05-02-2007, 12:00 AM
Correction in the previous post. I was not right. Apologize for the misinformation. Sri Arun Shourie had actually written:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->During some work I came across the reference to a book of his (Maulana Hakim Sayid Abdul) and began to look for it.
It was a long, discursive book, I learnt, which began with descriptions of the geography, flora and fauna, languages, people and the regions of India. These were written for the Arabic speaking peoples, the book having been written in Arabic.
In 1972, I learnt, the Nadwatul-Ulama had the book translated into Urdu and published the most important chapters of the book under the title Hindustan Islami Ahad Mein (?Hindustan under Islamic Rule?). Ali Mian, I was told, had himself written the foreword in which he had commanded the book most highly. The book as published had left out descriptions of geography etc., on the premise that facts about these are well known to Indian readers.
A Sudden Reluctance
A curious fact hit me in the face. Many of the persons who one would have normally expected to be knowledgeable about such publications were suddenly reluctant to recall this book. I was told, in fact, that copies of the book had been removed, for instance from the Aligarh Muslim University Library. Some even suggested that a determined effort had been made three or four years ago to get back each and every copy of this book.
Fortunately the suggestion turned out to be untrue. While some of the libraries one would normally expect, to have the book-the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi; the famous libraries in Hyderabad-those of the Dairutual Maarifal-Osmania, of the Salar Jung Museum, of the Nizam?s Trust, of the Osmania University, the Kutubkhana-i-Saidiya - did not have it, others did. Among the latter were the Nadwa?s library itself, the justly famous Khuda Baksh Library in Patna, that of the Institute of Islamic Studies in Delhi.
The fact that the book was available in all these libraries came as a great reassurance. I felt that if reactionaries and propagandists have become so well organised that they can secure the disappearance from every library of a book they have come not to like, we are in deep trouble. Clearly they were not that resourceful.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/htemples1/ch1.htm
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->During some work I came across the reference to a book of his (Maulana Hakim Sayid Abdul) and began to look for it.
It was a long, discursive book, I learnt, which began with descriptions of the geography, flora and fauna, languages, people and the regions of India. These were written for the Arabic speaking peoples, the book having been written in Arabic.
In 1972, I learnt, the Nadwatul-Ulama had the book translated into Urdu and published the most important chapters of the book under the title Hindustan Islami Ahad Mein (?Hindustan under Islamic Rule?). Ali Mian, I was told, had himself written the foreword in which he had commanded the book most highly. The book as published had left out descriptions of geography etc., on the premise that facts about these are well known to Indian readers.
A Sudden Reluctance
A curious fact hit me in the face. Many of the persons who one would have normally expected to be knowledgeable about such publications were suddenly reluctant to recall this book. I was told, in fact, that copies of the book had been removed, for instance from the Aligarh Muslim University Library. Some even suggested that a determined effort had been made three or four years ago to get back each and every copy of this book.
Fortunately the suggestion turned out to be untrue. While some of the libraries one would normally expect, to have the book-the Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi; the famous libraries in Hyderabad-those of the Dairutual Maarifal-Osmania, of the Salar Jung Museum, of the Nizam?s Trust, of the Osmania University, the Kutubkhana-i-Saidiya - did not have it, others did. Among the latter were the Nadwa?s library itself, the justly famous Khuda Baksh Library in Patna, that of the Institute of Islamic Studies in Delhi.
The fact that the book was available in all these libraries came as a great reassurance. I felt that if reactionaries and propagandists have become so well organised that they can secure the disappearance from every library of a book they have come not to like, we are in deep trouble. Clearly they were not that resourceful.
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/htemples1/ch1.htm
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