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July 27, 2009
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Daily Letters | 29 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
Dear Outlook,
I'm wondering if your editorial board would forward this rebuttal to Mr. Dalrymple and invite him to refute these charges.
RAHUL MALVIYA
BANGALORE INDIA
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Daily Letters | 29 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
Well done, Farrukg Dhondy. But your rejoinder was not really necessary. The original piece in "Outlook" by William Dalrymple who relishes "proving" that if Mulsim tyrants cut your throat this is only an act of truly "secular", Nehruvian "cultural synthesis", a profound contribution to "the Idea of India", has been shown to be laughable by many readers in their response to the article. Inviting Willy to reply to Farrukh is foolhardy, because Willy is a professional scatterbrain, a confusioninst who can't tell his elbow from his backside. No sane argument will come from him.
RAJENDRAN KUMARAN
LONDON UK
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Daily Letters | 29 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
its really cool to see someone of farrukh dhondy's background (not that i know anything abt it except his name which presumably is parsee) should so stoutly defend "VS". especially against the charge thaat he endorses thee kacchawalas. For the most part Mr Dhondy makes accurate comments and observations which point out the academic flaws in dalrymples piece but alas, he falls prey to the same temptation as his idol, the ubiquitous VS. In an efort to curry flavor with the kacchawalas and their depoliticised middle class followers (is an overlap with VS'readership/ bread and butter purely coincidental??) he indulges in some petty populist bashing calling dalrymple the literary equivalent of sonia gandhi. Now despite the fact that that comment is in itself odious and indicative of a bazaar politics that thrives on name calling, my one question to mr dhondy is...so whats wrong with being a sonia in politics or a dalrymple in literature when you, sir, are happily sitting in blighty, asking for, nay, demanding an equal voice. Why shud a WD be stopped from commenting on india and indian history if an equally foreign VS is given free reign to comment on a land that is "his" only becuase some obscure great garndfather migrated from the badlands of the north?? WHY should we not listen to dalrymple with the same respect that we accord to a VS when at least the formers writings indicate a serious study of indian history while VS thrives only on his own "unique" take on indian history ?
GAUTAM
NEW DELHI INDIA
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Daily Letters | 29 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
Come on Willy, get a ball transplant and say so, if that’s what you and your Indian dilettante circuit think. VS won’t read it or bother, but his agent will see you in court, in India and Vilayat, my dear!
ROLLING ON THE FLOOR LAUGHING MY BUTT OFF!
RAGHU REDDY
BANGALORE INDIA
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Daily Letters | 29 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
An excellent article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and found the arguements cogent and very credible. Splendid!
RAVEESH VARMA
GRAND RAPIDS, MI USA
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Daily Letters | 29 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
its really cool to see someone of farrukh dhondy's background (not that i know anything abt it except his name which presumably is parsee) should so stoutly defend "VS".
I do understand your predicament. You can't shout down Dhondy as "fascist", "Hindu fanatic", "zealot", etc.
This is from an overused leftwing bromide: "you can't fool all of the people all of the time".
RAGHU REDDY
BANGALORE INDIA
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Daily Letters | 30 Apr, 2004 11:24:45AM (IST)
Dear Sirs,
Over the years, I've found merit in your policy of allowing long-form back and forth debate on your pages.
However, I am quite shocked that Farrukh Dhondy's mean-spirited and totally immature diatribe would pass your editorial quality control.
In many years of reading your magazine, I cannot remember the last time I read something quite as juvenile and scurrilous as Dhondy's many attacks on Dalrymple. Rather than concentrating on the strongly supported case made by the latter, he reaches for the bottom drawer of rhetorical tactics including absolutely misplaced and bizarre claims about Dalrymple's motives.
If anything, the person shown up as a rank poseur is Dhondy - so eager to join the "anti-secular" bandwagon, so very careful to try and link himself intellectually with the genuine heavyweight V.S. Naipaul, so very quick to try and discredit Dalrymple for reasons of his race and background.
I submit that Dalrymple has done more - in just a few years - to garner genuine Indian intellectual credentials than the TV-fluff-lightweight Dhondy has managed in several decades of mediocre and trend-driven work in the UK.
Plus, he's now shown himself to be completely shameless and without integrity.
Go back to London, you inauthentic Indian, before you dare to try and speak for the rest of us again.
VM
VIVEK MENEZES
JERSEY CITY USA
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