The Hindu Report, 16 June, 1997
Haldighati the bloody battlefield will once again reverberate with footsteps when Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, joins the nation in paying homage to a brave son of Mewar, Maharana Pratap, on his 400th death anniversary. This, perhaps, is the first concerted effort on the part of the authorities here to commemorate Maharana Pratap, who fought the Moghul soldiers on June 18, 1576 A.D., at Haldighati, a 5 km-long narrow passage in the Aravallis.
The Rajasthan Government has announced year-long celebrations to commemorate the 400th death anniversary. The June 18 function at Haldighati is one of the many occasions when the former Mewar legend and his equally well-known mount, Chetak - are to be remembered in a most befitting manner...
Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat has already announced that the State Government would like to develop all places associated with Maharana Pratap and give a rightful place to all his associates - the braves from Rajput, Meena and Bheel communities who fought hand in hand with the ruler who himself was a fugitive for quite sometime in the craggy hillocks of the Aravalli ranges...
On June 8 BJP president L.K. Advani addressed a large gathering at Kumbalgarh, a mighty fort, 54 miles north west of Udaipur, to mark the start of festivities in connection with former ruler. Kumbalgarh ... is said to be the birth place of Maharana Pratap...
When Akbar's soldiers - led by Maharaja Man Singh of Jaipur, confronted the warriors of Mewar in June 1576, the actual battle was fought at Rakta Talai, one km north-west of Haldighati ... where the narrow pathway of the Haldighati opens on to a wide expanse. The fact that the field has since been called Rakta Talai (pool of blood) speaks for the battle itself. Three memorials exist at this place - two charts (centaphs) for Jhalai Man and son of Ram Singh Tanwar, and a tomb where Hakim Khan went down fighting...
The mistake that Prof. Hasan makes is not new, nor unique. While paying lip service to the great Muslim nationalists he confuses orthodoxy and revivalism with communalism, separatism and reaction. In my view Prof. Hasan should begin by enunciating the "orthodox core" of Indian Islam - in all its regional and sectarian diversity and by examining whether Azad, Iqbal, Mohammed Ali, Ajmal Khan, Ansari, Madni, Moudoodi, and even Jinnah shared belief in them irrespective of the intellectual fashion of their time. He should also try to understand Muslim Indians' fear of cultural submergence and rejection of religious assimilation but their acceptance of national integration without diluting their religious identity.
