|
Part
II: 04 January 2002
Indians will no longer be impressed by
Marxist histrionics
Second, if Elst, Kak, et al
are "pulp historians", I think it would be quite proper
to call the leftist-stablishment types "court historians"
or "hagiographers", as it has been their mandate for the
last fifty years to produce hosannahs and hallelujahs to the Nehru
Dynasty. Which task, it must be mentioned, they have performed
admirably, erasing from history the contribution of such stalwarts
as Sardar Patel, Netaji Subhash Bose, Veer Savarkar, et al to the
struggle for Independence.
[....]
Third, it is sometimes the
non-professionals in a particular field who come up with the path-breaking
insights. Those who are already in the field have their livelihoods
to think about, the papers they have
presented, the prestigious sinecures they have gained and the legions
of eager graduate students who are their disciples. How could they
possibly -- it is a human frailty -- stand by and watch this entire
edifice be toppled by some brash upstart who makes their life's
work look stupid?
[....]
I do hope it will not take
India's court hagiographers of the official church of Marx and Nehru
another 500 years to get the fact that the Aryan Invasion Mythology
is a convenient racist myth. Thapar has been hand in glove with
Michael Witzel and others in the counterattack (again ad hominem)
against those that would debunk their pet theory (as someone said,
they keep shouting the strange device, "No horse in Harappa!
No horse in Harappa!"). It must be truly tragic to see something
that you've built up your entire career
on disappearing into thin air.
In particular, it is clear
that the weight of evidence in a dozen fields, such as population
genetics, satellite imaging, forensic medicine and so forth, has
seriously undermined the entire mythology of an Aryan migration
or invasion into India: in fact it is looking increasingly likely
that the migration was out of India. This
research reserves wider renown.
I think there are three books
that I would recommend highly for inclusion in the curricula of
schools and colleges. These should be eye-opening to students:
1. The Raj Syndrome: A Study
in Imperial Perceptions, by Suhash Chakravarthy, Penguin India.
This remarkable scholarly study, peppered with footnotes from original
sources, is a damning indictment of the British-Christian rule in
India. In their own words, it shows how the British attempted (and
largely succeeded) in constructing a fantasy of India as the uncivilised
Other. The depradations of Christian fundamentalists, some of whom
like Temple, Monro, et al held influential positions and used them
to the hilt to attempt to destroy Hinduism, shows that the religious
strife was not confined to the Islamic era, but continued into the
Christian era. Chakravarthy, a professor at Delhi University, offers
a thorough,
original and classic work.
2. In Search of the Cradle
of Civilization, by Subhash Kak, Georg Feuerstein, David Frawley,
Motilal Banarsidass. A layman-friendly account of how there is considerable
evidence that the first civilization on earth was that of the Indus-Sarasvati
river valley. This book brings out the plethora of evidence of Indian
cultural influence migrating westward to Europe.
3.The Invasion that Never Was,
by Michel Danino, Mira Aditi Centre. A slim and very well-written
book that gently devastates the Aryan Invasion Mythology by marshalling
evidence from a variety of disciplines. A suitable antidote to the
rantings of the likes of Witzel and Thapar in Frontline magazine.
It is true that the last two
books are by authors with a pronounced sympathy for Indian culture
and history. Therefore, Thapar and her clan would claim, they must
be, ipso facto, biased. But it is Thapar and her crew that are ipso
facto biased, as they have a major vested interest to maintain:
their entire India-bashing would suffer a grievous blow if it can
be shown that there is no such thing as an 'Aryan' and a 'Dravidian',
and that India has had a continuous and robust civilization. They
believe, because of what Marx said somewhere in a two-sentence off-hand
command, that India has nothing positive to contribute to humanity.
In terms of mutilating textbooks,
I am impressed by the sheer chutzpah of the leftists in crying "Wolf!"
now when they have unhesitatingly done nothing but large-scale bowdlerization
for the last fifty-odd years. The West Bengal government in 1989
issued guidelines that said: "Muslim rule should never attract
any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders
should not be mentioned."
They meant it: they also released
an explicit circular relating to textbooks for Class IX. I extract
the following from Eminent Historians, pp 63.
Dated 28 April, 1989, it [the
Circular] is issued by the West Bengal Secondary Board. It is in
Bengali, and carries the number "Syl/89/1".
"All the West Bengal Government
recognized secondary school Headmasters are being informed,"
it begins, "that in the History textbooks recommended by this
Board for Class IX the following amendments to the chapter on the
medieval period have been decided after due discussions and review
by experts."
"The authors and publishers
of Class IX History textbooks," it continues, "are being
required to incorporate the amendments if books published by them
have these aushuddho [impurities, errors] in all subsequent editions,
and paste a corrigendum in books which have already been published.
A copy of the book with the corrigendum should be deposited with
the Syllabus Office",... signed, "...Chattopadhyaya, Secretary".
This is followed by two columns:
aushuddho, incorrect, and shuddho, the correct versions. Here are
a few samples, from several textbooks, as selected from Shourie.
"Fourthly, using force
to destroy Hindu temples was also an expression of aggression. Fifthly,
forcibly marrying Hindu women and converting them to Islam before
marriage was another way to propagate
the fundamentalism of the ulema." Though the 'ashuddho' column
reproduces the sentences only from "Fourthly...", the
Board directs that the entire matter from "Secondly... to ulema"
be deleted.
"Sultan Mahmud used force
for widespread murder, loot, destruction and conversion." "There
was widespread loot and destruction by Mahmud." That is, no
reference to killing, no reference to forcible
conversion.
"He looted valuables worth
2 crore dirham from the Somnath temple and used the Shivling as
a step leading up to the masjid in Ghazni." Delete "and
used the Shivling as a step leading up to the masjid in
Ghazni".
"Hindu-Muslim relations
of the medieval ages constitute a very sensitive issue. The non-believers
had to embrace Islam or death." All matters on this page to
be deleted.
"According to Islam law
non-Muslims have to choose between death and Islam. Only the Hanafis
allow non-Muslims to pay jaziya in exchange for their lives."
Rewrite this as follows: "By paying jaziya to Alauddin Khilji,
Hindus could live normal lives." "Mahmud was a believer
in the rule of Islam whose core was 'Either
Islam or death'." Delete
"To prevent Hindu women
from being seen by Muslims, they were directed to remain indoors."
Delete
"According to Todd the
purpose behind Alauddin's Chittor expedition was to secure Rana
Rattan Singh's beautiful wife, Padmini." Delete "The early
Sultans were eager to expand the sway of Islam by forcibly
converting Hindus into Islam." Delete
"There was a sense of
aristocratic superiority in the purdah system. That is why upper-class
Hindus adopted this system from upper-class Muslims. Another opinion
has it that purdah came into practice to
save Hindu women from Muslims. Most probably, purdah came into vogue
because of both factors." Delete
"Apart from this, because
Islam used extreme, inhuman means to establish itself in India,
this became an obstacle for the coming together of Indian and Islamic
cultures." Delete
"The liberal, human elements
in Islam held out hope for oppressed Hindus." The entire paragraph
beginning with "the caste system among Hindus... was attacked"
is to be deleted. Instead, write, "There was no place for casteism
in Islam. Understandably, the influence of Islam created an awakening
among Hindus against caste discrimination. Lower caste oppressed
Hindus embraced Islam." "It was his commitment to Islam
which made him a fundamentalist." Delete
Thus, a complete whitewash of the Islamic role in forcible conversion,
massacres, the destruction of temples, which has been amply and
meticulously documented by Muslim court historians themselves in
Persian (many instances are quoted by Shourie). Merely an insinuation
that 'oppressed' Hindus spontaneously embraced 'egalitarian' Islam.
Of course, it was not because they may have been coerced at the
point of a sword.
They go on to glorify Marxism.
Thus, again quoting from Shourie, here are extracts from the West
Bengal textbook for Class V:
"...in Russia, China,
Vietnam, Cuba, and in other East European countries, the workers
and peasants are ruling the country after capturing power, whereas
in USA, England, France and Germany the owners of mills and factories
are ruling the country."
"...after the Revolution
in Russia the first exploitation-free society was established".
"... Islam and Christianity
are the only religions which treated man with honour and equality..."
Says Shourie, "The design
is... to attribute evil to the religion of our country, Hinduism;
it is to present Islam as the great progressive force which arose;
it is to lament the fact that humanity did not heed the teachings
of progressive men like Muhammad -- till the "remarkable and
comprehensive" Russian Revolution of 1917!"
Where was Romila Thapar's moral
indignation when this skewed history was being imposed on the impressionable
children of West Bengal?
The crux of the matter: when
Marxists genuinely massacre history to meet their propaganda ends,
they do not consider it inappropriate. When someone tries to correct
this bias, they scream bloody murder.
Indians have lived through this drama too many times to be impressed
by the histrionics any more.
|
