Ramachandran Guha, Author and Think Tank, India Express Photo by Tashi Tobgyal New Delhi 210916
National News

‘Humdrum historian’ Ram Guha tweets a quote calling Gujarat culturally backward, fumbles and distances himself from the tweet after facing flak

June 12, 2020
Kaushik Ramasamy

Ramachandra Guha known for his books on Gandhi found himself in the midst of an unwarranted controversy that he brought upon himself. On June 11, Guha tweeted “Gujarat, though economically advanced, is culturally a backward province…. Bengal in contrast is economically backward but culturally advanced” quoting British writer and Communist activist Philip Spratt.

Philip Spratt, a friend of colleague of M.N.Roy was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India. Later he renounced Communism and turned out to be a stern critic of Nehru and his policies, held dear by Ramachandra Guha.

The above lines quoted by Guha appears in the 1939 book “Gandhism: An Analysis” by Philip Sratt. Gujarat was then a part of the Bombay Presidency.

However, it didn’t go down well with many on Twitter lashing Guha for the tweet that sought to put Gujaratis down. Twitteratis also brought to light Philip Spratt’s history and his opposition to Nehru and his fashionable leftist policies which has been eulogized in Guha’s writings and speeches.

Upon being called out he put another tweet that said he “may (or may not) endorse, in part or in whole” what he was quoting and asked people to reserve their praise or anger “to the ghost of the person being quoted”, conveniently distancing himself from the tweet.

However, he was not given a free pass. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani that a group of elites were trying to divide Indians. He said in his tweet “Gujarat is great, Bengal is great… India is united. Our cultural foundations are strong, our economic aspirations are high.”

With no strong comebacks he tweeted, “If the Gujarat Chief Minister is, at this moment in history, (a) so keenly following the tweets of a humdrum historian and (b) so easily confusing the historian with a dead writer being quoted, the State of Gujarat must indeed be in safe hands.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman too took a dig at the ‘humdrum historian’ with a picture of Polish children saved by Maharaja Jam Saheb Digvijaysinghji Jadeja, emphasizing Gujarat’s cultural ethos to which the latter again took a lazy comeback saying “even the Finance Minister is obsessing about a ‘humdrum historian’s tweets”.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman ensured that the economy is in safe hands and it doesn’t harm to share thoughts on national discourse while going about one’s job.

Later Ram Guha tweeted that he has been trying for 30 years to make Philip Spratt’s work known and thanked the ‘troll army’ for accomplishing it in a day.

Later he tweeted another quote of Philip Spratt “In a free India, democratic Gandhism would be put to its most difficult test. It might be that the non-violent way towards a civilised society would prove itself. It is perhaps more likely that an effective dictatorship of the right would be set up…

Ramachandra Guha is known for his animosity towards Modi and Gujarat Model. Although he attributed his tweet to Philip Spratt, it seemed like it was once again an attempt by the ‘humdrum historian’ who was once a sports writer to take a dig at Gujarat and also exploit the linguistic differences to foment trouble.