He demanded patience, tons of it, from his readers. He asked too, of elementary understanding of contemporary politics. And maybe a nodding acquaintance with history. But whenever you read A.G. Noorani, you were enriched — the author’s rare ability to sift through seemingly endless piles of papers and reams of documents to craft an unbeatable argument left you in absolute awe. Reading Noorani was seldom a joy; it always was an education.

His 16 books, and thousands of newspaper columns, dating back to the early 1960s and up to 2022, were a masterclass in understatement. He wrote long essays and books running into hundreds of pages. Yet, what was always critical was not what he said, but what he left unsaid. The best of Noorani, and he was among the very best in his stream, lay not in the lines he wrote, but between the lines. Add to that his eye for detail which would have made an architect proud, and patience which would not have been amiss with a jeweller, and you get a once-in-a-generation package answering to the name of Abdul Ghafoor Noorani, the colossus who breathed his last recently.

Unmasking India

For a man who wrote with equal relish on Kashmir as he did on Ayodhya, or Bhagat Singh and the Constitution, on Islam as well as diplomacy; it is well-nigh impossible to say where exactly lay his strength. Was he a constitutional expert who stood up for the Fundamental Rights of our citizens, a scholar of history who ripped apart many assumptions about Bhagat Singh and Savarkar, and indeed about the Babri Masjid-Ramjanmabhoomi imbroglio? Or was he at his best when it came to unmasking the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a non-governmental body with self-proclaimed non-political aspirations but one which has exercised unseemly control over at least a couple of Prime Ministers? Talking of the RSS, Noorani left nothing to the imagination in his book, The RSS: A Menace to India.

With no claims to euphemisms, the book announced, “India is battling for its very soul. The RSS is the most powerful organisation in India today; complete with a private army of it own, unquestionably obeying its leader who functions on fascist lines on the Fuehrer principle….The RSS is at war with India’s past. It belittles three of the greatest builders of the Indian state — Ashoka, the Buddhist; Akbar, the Muslim; and Nehru, a civilised Enlightened Hindu.” The words had a ring of forecast to it, as the BJP’s attempts to belittle Akbar’s accomplishments and their constant mocking of Nehru have proved.

Brave, fair and fearless, Noorani said what needed to be said, without equivocation. For instance, take his views on the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the same book. On the ABVP, he wrote, “In 2017, the ABVP had a young 49-year-old Sunil Ambedkar as its head…the ABVP, the VHP, the Bajrang Dal are all independent of the BJP. To bridle the BJP, the VHP hurls abuses at it, driving the BJP to seek Nagpur’s protection. That is granted and the BJP begins to adhere to the RSS line.” He talked about the BJP and the RSS in greater detail and with equal felicity in The RSS and the BJP: A Division of Labour.

As for the VHP, he wrote, “The VHP cut its teeth on the anti-cow slaughter movement in New Delhi in 1966 on the eve of the 1967 general election. In April 1984 it declared for the first time its resolve to ‘liberate’ the birthplace of Ram at Ayodhya.” By the way, 1984 was also an election year as was 1989 when the Congress government allowed it to conduct shilanyas.

Unsparing to none

If Noorani was relentless in his criticism of the Hindutva politics, he did not spare the Congress either. In his painstakingly researched two-volume exercise, The Babri Masjid Question, he unmasked the party by highlighting how the socialist leader Acharya Narendra Deva was presented as a ‘lesser’ Hindu by the Congress, much the same way some BJP leaders seek to do to the Congress today.

Noorani wrote, “In his speeches Gobind Ballabh Pant repeatedly declared that Narendra Deva does not believe in Lord Ramachandra and does not wear the chhot, or tuft of hair, worn by all devout Hindus.” Pandit Pant, wrote Noorani, had played politics with the Ayodhya issue back in 1948 itself. Not much changed even in the 1980s as, Noorani felt that Rajiv Gandhi was amenable to pressure, and that after a hue and cry, “he is known to renege his stand”.

The Kashmir question

From the BJP and the Congress to bureaucrats, Noorani’s ire visited them all. He hauled over the coals K.K.K. Nair, the district magistrate of Faizabad district, and Guru Datta Singh, the city magistrate, who cast a Nelson’s eye to the smuggling of the idols of Ram, Lakshman and Sita inside the Babri Masjid on the night of December 22-23, 1949.

Noorani brought much the same acumen in understanding the knotty affairs of Kashmir. In his landmark work, The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012, he talked not just of the intricate web of history of the long-festering issue, he opened a window to the discontent in the State, and exposed those behind it. Again, he played no favourites. In Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir, which came almost a decade before the Modi government annulled the Article, he wrote about the systematic dilution of the special status accorded to the erstwhile State through the years.

Every book of Noorani is a treasure. Little wonder then that in The Muslims of India: A Documentary Record, noted historian Mushirul Hasan commented on the writings as something that, “should be owned…not borrowed.” One could say the same about all the works of Noorani.