Case filed against derogatory references against Hindus in Urdu-Hindi dictionary

Pramod Kumar

THE Hindus are continued to be portrayed in derogatory, insulting, shameful and defamatory manners in books. This time it is in an Urdu-Hindi dictionary, Aksharmala, published by Shabda Sagar from Delhi. Though, the editorial board of the dictionary consists of the Hindu names only, the manners in which the meaning of the word ‘Hindu’ has been explained is highly insulting and derogatory for all the Hindus world over.

Enraged over it, a resident of Delhi, Shri Rajiv Gupta, has served a legal notice to the publisher of the dictionary and also the members of the editorial board seeking an unconditional apology from the Hindu eommunity at large, and to withdraw the insulting words and expressions from the dictionary with an undertaking not to use such derogatory and offending words in future. If the publisher fails to do it within a stipulated time frame Shri Gupta has threatened to initiate legal action against them. The notice has been served through Supreme Court advocate Monika Arora on December 15, 2012.

The notice was served to editor of Aksharmala, Ved Prakash Soni, world selector Lata Miglani, publisher M/s Shabda Sagar and editorial board members Dr Ved Prakash Shastri, Dr Lal Singh Chaudhary, Dr Karm Singh Arya, Dr Vinay Parashar, Brij Bhushan Rajbanshi, Reema Tiwari, Roshy Bhatia and Pushpa Yadav.

The legal notice said the usage of the derogatory words in the dictionary has given a serious blow to the secular ethos of the country, which is a basic feature of the Constitution of India. The meaning of the word ‘Hindu’ explained in the dictionary has enraged the entire Hindu community. The attempt spreads hatred against Hindus and the Hindu community at large. “It is a deliberate attempt to defame, derogate, insult and lower the esteem and reputation of the Hindu community in general and aimed at creating social tension in the society in particular. By linking the word Hindu with theft, robbery, dacoit etc., you are branding every person who professes and propagates Hindu religion as a thief, dacoit, robber and slave, thereby defaming and derogating an entire community,” the legal notice said. The act constitutes offences punishable under the Provisions of Sections 153, 153A, 295A, 499, 505 IPC and various other provisions of law of the land.

Shri Dina Nath Batra, convener of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, which has been fighting against the distortions in textbooks for several years and has successfully fought many legal battles against the NCERT CBSE, and Delhi University, termed the attempt as ‘highly painful’. He said using the defamatory words for Hindus is like insulting the entire humanity as the Hindus are the only community who think for the welfare of  each and every creature in  the universe.
“Hindutva implies wisdom, logic, research, philosophy and perennial philosophical thought process. Action based on the scientific knowledge and scientific temper that evolves humans into the glory of super-humans. The philosophy of ‘Hindutva’ is based on the principles of –freedom of mind, freedom of rational mind, pure philosophical reason, applied philosophical reason and the wisdom. The entire earth and sky i.e. the entire universe, is the cosmic celestial repository of wisdom, hence Bharat. Here ‘bh’ means illumination of knowledge and ‘rat’ means overflowing. Therefore, the term Bharat means the universe of overflowing knowledge and wisdom,” said Shri Batra.