38

JwalaMukhi wrote:
Sanku wrote:I will wait before he is formally back in, before I say --> I told you so
So, what will the welcome reception be like. "Welcome sir back to the clan and this neck of our woods, here is your hood and robes."

Something like that

, in fact when he was expelled and the book banned etc, I had maintained it was an elaborate charade to get people to read the book and he would be back sooner than later.

Not to beat my own drum, but many of my predictions have been coming true.