People From Kolkata

"Nothing, I love to be very happy. I never let my sadness, my tension come into my life. I always think positive, I always live life positive."

"Many people have understood, known... I have said many times in many interviews that I will not do any more films unless I get something extremely attractive, extreme... I get a character that will leave a lasting impression on me, which I will regret for the rest of my life if I don't do... Then I will do it. Otherwise, I won't do the film."

"Mitra (1822-91) is famous for his publications on Orissan antiquities (1875, 1880), Bodh Gaya (1878) and a two-volume collection of essays (1881) dealing with different aspects of material life in ancient India. In his Odisha volumes he strongly advocated the independent origin of Indian stone architecture and earned the wrath of James Fergusson, the most established architectural historian of India of that time. In the volume on Bodh Gaya he argued for the existence of true arch in an early context in the Mahabodhi temple, and among his essays on the ancient Indian material life he cited copious data on beef- eating and the practice of spirituous drinking in ancient India."

"To judge of the past from the present, let us take the English nation in India. It has held India for a longer period than the Greeks did Bactria from the time of Alexander to that of As'oka, but yet it has produced no appreciable effect on the architecture of its neighbours. The Bhutanese and the Sikimites have not yet borrowed a single English moulding. The Nepalese, under the administration of Sir Jung Bahadur, are not a whit behind-hand of As ́oka and his people; Sir Jung went to Europe, which As'oka never did; still there is no change perceptible in Nepalese architecture indicative of a European amalgamation. The Kashmiris and the Afghans have proved equally conservative, and so have the Burmese. But to turn from their neighbours to the people of Hindustan : these have had intimate intercourse with Europeans now for over three hundred years, and enjoyed the blessings of English rule for over a century, and yet they have not produced a single temple built in the Saxon, or any other European style. Thus the conclusion we are called upon to accept is that what has not been accomplished by the intimate intercourse of three centuries, and the absolute sovereignty of a century, in these days of railways, and electric telegraphs, and mass education, was effected by the Greeks two thousand years ago simply by living as distant neighbours for eighty years or so."

"The Ganga’s southward drift was arrested only when it nudged into the Vindhyas near Chunar. It is the only place in the plains where a hill commands such a view over the river, making Chunar fort a coveted strategic location"

"Not many people realize that India is host to one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world. It is believed that the earliest Jews came to India to trade in the time of King Solomon but, after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 AD, many refugees settled in Kerala. St. Thomas the Apostle is said to have landed in Muzaris at around this time and lived amongst the community."

"The term ‘majoritarianism’ is used in India as a convenient way to demonise Hindus without any reference to first principles."

"“Indian history is not what we have been taught to believe” and that people are led to feel that the Indian had “no agency in world history”.“To change the narrative of who Indians were historically, see, one of the things I’ve been trying to do and not just through this project, I’ve been writing these history books, is to show that Indian history is not what we have been taught to believe”, he said. “That it’s not the case that Indians were somehow a passive people sitting in India waiting for conquerors to come and give us civilisation and that we have no agency. This is not a history at all”, Sanyal added. “A very little bit of digging into our own history will show us that this is not our history. We have a history. We’ve got a rambunctious history of adventurers and mercenaries and doing all kinds of interesting things”, he said. “One of the things we did was very early on, long before even the Phoenicians, who are famous mariners of history, we were sailing during Harappan times to the Middle East. The seals were found in Mesopotamia”, he said. “We had a port at Lothal and Dholavira and all of these places. But even later, it continues. And that’s why they were sailing out to Indonesia. They were sailing all the way through to Korea”, he said. “In fact, Korean history actually begins with the marriage of a local prince to a princess from Ayodhya”. He added that the legacy of such connections endures to this generation. “The Macaulay mindset is not really about Macaulay the person. What it really is about is this psychological idea that we have imbibed into our nervous system, almost, that we are somehow functioning because civilisation was given to us by other people and that we have never had agency”, he said. “So, okay, the Mughals came and built the Taj Mahal. That’s fine. You know, the British can come and do something, but we should not do anything. So now this is imbued into us in a very fundamental way”, Sanyal said. He added that this attitude continues to shape public discourse even today. “It showed through, for example, when we wanted to build a new Parliament”, he said, underlining how deeply rooted the mindset remains in contemporary thinking."

"If Sher Shah had lived longer, it is possible that we would not remember the Mughal rule as anything more than one more Central Asian raid."

"Aurobindo’s change of direction may seem inexplicable, but his writings explain his reasons. He seems to have come to the conclusion that he had already accomplished his role as India’s Mazzini by triggering the flame of nationalism. It was now a matter of time before the British were forced to leave. However, he also felt that there was a more important civilizational battle that India would have to fight, which would prove much harder than just gaining political freedom. After centuries under foreign rule, Indians had come to see their own culture from the perspective of those who had conquered them. Many members of the Indian elite had imbibed the idea that sacred texts such as the Vedas and the Upanishads were just superstition—like Aurobindo’s father, they had come to believe modernization meant Westernization. One could argue that this shows incredible foresight, as more than a century later, seven and a half decades after gaining political freedom, this remains a matter of hot debate in contemporary India. He felt that it was his duty to rediscover the true core of Indian civilization and present it to Indians and the wider world. With this in mind, Sri Aurobindo dived deep into the Rig Veda, the most ancient and revered of Hindu texts."

"Information has been difficult to come by. Local media are often harassed by the police, and international reporters have struggled to get inside. Authorities barred internet access for several months after Aug. 5. While it returned in March, mostly at lowered speeds, the has once again banned high-speed internet for the next few weeks, ostensibly to curb protests and reporting from the region. A survey of Kashmiri college students found 90 percent were in favor of a complete withdrawal of Indian troops. Kashmiri leaders who have expressed anger over the abrogation remain under house arrest, including former Chief Minister ."

"Aug. 5, marks exactly one year since New Delhi revoked Indian-administered Kashmir's special status, splitting the state into two union territories— and Ladakh. [...] One year on, where do things stand? While New Delhi's move remains popular among an increasingly nationalistic Indian citizenry, a dispassionate assessment of the decision will show that few of its objectives have been achieved. S. Jaishankar, who argued last year that the old status quo "denied economic opportunities and social gains for the masses," would struggle to make the case today that things have gotten better. A promised summit to encourage investment in Kashmir still hasn't taken place. The coronavirus pandemic has made any reforms difficult to implement, but even before the nationwide shutdown in March, there had been little progress."

"When you start getting into the process of writing, then the characters start coming alive. And then they tell you what to write."

"I think that the best of artists are androgynous in a sense. If a man is a very macho male, I don't know whether he'll make a very good director, he may make a very good craftsman. Or if a woman is a very sort of typically feminine woman, I don't think she will make a very good film. She has to have a bit of both."

"You can take brass and polish a thousand years. It's never going to be gold. You cannot take a donkey and train for a hundred years. It never could be a horse."

""She was silent on the case of Sheikh Shahjahan, the High Court had to give the enquiry to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Women were shouting and you even didn't bother," he said. "She compromised with the nation for a vote bank. TMC is providing shelter to infiltrators and giving them ID cards and ration cards, making them voters, this is anti-national activities. They also give protection to such people," Nadda added."

"She is like an unleashed monster."

"In 2015, the Bangladeshi Islamist party, Jamaat e-Islami, opened up a branch office in Kolkata, India. Extensive reporting alleged West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee helped funnel money to Jamaat inside Bangladesh and help Jamaat’s power in West Bengal politics grow. By the end of November 2015, Banerjee appeared openly with Jamaat at a large public rally in Kolkata."

"Many of my books are banned in Bangladesh. My book was banned in West Bengal too. Its government not only banned my book, it forced me to leave the state too. The new government ban­ned the release of my book Nir­basan in 2012 and a few months ago forced a TV channel called Akash Ath to stop telecast of a mega serial I wrote. The serial was about women’s struggle and how three sisters living in Calcutta fight aga­inst patriarchal oppression to live their lives with dignity and honour. She (Mamata Banerjee) ban­ned me to app­ease some misogynist mullahs."

"Shocking statement by Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who trivialises the brutal rape and murder of a 14 year old girl in Nadia’s Hanskhali. She questions the victim and asks if it was a love affair or a case of unplanned pregnancy gone awry! Because the accused is TMC leader’s son."

"Do remember one thing, don’t support, assist, vote for BJP. I am swearing on Allah if you help, assist BJP, nobody would forgive you, let alone me."

"She said in Bengali, “As a layman, I am saying where would someone get the evidence whether she was actually raped or was she pregnant or was there any other reason, like someone beat her up or she died of some illness. There was a love affair for sure, her family knew about it, and their neighbors also knew about it. Now if a girl and a boy love each other, I cannot punish them”, said the WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “This is not Uttar Pradesh that I can do that in the name of Love Jihad”, said the West Bengal Chief Minister."

"The Kafirs, the cowards, flee, the one's who fight, they win they work."

"A political party is doing all this, shouting rape. The harmads are playing this drama, They are staging an act with the help of harmads, which is giving Bengal a bad name."

"“Somewhere, a firecracker (chocolate bomb) has exploded and the media is holding the Trinamool Congress responsible for it. The story is being telecast all the time. And no other media house is doing this job better than Anandabazar Patrika,” Mamata Banerjee accused the newspaper of exaggeration. “Wow. It gets advertisements (from the State government) and only highlights the negative things…Remember, you must set limits for yourself. Those who give advertisement to them must ponder whether it should be continued at all,” she cautioned. “I will not allow this [media bias] to happen and even sacrifice my life for it,” she announced. . “With your ad money, they increase their TRP and show negative things such as murders all the time.”"

"I keep knowledge of every inch of the elections. After the election, the security personnel sent by the central government will go back, but if our government is formed then the BJP supporters will plead with folded hands for the central security forces to be stationed for a few more days so that they (BJP supporters) could be saved."

"We are not cowards, we are not kafir."

"I had expected that the situation in West Bengal will change after Mamata came to power. But I was wrong. I found her harsher than the earlier Left Front government... Politicians are all on the same platform when it comes down to me. I think it’s because they think that if they can satisfy the Muslim fundamentalists they will get votes. I believe I am a victim of votebank politics. This also shows that how weak the democracy is and politicians ask votes by banning a writer ... Even though I am not staying there, she (Banerjee) has not allowed my book ‘Nirbasan’ to be published. Also, she has stopped the broadcast of a TV serial scripted by me after Muslim fundamentalists objected to it. She is not allowing me to enter the state… This is a dangerous opposition ... I wrote to Mamata Banerjee. But there was no response to that… No I am not going to write to her again. I do not think she will consider my request. I feel very hopeless because I expected something positive. I think when it comes down to me, she has similar vision like that of the Left leaders."

"“The producer and director were developing my story to a mega series. They had shot around 100 episodes after which the ban was imposed. The Muslim fanatics in Bengal, supported by the ruling Trinamool Congress played havoc when the serial was to be aired. The chief minister was instrumental in imposing the ban. It is interesting to see that the same person (Mamata Bangerjee) is now advocating for freedom of expression and calling it super emergency,” “This is sheer double standard..... If some people do not like a representation of art, there are other ways to counter it. I never support violent attack on artistic freedom. I also do not support the trend of issuing fatwa. But, there are politicians, who support or protest on the basis of religion. Why are rules being tweaked for one particular community in Bengal? Why did Mamata Banerjee’s government never allow me to work there, allow my books to be published? Freedom of expression, the most important character of a democracy, is always under attack for vested political interest. Nobody criticises things neutrally,”"

"Cars are increasing. Shopping malls are increasing. Multiplexes are increasing. Our young people are becoming modern. And you are saying that rapes are increasing."

"“The rural newspapers (gramin patrika), which will highlight the government’s work in a positive light, will get advertisement revenue. I will specifically direct the District Magistrate (DM) about this. This is because the government does not use State machinery each time for publicity.” The West Bengal Chief Minister emphasised the need for sending a copy of rural newspapers to the cops and DM office. “Do you know why? This will help them review whether the news coverage (about the government) is positive or negative. Whoever is doing more positive content, give them advertisements. This is because I want them to work well and highlight all the positives.” Mamata Banerjee then appealed to rural journalists to spin negative stories into positive news. “A negative news can always be turned into a positive one. In Bengal, we notice only negativity. There is no focus on positive news. Do positive stories. You will surely get advertisements from us…I am saying this for a long time. Hold a meeting with local newspapers and decide accordingly.”"

"Everyday rape incidents are being highlighted as if the entire state has become the land of rapists. Rape is sought to be glorified by these people. This will not be tolerated by people. I would like to say that negative journalism only destroys and it is time to champion positive journalism."

"I am requesting my minority brothers and sisters with folded hands don’t divide the Muslim votes after listening to the Shaitan who has taken money from the BJP. He passes many communal statements and initiate clashes between the Hindu and the Muslims... “a friend of BJP has come from Hyderabad. Along with a boy from Furfura Sharif he is spending crores of rupees and giving communal slogans. They are not only trying to divide Hindus and Muslims, but even attempting to split the Muslim votes."

"A procession will be taken out with the dead bodies of those fired upon by the CRPF, and all the CRPF personnel involved will be suspended and sent behind bars after cases are filed against them through lawyers."

"Let them do what they want. We are not scared. We are not cowards. We are not ‘Kafir’ [possibly]. We fight. We know how to fight. We will fight against them. We will finish them.”"

"A war has begun. This war will continue. We will fight, we are not scared of anyone. Kafirs and Kapurush are scared of fighting and they die. Those who fight remain alive."

"The “sleeping Hindus of Bengal” have been “awakened by her excesses” ... [Banerjee was responsible] “for her own downfall.”"

"Mamata Banerjee criticized everything of the Left government but she did the same thing what Left Front government did to me," ..Mamata Banerjee's thinking to get Muslim votes is the same; she thought she would lose Muslim votes if she allowed me to enter West Bengal," ..."I do not think Mamata Banerjee is a human rights defender. There are many people in West Bengal who criticised her and suffered a lot ....Human rights have been violated in West Bengal."

"Recently you have said ‘all Muslims unite and don’t let your votes be divided’. When you are saying this it means that your Muslim vote bank, which you considered your strength, is no longer with you.. Muslims have drifted away from you. Since you have to say this publicly it is clear that you have lost elections.. The mood of the people can tell which way the wind is blowing. One can guess the outcome of the elections from your anger, frustration, behaviour and speeches... Didi, you are abusive towards the Election Commission. But had we asked the Hindus to unite and vote for BJP, we would have got eight or ten notices from the Election Commission. Editorials would have been written about us in the entire country."

"There are then based on this common foundation three main religions, Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism. Of the second, a great and universal faith, it has been said that, with each fresh acquirement of knowledge, it seems more difficult to separate it from the Hinduism out of which it emerged and into which (in Northern Buddhism) it relapsed. This is of course not to say that there are no differences between the two, but that they share in certain general and common principles as their base."

"To an Indian, self-conscious of the greatness of his country's civilization, it must be gall and wormwood to hear others speaking of the "education" and "civilization" of India. India who has taught some of the deepest truths which our race has known is to be 'educated.' She whose ancient civilization ranks with the greatest the world has known is to be civilized."

"I am very proud to have worked with the BBC for 30 years. I had hoped to continue to work for the corporation but that is no longer possible."

"Mark Tully is well-known as a thoroughly decent gentleman and one of the finest journalists ever posted to India. This is a badly-written book which should never have passed a lawyer or a publisher. It totally misrepresents his personal life and his work."

"Few foreigners manage to get under the skin of the world's biggest democracy the way he does, and fewer still can write about it with the clarity and insight he brings to all his work."

"Mark Tully may also have wanted to atone for his coverage of South Asia. I remember when we were both reporting on the Valley of Kashmir in the early nineties, that he would always highlight human right abuses on Muslims by the army, but hardly ever spoke about the 400.000 Kashmiri Hindus who were chased out of their ancestral homeland by threats, violence, rapes, torture and murder – and today have become refugees in their own countries... Many of us know that since the mid-eighties Pakistan encouraged, financed, trained and armed Kashmiri separatism. But Mark always made it a point to say: "India accuses Pakistan to foster separatism in Kashmir"; or :"elections are being held in Indian- held Kashmir"; or "Kashmir militants" have attacked an army post, instead of "terrorists"."

"Migrant workers, dismissed by employers, enjoying no protection from their governments, often thrown out of their accommodation by their landlords, in urgent need of food, transport and money, driven by desperation to walk home. It is a scene many have described as reminiscent of the migration at Partition. This is the outcome of the largest and one of the strictest lockdowns in the world enforced during the coronavirus disease crisis — a lockdown that has been widely applauded internationally. Why has the outcry against this suffering inflicted on men and women who are more than 90% of India’s workforce been so muted? It is, I believe, in part at least, because those in a position to raise their voices have not identified themselves with those who are suffering."

"I am very proud not just of my connection with Calcutta but my connection with India which is approaching 50 years now. I do not like being called an expat. That's why I do hope to become an Overseas Citizen of India. That will mean I will be acknowledged as a citizen of the two countries I feel I belong to, India and Britain. I will bring together the two nationalities which were separated during my childhood."

"Mark Tully's private life is complicated. In Delhi, he stays with his girlfriend, Gillian Wright, while in London he stays with his wife, and mother of his four children, Margaret. He has presented a BBC television series, "The Lives of Jesus", using India, as well as the Holy Land, to explain the mysteries of Christ's divinity."

"I want to recall here my days as a young journalist covering Kashmir because I faced the same incomprehension that sometimes bordered on contempt in my reporting. At that time, the BBC was the Queen, so to say, of all media, because television was still in its infancy here and radio remained, for both the public and us journalists, the best and fastest means to keep abreast of the news. Mark Tully was then the South Asia Chief of Bureau of BBC — he was worshipped by Indian and Western journalists alike, and his word was gospel. From 1989, when the first Hindu public figures of the Valley of Kashmir were getting murdered by what was then the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), such as the director of Doordarshan, Lassa Kaul, and Satish Tikoo, people whom I had interviewed earlier, till the first elections in Kashmir in 2000, the Indian government was accusing Pakistan of training, arming, and financing the Indian Kashmiri militants, and sending them back across the border to create havoc in India. Mark Tully, ironically, accused the Indian government of lying and denied that the Pakistani government had a hand in Kashmir's terror saga. ...I was there, it touched me immensely and opened my eyes to what a monotheist and intolerant religious worldview could do to other people. What bothered me most was that Western journalists, led by Mark Tully, followed by Indian reporters, only highlighted the so-called human rights violations committed by the Indian Army and paramilitary forces on Muslims of Kashmir, but kept quiet on the ethnic cleansing of Hindus — as if they were responsible for their persecution."

"I remember, too, the kudos being born in Calcutta gave me by making me stand-out as a rarity when, at the age of 10, I found myself in the highly competitive society of a British boarding school. To boost my kudos even further, I would boast that I was born in the "Second City of the British Empire"."