About the BORI “destruction”, there should be no two opinions that it was unfortunate. But the Sambhaji Brigade version is not publicized. However, there are whispering campaigns to malign Bahujan dignitaries. First, they used their own people, Bal Gangal and Behre, to malign Mahatma Phule. Then they found a Dalit journalist to malign Periyar EVR and to criticize the basic tenets of Bahujanvaad . Now they supplied a false information to an American scholar to denigrate our hero, Shivaji.
Reports say the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (MSS) an outfit of upper castes, has passed two resolutions condemning: (1) the Sambhaji Brigade and (2) the US author of the book.
Nana Phadnavis’ concubines: But they did not condemn the BORI people who supplied false information to the US scholar. Ms. Gail Omvedt is right that Dr. Laine should have mentioned the names of people supplying him the false information. Why should our “scholars” keep the old valuable and rare historical hidden from the world? Why should there be no backups in four different places in India and a copy with the UNESCO?
Even now the BORI scholars wish to hide the materials from the public eye. Dr. Nalawade of Pune told a public lecture that a “reputed historian” of the statue of Itihasacharya chiewed and swallowed a piece of paper having the list of concubines (rakhelya) of Nana Phadnavis which he found in Peshava Daftar. The Brahminical intellectual mischief is very well explained by Dr. Ambedkar when he said why Brahmins could not produce a Voltair: “The Brahmin scholar is only a learned man. He is not an intellectual. There is a world of difference between one who is learned and one who is an intellectual. The former is class-conscious and is alive to the interests of his class. The latter is an emancipated being who is free to act without being swayed by class considerations. It is because the Brahmins have been only learned men that they have not produced a Voltaire”. It is unfortunate that all knowledge has been the monopoly for centuries. The day that could be broken will be the day of liberation of Bahujans. There is nothing till then a Bahujan can do except to elevate and awaken the Bahujans to form a Bahujan Samaj. And try to identify the chamchas coming in the way and deal with them not by hitting the chamcha but by hitting the hands that hold the chamcha. Why not somebody from Delhi try to locate the cadres of BSP who were convinced by the chamchas that the Bahujanvaad of Kanshi Ram is not good anymore? These cadres need to attend the cadre camps which Mayawati is organizing all over India. Then alone the elites in this land will cease to be class conscious in Dr. Ambedkar’s words (perhaps he meant caste conscious).
