"They rely on intimidation, It is exactly by tactics of this kind that an earlier book of Mr. Swarup - Understanding Islam Through Hadis - was put out of circulation... November 27, 1990, under the influence of the same intimidation the Delhi Administration declared that, contrary to what it had itself twice decreed, the book was not only objectionable, was deliberately and malicious so!.... Our response should be three fold. First, whenever an attempt such as this from quarters such as Mr. Shahabuddin is made to stifle free speech, to kill even scholarly inquiry, we must go out of our way and immediately obtain the book.... Secondly, whenever the intimidators prevail and such a book actually comes to be banned large numbers should take to reprinting it, photocopying it, to circulating it, and discussing its contents. The third thing is more necessary, and in the long run will be the complete answer to the intimidators. As long as scholars like Mr. Swarup are few, intimidators can bully weak governments into shutting them one by one. But what will they do if 1,000, scholars are to do work of the same order? This is the way to deal with intimidators. Let 1,000 scholars carry on work Mr. Swarup has pioneered."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Arun Shourie: " How should we respond?", also in: Freedom of expression – Secular Theocracy Versus Liberal Democracy (1998, edited by Sita Ram Goel)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arun_Shourie
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Arun Shourie
136 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Arun Shourie →
Related Quotes
"Then we have our seedy Leftists busy abusing each other. And finally we have the liberals - busy rearranging furnitur…"
"To rely on these fellows to save us from the impending fascist avalanche is to rely on superannuated buffaloes to see…"
"Thus silence retards reform. If large numbers were writing and talking about the communalism of these leaders, for in…"
"And yet I find in the majority judgement a fatal innocence... The judgement quotes the proclamations from the Rig, Ya…"
"The forfeiture is exactly the sort of thing which has landed us where we are : where intellectual inquiry is shut out…"
"For fifty years this bunch has been suppressing facts and inventing lies. How concerned they are about that objective…"
"All the facts ... were well known fifty years ago. With the passing of the generation that fought for Independence, w…"
"The most telling illustration has been provided by the silence over the new archaeological findings. .... When the fi…"
"Clearly, what our newsmen call 'hard-liners' have been vindicated."
"What we are witnessing today in relation to the criminals of the Emergency is not the rule of law but the destruction…"