Book wtitten by an Indian author
Rangila Rasul or Rangeela Rasool (transl. Colourful Prophet[5]) is a book published anonymously in Urdu[1] in 1924.[4]
The book was considered highly controversial due to its satire of the marital life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[5][6][7] Its publication led to reforms in India's penal code that made blasphemy illegal[8][9] and may have contributed to promote the partition of India.[2]
- ^ a b Kumar 1997, p. 47: "The pamphlet had been brought out anonymously. The real author of the pamphlet was one Pandit Champovati. It must be said to the credit of the publisher that he refused to disclose the mane of the real author of the pamphlet, in spite of the pressure brought to bear upon him. The pamphlet was in Urdu, the normal language of communication at the intellectual plane."
- ^ a b Kumar 1997, p. 9: "The earlist [sic?] censorship controversy relates to the publication of the anonymous pamphlet Rangila Rasul in 1924. The whole of the Punjab was on fire for almost six or seven years. Perhaps the seeds of the partition were sown in this unseemly controversy leading to the assassination of Mahashe Rajpal (Malhotra), the publisher of the pamphlet in 1929."
- ^ Nair 2009, p. 655: "However, the publisher of the pamphlet, Mahashe Rajpal, was stabbed on 6 April 1929."
- ^ a b Kumar 1997, p. 53: "It was in such an unauspicious atmosphere that the explosive pamphlet came into being in May 1924."
- ^ a b Pande 2017, p. 675: "These opening lines of the provocative Rangila Rasul [The Colourful Prophet], a slim volume published in 1924 in colonial north India, masqueraded as an innocuous ‘celebration’ of the ‘Prophet of Many Wives’. [...] the anonymous author listed the wide-ranging ‘qualities’ of the Rasul [Prophet], most notably his prodigious capacity for marriage."
- ^ Ambedkar 1945, pp. 165, 170: "Some of the most serious of these outrages were perpetrated in connection with the agitation relating to Rangila Rasul and Risala Vartman two publications containing a most scurrilous attack on the Prophet Muhammed [...] whose pamphlet "Rangila Rasul", containing a scurrilous attack on the Prophet of Islam"
- ^ Nair 2009, p. 655: "Hindu–Muslim relations in the Punjab had reached a new low with the publication of the bigoted pamphlet ‘Rangila Rasul’ in 1924."
- ^ Nair 2009, p. 655: " The ensuing tension abated only with the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act XXV that made it a cognizable crime to insult the founders and leaders of any religious community."
- ^ Assad 2018: "The colonial authorities were surprised when Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court, Sir Shadi Lal, chose Singh, who was a Christian convert from Hinduism, to hear the case. They were even more surprised at Rajpal’s acquittal and Singh’s reasoning for it. They moved swiftly to do damage control by trying to ensure an authoritative judgment in a similar case involving Arya Samaj. They hoped the judgement, in what was known as the Risala-i-Vartman case, would supersede Singh’s judgment. Ultimately, however, they decided that the Vartman judgment was insufficient and a new law was required."