Press Council Chairman Justice
Markandey Katju has sent below reply to the two students who sent him a legal notice for his comment that
"90% of Indians were idiots."
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| Markandey Katju |
Read below full Text of his reply.
Dear Tanaya and Aditya,
I have received your email, and am giving my reply, but
before doing so in detail I wish to make some preliminary remarks:
1. I have been misquoted in the press reports, but it is true
that I have said that 90% Indians (not all) are fools. My intention in saying
so was not to hurt anyone but to awaken people to the realities, that is, the
widespread casteism, communalism, superstitions, and other backward traits in
the mindset of a large section of our people which is blocking our progress and
keeping us poor.
2. The figure 90% is not a mathematical figure, it simply means
that in my opinion a large proportion of Indians (and again I repeat, not all)
are fools.
3. I never named you, nor any community, caste, or sect, and I
never said that you are in the category of 90%. Hence I do not see how you are
defamed.
4. I made this comment not to humiliate or harm anyone but
because I love the Indian people, they are my people, and I wish them to prosper
and have decent lives, which is only possible if the Indian masses develop the
scientific outlook and scientific temper and give up casteism, communalism,
superstitions and other mental attitudes which a large part (not all) of them
presently suffer from. I wish to see India in the front ranks of the advanced
industrialized nations of the world, with our people having a high standard of
living, instead of suffering from the present evils of massive poverty,
unemployment, price rise, corruption, farmer’s suicides, child malnutrition,
absence of health care and good education, casteism etc. So you see I made that
statement not to harm the Indian people, whom I love, but to benefit them. The
truth is sometimes bitter, but sometimes bitter medicine has to be given to an
ailing person.
Having said this, I may proceed to
give a more elaborate explanation.
I wish to first of all clarify that I do not regard
Indians as inherently stupid or foolish. It is only at present
that large parts of our people are foolish. But there was a time when we were leading
the whole world in science and technology, and India was perhaps the most
prosperous country in the world. It is now that we are having bad times,
but we had a glorious past and shall have a glorious future too, but for that
we have to get rid of casteism, communalism, superstitions and other backward
traits in the mentality of a large part of our people (because of which I call
them fools).
India’s Past
With the aid of science we had built mighty civilizations
thousands of years ago when most people in Europe( except in Greece and Rome)
were living in forests. We had made outstanding scientific discoveries e.g.
decimal system in mathematics, plastic surgery in medicine, etc (see in this
connection my article ‘Sanskrit as a Language of Science' ). However, we
subsequently took to the unscientific path of superstitions and empty rituals,
which has led us to disaster. The way out of the present morass is to go back
again to the path shown by our scientific ancestors, the path of Aryabhatta and
Brahmagupta, Sushrut and Charak, Panini and Patanjali, Ramanujan and Raman.
It is not necessary to mention here all the great
achievements of our ancestors, but I may just mention a few.
1. The
decimal system in mathematics was the most remarkable and revolutionary
invention in the past, and it was created by Indians. To understand its
significance, one must know that the ancient Romans, who built a great
civilization (The civilization of Caesar and Augustus), felt very uncomfortable
with numbers above 1000. This was because they expressed their numbers in
alphabets, I standing for 1, V for 5, X for 10, L for 50, C for 100, D for 500,
and M for 1000. There was no single alphabet expressing a number above 1000.
Hence to write 2000 an ancient Roman had to write MM, to write 3000 he had to
write MMM, and to write 1 million he had to write M one thousand times, which
would drive him crazy.
On the other hand, our
ancestors discovered the number 0, and hence to write 1 million they had simply
to put 6 zeros after 1.
2. Plastic
surgery was invented by Sushrut 2000 years ago, whereas Europeans invented it
only about 100 or 200 years back.
3. The
English alphabets are all arranged haphazardly, there is no reason why D is
followed by E, or E by F, or F by G, etc. On the other hand Panini in the first
14 sutras of his Ashtadhyayi arranged the alphabets in Sanskrit scientifically.
Thus , the first sequence of 5 consonants (the
ka varga i.e. ka, kha, ga, gha, na ) are all sounds which emanate from
the throat, the second sequence from the middle of the tongue, the third from
the roof of the mouth, the fourth from the tip of the tongue, and the fifth
from the lips. The second and fourth consonants in each sequence are aspirants
in which the sound ‘ha’ is combined with the previous consonant e.g. ka+ha =kha.
4. 5000
years ago in the Indus Valley Civilization the system of town planning was
created with straight streets, covered drains, water and sewage system, etc
5. Before
the coming of the British India was a prosperous country. Its share in world
trade in 1700 was about 30%, which fell to 2% by the end of British rule and is
still not more than 3%.
India’s
Present
Today there
is no doubt that India is a poor country. While there are some pockets of
affluence, about 80% of our people are afflicted with poverty, unemployment and
other evils, and one major cause of this is the mental backwardness of a large
part of our people.
(though there are also brilliant people like the Indian
scientists and engineers in Silicon Valley)
Consider the following:
1. When
most of our people go to vote they cast their votes on the basis of caste or
religion, not the merit of the candidate. What else is the meaning of vote
banks? And this is exploited by some unscrupulous politicians who know how to
manipulate and manage these vote banks. That is why many persons with criminal
backgrounds get elected.
2. ‘Honour’
killings are common in many parts of the country. This is a barbaric practice,
and shows how backward many of us still are.
3. Dowry deaths
are common in India, and as a former Judge I can tell you that our courts have
a large number of cases of young married women who are murdered in a barbaric
manner by their in laws for not getting dowry e.g. by pouring petrol on them
and setting them on fire.
4. Scheduled
castes are still often treated inhumanly, and an example is the recent attack
on dalits in Dharmapuri district in
Tamil Nadu.
5. Female foeticide is common in many parts of India. Often
when a male child is born the relatives are happy and distribute sweets, but
when a female child is born often relatives get dejected. This is also a sign
of backwardness among many of us.
6. Communalism,
which was almost non-existent in 1857, is widespread in our society today.
Muslims often face discrimination in getting jobs, houses on rent, etc, as the Justice
Sachar Committee report has highlighted. Muslims are often falsely implicated in bomb
blasts and they have to spend years in jail though ultimately found innocent.
As I mentioned, upto 1857 communalism was
almost non-existent in India. There were no doubt differences between Hindu and
Muslims, but there was no enmity between them. In the Mutiny of 1857 Hindus and
Muslims jointly fought against the British. After crushing the Mutiny the
British decided that the only way to control India was divide and rule.
Consequently, the policy came from London to create hatred between Hindus and
Muslims. The British Collector used to secretly call the Panditji and gave him
money to speak against the Muslims, and similarly he gave money to the Maulvi
Saheb to speak against Hindus. All communal riots began after 1857. The
communal award in the Minto-Morley ‘Reforms’ of 1909 introduced separate
electorates for Hindus and Muslims. Year after year, decade after decade, the
communal poison was injected by the British into our body politic, and even
after 1947 there are elements which continue this (see online ‘History in the
Service of Imperialism’ and my article ‘What is India’ on my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in)
Certain
agent provocateurs take advantage of our backwardness to incite communal riots,
and unfortunately many people fall prey to these evil designs and get
emotionally carried away by communal propaganda and fight with each other.
5. Superstition
is rampant in India. Most people believe in astrology, which is pure
superstition and humbug. And it is not just the illiterates who believe in it,
it is also most of the so called educated people in India. Many Ministers and
Judges prefer to take oath of office at the ‘auspicious’ time.
A few years
back it was announced that Lord Ganesh is drinking milk, and there was a rush
of people to offer milk to Ganesh. Earlier, a ‘miracle’ chapati was
circulating.
6. A large
section of the media, taking advantage of the backwardness of a large section
of our people, dishes out lives of filmstars, cricket, etc as if these are the
real issues before the people, when the real issues are socio-economic.
As I said
above, when I called most people(not all) fools I did not wish to harm them, rather it was
just the contrary. I want India to become a prosperous country, but this is
possible only when the mindset of a large number of people changes, and their
minds are rid of casteism, communalism, superstitions, and other backward ideas
and they become scientific and modern.
By being
modern I do not mean wearing a nice suit or a beautiful sari or skirt. By being
modern I mean developing a modern mind, which means a rational mind, a
scientific mind, and a questioning mind. As already stated above, at one time
we led the whole world in science and technology, but today we are undoubtedly
far behind the West and even China. How did this happen? Why were we left
behind, why did we not have an Industrial Revolution like Europe? This is known
as ‘Needham’s Question’ or ‘Needham’s Grand Question’, named after Prof. Joseph
Needham of Cambridge University (1900-1995). It is high time Indians try to
answer this question, instead of trying to evade the reality of the backwardness
of most of us.
The worst thing
in life is poverty, and 80% of our people are poor, which is largely because of
the mental backwardness of most (not all) of us. To abolish poverty we need to
spread the scientific outlook to every nook and corner of our country. It is
only then that India will shine. And until that happens the vast majority of
our people will continue to be taken for a ride.
- Justice Markandey Katju
Source:
Katuju's blog post
Few days back Justice Markandey Katju had said that 90% of Indians are idiots, and two students wanted to sue him for this remark.
"I say ninety per cent of
Indians are idiots. You people don't have brains in your heads ... It is
so easy to take you for a ride," he said at a seminar.
He said
that a communal riot could be incited in Delhi for as meagre an amount
as Rs 2000. He said that all somebody has to do is make a mischievous
gesture of disrespect to a place of worship and people start fighting
each other.
"You mad people will start fighting amongst yourself not realizing that some agent provocateur is behind this," he said.
Katju said that before 1857 there was no communalism in the country but the situation was different now.
"Today 80% Hindus are communal and 80% Muslims are communal. This is
the harsh truth, bitter truth that I am telling you. How is it that in
150 years you have gone backwards instead of moving forward because the
English kept injecting poison," Katju said. "The policy that emanated
from London
after the mutiny in 1857 that there is only one way to control this
country that is to make Hindus and Muslims fight each other," he said.
He said that then there was propaganda that Hindi was the language of
Hindus and Urdu of Muslims. "Our ancestors also studied Urdu, but it is
so easy to fool you. You are idiots so how difficult is it to make an
idiot of you," Katju said.
Katju said that he was saying these
harsh things to make Indians, whom he loved to understand the whole game
and not remain fools.
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