Acknowledgements
My thanks are, first and foremost, due to those brave scribes who, in India have dared to swim against the tide of Left-Nehruvian secularist hypocrisy, and in Bangladesh against Islamic fundamentalist pressure, and to take on their respective value systems head-on. It is they who provided me with the first shot of inspiration to write this book, and to them I gratefully acknowledge my debt : Arun Shourie, A.J. Kamra, Sita Ram Goel, Swapan Dasgupta, Tavleen Singh, Prafulla Kumar Chakravarti, Devendra Swarup, Pabitra Kumar Ghosh, Ram Swarup, Baljit Rai, Suhas Majumdar, Dinesh Chandra Sinha, Shiva Prasad Roy, Santanu Sinha and others in India ; Taslima Nasrin, Salaam Azad, Shahriyar Kabir, Imdadul Haq Milan, Dr. Dilip De and others in Bangladesh ; and also to people like Koenraad Elst, Francois Gautier, David Frawley and others who though not belonging to this subcontinent had shown exceptional insight into the problem and have fearlessly written against the injustices. And I should not forget to thank the publishers of all these authors for the courage that they too showed.
My thanks are also due to :
Dr. Pratap Chandra Chunder, former Union Minister of Education, Social Welfare and Culture (Morarji Desai's cabinet, 1977-79) who, despite his advanced age, very kindly agreed to write the foreword for the book.
Authors and publishers of all books, articles and websites referenced, and mentioned in the bibliography and the text.
All persons interviewed, including those whose names have been withheld at their request.
The following persons and institutions who had given me help and encouragement in various ways, big or small, in this venture (in alphabetical order) : Late Adhip Ganguly, Ajit Biswas, Ajoy Banerjee, Ajoy Narayan Das, Ajoy Nath Sen, Alok Kumar Basu, Andre Sapir, Anup Chatterjee, Anup Rawla, Arundeb Mukherjee, Arun Manohar, Ashim Ghosh, Ashok Das, Bansilal Sonee, Bela Banerjee, Betosini Chakraborty, Bijoy Adhya, Bimal Pramanik, Biman Bhattacharyya, Biswa Nath Bhunia, Bratish Sengupta, Centre for Studies in India-Bangladesh Relations (Jodhpur Park, Calcutta), Chandra Madhab Sen, Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee, Chirasree Chakraborty, Debabrata Chowdhury, Debarati Guha Sapir, Debashis Datta, Debdas Ghosal, Dibyendu Bhattacharyya, Dipali Chakraborty, Durga Prasad Nathani, Durjoy Chowdhury, Dwijesh Datta Majumdar, Govind N. Phadke, Harsha Datta, Jayasri Nag, Jyotirmoy Gupta, Kajal Sengupta, Kanishka Bishi, Manasi Chatterjee, Manju Shome, Marjorie Burren, Meera Ghosal, Dr. Narendra Lal Datta Banik, P.D. Chitlangia, P.N.Guha, Rabi Prasad Mookerjee, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (Uttan, Thane, Maharashtra), Rati Kanta Ghosh, Ratna Talukdar, Sanjoy Shome, Saugata Roy, Shyamal Mitra, Smita Guha Di Pierro, Sribas Nag, Shrimat Soumyendranath Brahmachari, Shrimat Dilip Maharajji (Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Calcutta), Subroto Mukherjee (Attleboro, MA, USA), Sudhangshu Chakraborty, Sumitra Bhattacharyya, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Tapan Ghosh, Tapan Saha, Tapan Sikdar, Tony Di Pierro, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Vivekananda Sahitya Kendra (Bankim Chatterjee Street, Calcutta). Arun Goswami of Ratna Prakasan, the publishers, and Ashim Kumar Mitra and Somnath Nandy, who made this publication possible.
All members of my family and extended family, and especially to two persons : my son-in-law Dr. Kiran Rao who took the trouble of going through parts of the draft with a fine-toothed comb ; and the Late Promotho Nath Bisi, to whom I owe any literary qualities that I might have.
My schoolteachers of forty years ago in St. Lawrence High School, Calcutta, the Late Reverend Fathers John Pinto S.J. and T.Vetticad, S.J., who tried to teach me how to write in English.
And many others whom I do not readily recall, but who had enriched my knowledge of the subject through anecdotes or observations.
Ackowledgement of help received from a given person does not necessarily mean that that person subscribes to views expressed in this book.
My thanks are, first and foremost, due to those brave scribes who, in India have dared to swim against the tide of Left-Nehruvian secularist hypocrisy, and in Bangladesh against Islamic fundamentalist pressure, and to take on their respective value systems head-on. It is they who provided me with the first shot of inspiration to write this book, and to them I gratefully acknowledge my debt : Arun Shourie, A.J. Kamra, Sita Ram Goel, Swapan Dasgupta, Tavleen Singh, Prafulla Kumar Chakravarti, Devendra Swarup, Pabitra Kumar Ghosh, Ram Swarup, Baljit Rai, Suhas Majumdar, Dinesh Chandra Sinha, Shiva Prasad Roy, Santanu Sinha and others in India ; Taslima Nasrin, Salaam Azad, Shahriyar Kabir, Imdadul Haq Milan, Dr. Dilip De and others in Bangladesh ; and also to people like Koenraad Elst, Francois Gautier, David Frawley and others who though not belonging to this subcontinent had shown exceptional insight into the problem and have fearlessly written against the injustices. And I should not forget to thank the publishers of all these authors for the courage that they too showed.
My thanks are also due to :
Dr. Pratap Chandra Chunder, former Union Minister of Education, Social Welfare and Culture (Morarji Desai's cabinet, 1977-79) who, despite his advanced age, very kindly agreed to write the foreword for the book.
Authors and publishers of all books, articles and websites referenced, and mentioned in the bibliography and the text.
All persons interviewed, including those whose names have been withheld at their request.
The following persons and institutions who had given me help and encouragement in various ways, big or small, in this venture (in alphabetical order) : Late Adhip Ganguly, Ajit Biswas, Ajoy Banerjee, Ajoy Narayan Das, Ajoy Nath Sen, Alok Kumar Basu, Andre Sapir, Anup Chatterjee, Anup Rawla, Arundeb Mukherjee, Arun Manohar, Ashim Ghosh, Ashok Das, Bansilal Sonee, Bela Banerjee, Betosini Chakraborty, Bijoy Adhya, Bimal Pramanik, Biman Bhattacharyya, Biswa Nath Bhunia, Bratish Sengupta, Centre for Studies in India-Bangladesh Relations (Jodhpur Park, Calcutta), Chandra Madhab Sen, Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee, Chirasree Chakraborty, Debabrata Chowdhury, Debarati Guha Sapir, Debashis Datta, Debdas Ghosal, Dibyendu Bhattacharyya, Dipali Chakraborty, Durga Prasad Nathani, Durjoy Chowdhury, Dwijesh Datta Majumdar, Govind N. Phadke, Harsha Datta, Jayasri Nag, Jyotirmoy Gupta, Kajal Sengupta, Kanishka Bishi, Manasi Chatterjee, Manju Shome, Marjorie Burren, Meera Ghosal, Dr. Narendra Lal Datta Banik, P.D. Chitlangia, P.N.Guha, Rabi Prasad Mookerjee, Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini (Uttan, Thane, Maharashtra), Rati Kanta Ghosh, Ratna Talukdar, Sanjoy Shome, Saugata Roy, Shyamal Mitra, Smita Guha Di Pierro, Sribas Nag, Shrimat Soumyendranath Brahmachari, Shrimat Dilip Maharajji (Bharat Sevashram Sangha, Calcutta), Subroto Mukherjee (Attleboro, MA, USA), Sudhangshu Chakraborty, Sumitra Bhattacharyya, Sunil Kumar Sinha, Tapan Ghosh, Tapan Saha, Tapan Sikdar, Tony Di Pierro, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Vivekananda Sahitya Kendra (Bankim Chatterjee Street, Calcutta). Arun Goswami of Ratna Prakasan, the publishers, and Ashim Kumar Mitra and Somnath Nandy, who made this publication possible.
All members of my family and extended family, and especially to two persons : my son-in-law Dr. Kiran Rao who took the trouble of going through parts of the draft with a fine-toothed comb ; and the Late Promotho Nath Bisi, to whom I owe any literary qualities that I might have.
My schoolteachers of forty years ago in St. Lawrence High School, Calcutta, the Late Reverend Fathers John Pinto S.J. and T.Vetticad, S.J., who tried to teach me how to write in English.
And many others whom I do not readily recall, but who had enriched my knowledge of the subject through anecdotes or observations.
Ackowledgement of help received from a given person does not necessarily mean that that person subscribes to views expressed in this book.