Does It Helping Or Hurting Us?
It is said that winners write history. This clearly implies that history is the winners’ version of the truth. Our PM recently mentioned 1200 years of slavery. These 1200 years were followed by six decade long rule by Congress and their agenda supporting minions. Anyone not living in a cave knows about Congress’ vote bank politics. This means is that in the last 1260 years truth has been one of the big casualties.
For the first time Indian Conservatives have power (Atalji was bound by coalition dharma so his power was hostage to the likes of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu). Modi sarkar wants to right some of these wrongs and include oft ignored truths and blatant Congress serving lies. This has left the yesteryears victors i.e. the leftists in a tizzy. Everyone with access to any kind of a media outlet is spewing venom. The latest is an article written by Mihir Sharma (“Eminently Funny Historians” – google it to read the article if you want to). A legend in his own mind, Sharma is clearly having a hard time accepting defeat of Congress and destruction of Indian left. He rants against the appointment of Y Sudarshan Rao as the head of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Sharma thinks that Indian History will be rewritten, undoing all the work of the Indian left. All Sharma offers in the way of argument are sarcasm and vitriol. He also rants against pro BJP bloggers and social media (we should thank him for indirectly giving us some credit for the BJP’s landslide victory). Sharma has no options other than biting the bullet and hope that Congress finds some way of winning in 2019. Good Luck with that Sharmaji!
Vivek Gumaste whose articles are always a pleasure has expressed his opinion on the matter. Here is an excerpt from that article (Gumaste refers to Rajeev Srinivasan):
“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.’ 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”.
Written in Bengali and designated as true (Shuddo) and false (Ashuddo), some of these deliberate distortions are listed below.
Ashuddo: “Sultan Mahmud used force for widespread murder, loot, destruction and conversion.”
Shuddo: “There was widespread loot and destruction by Mahmud”, i.e. no reference to murder or forcible conversion.
Ashuddo: “The non-believers had to embrace Islam or death”.
Shuddo: All matters on this page to be deleted.
Ashuddo: “He looted valuables worth 2 crore dirham from the Somnath temple and used the Shivling as a step leading to the masjid in Ghazni.”
Shuddo: Delete “and used the Shivling as a step leading to the masjid in Ghazni.”
Clearly these half truths are perpetuated in the name of communal harmony but the truth is a lot more insidious with far reaching and damaging effects. True Hindu Muslim unity and peace cannot be obtained by hiding the truths. Today Germans and Israelis have achieved peace but only after Germany have accepted their culpability in the Holocaust. This brings us to the issue I really want to address. How important is history to us? Do we need to or just deserve to know the unvarnished truth?
It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I suppose 1200 years of slavery is proof of that. If we had learned our lesson from the India’s occupation by the Mughals then we may have dealt with the British in a different way. History teaches us what NOT to do. It also tells us what we should be proud of. Patriotism may be the last refuge for many a scoundrel but for the man on the street it is also a panacea for all kinds of society ills. Patriotism teaches us about collective responsibility which can solve many a problem we are facing. Leftists who are afraid of patriotism degrading into jingoism leading us away from free thought are either lying to themselves out of ignorance or to the others for self serving reasons. Citizens of western democracies especially the US are very patriotic people at micro level (strong collective sense of responsibility for their neighborhood and community) and at macro level (the entire nation). And yet those societies are far from regressive and closed in nature.
India as a whole could benefit from learning the unvarnished truth about our nation. If the truth exposes skeletons in the Muslim closet (atrocities against Hindus) or the Hindu closets (sati, dowry, female foeticide, atrocities on lower castes) then so be it. It is high time that all the Indians looked into the mirror and accept their culpability and responsibility. Otherwise we are doomed to live a lie and repeat the mistakes of our forefathers.
I had great hopes from Modi sarkar. The stress of the government should be on the truth and nothing but the truth. They really should stay away from embellishing or demonizing any one. They should tell the truth and let the people be the judge. I can understand not naming the countries involved in Netaji’s disappearance. Although those countries, if confident and mature like Germany then should come clean. What I do not understand the extreme reticence in coming clean on the 1962 debacle with China. Current leaders and future generations need to know what mistakes were made by Nehru or anyone else. Arun Jaitley is in no position to make a judgment on the matter. He is not even an elected person. HE DOES NOT REPRESENT ANYONE! I want to know PM Modi’s word on the subject.
Lies and half truths of the past are like shackles, keeping us from achieving the true freedom of thought. We cannot make informed decisions about the future if we brush the past under the proverbial carpet. I hope that Narendra Modi government would be different from the governments of the past. He needs to trust his voters and should let them decide what to do with history.
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