|
Towards
Balkanisation, Part I
Responding to my previous
essay, a furious "secularist" from West Bengal wrote, "nowhere
did we come across the stuff you mentioned in the books. And neither do they
appear today. If they [Left Front] had really called Khudiram Bose a
terrorist they would have lost half of their seats in the assembly. I am sure
like all air-headed media persons of present genre, you have either done scant
research or very 'selective' research. And why sully Dr Amartya Sen's name? Has
he endorsed that question paper that you mentioned?"
If this were a lone case, I may
have ignored it. 'Twas not. You see, in the dorks' world view, not only are the
distortions by our "eminent" historians God's Own Truth, but anybody
who denudes these eminences, too, is an air-head, a liar and a bigot. So let me
expand on what I had only fleetingly mentioned, in the misguided belief that
"received wisdom" hadn't yet made the uncritical Bong an unparalled
ignoramus.
Once upon a time, a group of school
teachers from West Bengal sent Arun Shourie a circular relating to textbooks.
Dated April 28, 1989, it was issued by the West Bengal Secondary Board, and
carried the reference number "Syl/89/1." It said, "All the West
Bengal Government recognised secondary school Headmasters are being informed
that in 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 are being requested to incorporate the amendments if books
published by them have these aushuddho [errors] in all subsequent
editions..."
Mr Shourie, in his serialised exposé
on what can aptly be called pinko history, listed some 40 such amendments. I
reproduce but two:
- Bharatvarsher Itihash,
by Dr Narendranath Bhattacharya, page 89:
Aushuddho -- "Sultan Mahmud used force for widespread murder,
loot, destruction and conversion."
Shuddho -- "There was widespread loot and destruction by
Mahmud."
(That is, no reference to massacres and forcible conversions.)
- Itihasher Kahini,
by Nalini Bhushan Dasgupta, page 132:
Aushuddho -- "According to Todd, the purpose behind
Allauddin's Chittor expedition was to secure Rana Rattan Singh's beautiful
wife, Padmini."
Shuddho -- Delete.
(The British army officer and historian, Col James Todd, in his celebrated
book, The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, wrote about
Allauddin's obsession with Padmini. However, to sustain the fiction of its
being a "popular legend," such references, of course, had to be
deleted.)
The disturbed teachers also
furnished Mr Shourie with extracts from the textbook for Class V, Bharut
Kahini, by G C Rowchoudhury. One of these was: "Islam and Christianity
are the only religions which treated man with honour and equality..."
Notice that not a single "eminent" historian has ever sued Mr Shourie
for publishing these "lies."
The textbook for Class XII -- Modern
India by Bipan Chandra -- assessed the entire National Movement and its
leaders thus: "The speeches and writings of some of the militant
nationalists had a strong religious and Hindu tinge. They emphasised ancient
Indian culture to the exclusion of medieval Indian culture... They tried to
abandon elements of composite culture. For example, Tilak's propagation of the
Shivaji and Ganapati festivals, Aurobindo Ghose's semi-mystical concept of India
as mother and nationalism as a religion, THE TERRORISTS' OATHS BEFORE GODDESS
KALI, and the initiation of the Anti-Partition agitation with dips in the Ganga
could hardly appeal to the Muslims."
Reader Subir is obviously ignorant
of the connection between Bankimbabu's Anandmath, Vande
Mataram, the oaths taken before Ma Kali by Bengal's freedom fighters, and
Khudiram Bose. Maybe that's because in the widely used textbook, Sabhyatar
Itihash by Dr Atul Chandra Ray, Bankim Chandra is not mentioned at all.
Also, in this pinko treatment of Indian history, Swami Vivekananda gets one line
while Karl Marx gets forty-two...
Subir, in his eagerness to defend
"secular" education, also says, "If they had really called
Khudiram Bose a terrorist they would have lost half of their seats in the
assembly." Hahahahahaha... talk about naïve. Here's what the CPI-M's
Sudhir Ray said on March 30, 1993, during a debate in the Rajya Sabha on the
SAARC Convention (Suppression of Terrorism) Bill: "Therefore, this Bill
should be passed. At the same time, I also support Shri George Fernandes that
there are two types of terrorism. Shri Khudi Ram and Shri Bhagat Singh were also
terrorists..."
You'd think that George, too, had
called Khudiram a terrorist. In fact, what George had said was: "I would
say that there are two types to terrorism, one is international level terrorism
and other is national level terrorism. In our country, terrorism does not mean
merely whatever is happening in Kashmir and Punjab but, for instance, it also
includes as to how terrorising treatment is being meted out by the
Government..." That is, terrorism by the State.
Actually, the 1989 board directive
ordering distortions of history was hardly a first. In 1982, the NCERT had
issued a similar one on the rewriting of textbooks. Among its stipulations:
"Characterisation of the medieval period as a time of conflict between
Hindu and Muslims is forbidden." Thus, according to Bipan Chandra's Modern
India, "To declare Akbar or Aurangzeb a 'foreigner' and Pratap or
Shivaji a 'national' hero was to project into past history the communal outlook
of 20th century India."
The hatred that pinkos and
"secularists" have for Chhatrapati Shivaji is quite understandable -
considering that Aurangzeb could never defeat the Hindupad Patshahi established
by the Maratha and advance south of Golconda. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala
and southern Karnataka have a lot to thank Shivaji for. However, the NCERT's
Social Studies textbook for Class IX stated that Aurangzeb's empire extended all
over Bharat and Afghanistan except Kerala and the northern hill regions of UP,
Nepal, Bihar and Assam! [The Deccan Chronicle. June 22, 2000]
Chapter 91 of Jawaharlal Nehru's Glimpses
of World History states, "So adventurers rose all over India,
adventurers who were native to the soil... Each man or group played his or its
own hand and was prepared to send all the others to the devil... there were
frantic attempts to carve out kingdoms and get rich quickly, and to
plunder..." The title of the chapter? "The Sikhs and the
Marathas" -- in which, Shivaji is "a gallant captain, an ideal
guerilla leader and adventurer"!
"Adventurer," according
to the Merriam-Webster, is a soldier of fortune; "one who engages in risky
commercial enterprises for profit"; "one who seeks unmerited wealth or
position especially by playing on the credulity or prejudice of others."
Yup, this tome is the fountainhead of every distortion present in our
textbooks.
Thus, Prof Nalini Taneja of Delhi
University, in her article "In the Name of History: Examples from Hindutva-inspired
school textbooks" -- one faithfully propagated by organisations like
secularindia.com, dalitstan.org, mughalstan.com, tamil.net -- slams the present
government for restoring dignity to mediaeval Hindu rulers with, "Shivaji
and Rana Pratap were fighters for national liberation. All the 'Hindu' kings who
fought for their kingdoms against the Moghuls are presented as such... In the
text books from Maharashtra, the medieval history of Maharashtra begins and ends
with Shivaji. All other historical figures exist only in reference to
him."
And lo and behold, the CPI-M's
mouthpiece, Ganashakti, says in its own article, "Education BJP
style: Saffronisation of Books," that "The medieval history of
Maharashtra begins and ends with Shivaji. The text book of the fourth standard
has 19 chapters and 75 pages exclusively on Shivaji. All other historic figures
exist only in reference to him." Wow, that's some coincidental similarity
of thought and expression between objective professors and the Communist
party...
Just last year, pinkos raised a
stink over the NCERT's deleting of certain offensive and unauthenticated
assertions from history books. Among them:
- On page 21 of Modern
India, the textbook for Class VII written by Arjun and Indira Dev:
"The Jats, after establishing a state in Bharatpur, conducted
plundering raids in the region around Delhi. They also participated in the
court intrigues."
- In Satish Chandra's Medieval
India for Class XI: Guru Tegh Bahadur "in association with one
Hafiz Adam... had resorted to plunder and rapine, laying waste the whole
province of the Punjab."
What are the results of such
"education," you may ask. Well, apart from the ignorance radiating
from "secularist" readers, such a curriculum becomes a breeding ground
for dweebs of the foulest kind. Like one Anand Vivek Taneja, "a student of
History of Ramjas College, Delhi University," who has recently been
elevated to commentator status by tehelka.com and The Hindu.
Among his pearls of wisdom about the Scindias: "They looked like a bunch of
robber baron scumbags. Which isn't far from the truth, because the Scindias were
originally plain Shindes, Maratha musclemen who led the 18th century marauding
hordes that terrified the hell out of the rest of India. The Marathas were no
'freedom fighters' that later historiography makes them out to be, but a bunch
of unpleasant rampaging freebooters with more than the standard freebooter
disregard for life and property. In classic robber baron style, they got
themselves forts, and pandits, and became consecrated kings... Jerks."
This, about the dynasty of Ranoji
Shinde, who seized the fortress of Gwalior, the notorious prison of the Mughals,
in 1738. This, about the house of Mahadji Shinde, who defeated the army of the
Honourable East India Company, forced it to accept the Treaty of Sabli, took
control of Delhi, and secured Mughal recognition of Maratha overlordship. This,
about the single most formidable Hindu power which made a successful attempt for
the supremacy of the subcontinent. This, about the empire that covered
practically all of central and northern India -- extending from Thanjavur (Tamil
Nadu) to Attock (Pakistan). This, about the only empire whose rallying call was
"Hindvi swarajya, swadharma, go-brahman pratipaalan" (Hindu
self-rule, spiritual and social duty, protection of cows and Brahmins).
I won't be surprised if this
obnoxious maggot -- I say this with force because his article contains a certain
reference to the late Rajmata that is nothing less that libelous, so much so
that rediff will not allow me to repeat it here; check out the paragraph
preceding the one I've quoted -- turns out to be a relative of Nalini Taneja.
And, finally, why did I sully Dr
Amartya Sen's name? Had he endorsed the question paper that I (and the Solicitor
General of India) mentioned? Well... on Friday, the good professor released a
report on the findings of the Pratichi Trust, which was established with his
Nobel prize money, and whose major focus is the elementary education in India.
Among the issues Dr Sen emphasised at the release: "The overarching need is
to overcome the rigid barriers of class division," the need for
parent-teacher committees, and greater responsibility shown by the teachers'
unions.
In short, more pinko bilge. Not a
single word about the Communists' intellectual fascism, not a word about the
authenticity of historical data in the pinko curriculum (oh there are many
quotes on "saffronisation" of history). Not a word even in the report
by the Trust that the Leftist economist set up to investigate and improve upon
facets of education...
"Scant research"? Moi...?
Towards
Balkanisation, III: Missionaries
Towards
Balkanisation, IV: Catholics
Towards
Balkanisation, V: Adivasis
|
