By Ananya Guha
As an academic I feel rather insecure at the grisly turn of events in the academic institutions in the India of today. While I am not going to go into the JNU events specifically my mind is disturbed at the kind of damage that is being done to academia and the academic world. Firstly a man of the stature of Amartya Sen has lost favour with the current dispensation. Not that he needs it or has been currying favour. He is not a man given to diatribes, and even when he protests, he does it gently. But to dismiss his writings as gibberish, as some have tended to do, is profanity of the worst order. Yet many academics have kept quiet on this. His economics studies apart he is an acutely sensitive writer on social and historical matters. Perhaps his rationale of the argument exegesis working on Indian history and society has not gone down well with many, for whom the line of argument of a nation is linear, based on dominant thinking of a Hindu nation. So he has to be ignored. But disrespect is something that has to be dealt with, especially when it comes to people who have attained international recognition. This is point one. I am surprised that despite all the protests made against treatment meted out to historians and students, this has got little attention. Though he couldn’t care less I suppose, the wounds inflicted on him must be understood, and if we are academics of any worth we should raise our little and already muffled voices. We can’t and won’t. What a shame.
Again, the charges levelled against prominent historians is something we should first understand. Liberal historians like Romila Thapar spoke of a country based on society, not on creed. They focussed on the common man or woman, be it Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist. The wonder that was India according to A.L. Basham has now truly turned into the wonder that IS India, keeping our mouths both shut and agape. Romila Thapar in the meantime has continued with her protests against this upturning of history, based on premises of dynasty, rulers, removing conveniently Mughal and Islamic presence in the annals of Indian history. What Is History is now not answered by E.H.Carr, but by decrepit stick wielding politicos. The second shame and calumny of Indian history! Indian history is suffering one blow after another, but thank God the presence of people like Romila Thapar is saving it out of it’s skin. She is continuing stoically with her interpretation that India has been, is and will be a secular democracy.
The third shame. Recently historians like Bipin Chandra have been attacked for naming Bhagat Singh as a ‘ terrorist’. This word has been totally misinterpreted and taken out of context by mud slingers who want to perpetuate this unrest in colleges and universities. They want a total disturbance in text books, and desire a new Indian history feverishly written, with an extreme or what may be called rightist slant. The ‘ terrorist ‘ movement in the Indian national struggle is well known, as distinct from the moderate schools of thought. There is nothing new in this. But the votaries of a new India, interpret the word in present international contexts, where terrorism is identified with the likes of ISIS & IS. This is a deliberate act to create confusion and discord, in minds of people who otherwise were not thinking about this. The Indian national struggle for independence has always been largely described as extremism and moderation, the latter camp led by Gandhi.
There are now frenetic attempts to change the beautiful rhythms of Indian history. We forget that the Taj Mahal a symbol of the nation’s pride has been brought by one of these ‘ foreign ‘ interlocutors against whom the new cult of historians is on the rampage. Let us save history from the present totally uncalled for, aberrations taking place. The recent deletions of chapters on Nehru, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela from school text books is Rajasthan, is an example of spite and high handedness. It shows how not only efforts are being made to change Indian and World History, but also how doctrinaire thinking is being infused into school children, with attempts to brain wash them. These instances are being reported in the international media and reflect the country in poor taste. After all today you cannot delete Alexander, Napoleon or Hitler from the annals of history, however much megalomaniacs they were. And in trying to rework history, by rubbing of names like Nehru and Gandhi, who were great dissenting forces in the world at that time, the entire vision of world history is distorted and slurred upon. And when it comes to Nelson Mandela, what simply can one say? The forces behind such machinations are not only ignorant but are acting with vicious vendetta. This is sad and tragic. Worse still it is historically aberrant, throwing all winds to historical logic and causality. Introducing this kind of politics in education, to retard growth of young minds is an attack against educational liberty and the freedom to think and act on one’s own on the basis of reading texts and knowledge. Nehru’s ” The Discovery Of India” is in itself a delightful tract on Indian history meant for popular reading. School children should read it and find it pleasurable.
How long such tyranny will continue is a matter of conjecture. How long historical strands in India will continue to be polarized or decimated is up to the powers that be. But one thing is certain, the citadels and artefacts of history are not only preserved in books: they are there to be witnessed in monuments, temples, mosques, gardens, forts, fortresses, indeed in all the beautiful manifestations that history masterminds, and works wittingly or unwittingly in. These can never be erased, unless of course by brute force!