'Elites Who Want to Divide Indians': CM Rupani Slams Ramchandra Guha for Sharing British Writer's Gujarat View

Taking strong objection to historian Ramachandra Guha's tweet on Gujarat, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Thursday said that after the British, now a "group of elites" wanted to divide Indians.

"Indians won’t fall for such tricks. Gujarat is great, Bengal is great...India is united. Our cultural foundations are strong, our economic aspirations are high," CM Rupani wrote on Twitter.

He added: "Gujarat is great, Bengal is great...India is united. Our cultural foundations are strong, our economic aspirations are high."

Earlier in the day, Guha shared a quote which he attributed to British writer and intellectual Philip Spratt. Guha had tweeted: "'Gujarat, though economically advanced, is culturally a backward province.... Bengal in contrast is economically backward but culturally advanced.' Philip Spratt, writing in 1939."

After the tweet sparked controversy, Guha said that he posts quotes by others found during his research work, because he finds them "arresting"

"Statutory warning; when I post quotes by others found in the course of my research, I do so because I find them arresting in some way. I may (or may not) endorse, in part or in whole, what I am quoting. Reserve your praise or your anger for the ghost of the person being quoted," Guha wrote on Twitter.

Guha shared another tweet by Philip Spratt on democratic Gandhism, which said that in a free India, democratic Gandhism would be put to its "most difficult test."

"...It might be that the non-violent way towards a civilised society would prove itself. It is perhaps more likely that an effective dictatorship of the right would be set up... Philip Spratt, 1939,'" the Tweet read.