In an excellent review of the great Mughal Emperor Babar\u2019s memoir, The Babarnama, published in a leading English daily in India, the reviewer recommended that such works of the Mughal era be taught in Indian schools and colleges. He was running bravely against a powerful tide which the British rulers of India let loose in the 19th century and Indian revivalists swam merrily with that tide.
\nIndian Civil Service cadets were raised on James Mill\u2019s notorious The History of British India. He divided India\u2019s history into Hindu, Muslim and British rules. Mughal rule was Muslim rule though they settled down as Indians, married Hindu wives and had Hindus in high positions in the army and administration. The work had a lasting and baleful effect.
\nThe secret will of Babar to Humayun, his son and successor, is illuminating. It read: \u201cOh Son! The kingdom of India is full of different religions. Praised be God that He bestowed upon thee its sovereignty. It is incumbent on thee to wipe all religious prejudices off the tablet of thy heart, administer justice according to the ways of every religion. \u2026
\n\u201cDo not ruin the temples and shrines of any community which is obeying the laws of government. Administer justice in such a manner that the king be pleased with the subjects and the subjects with the king. The cause of Islam can be promoted more by the sword of obligation than by the sword of tyranny.\u201d
\nThis document alone suffices to provide a telling instance of abuse of history for the sordid ends of politics. The Babri Masjid built by Babar\u2019s general, Mir Baqi was demolished on Dec 6, 1992. Muslims were abused as \u2018Babar ki aulad\u2019 (Babar\u2019s offspring) by RSS goons. People were indoctrinated for decades with the RSS brand of history, including in the US.
\nIn March 2006, The Times of India of carried an article by India\u2019s highly respected Romila Thapar and Michael Witzel, professor of history at Harvard University. Excerpts have been reproduced here. They reported how the California State Board of Education had \u201cto ask the community for suggestions in regard to the updating of school textbooks. Ominously unscientific, religious-based materials thus received may now be presented as historical facts. Remarkably, in this case, the religious fundamentalists are not Christian but Hindu. Initially, the goals of these pressure groups seem benign and even righteous. \u2026
\n\u201cHowever, agendas being pushed are oddly familiar. The first Indian civilisation is 1,900 million years old, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are historical texts to be understood literally, and ancient Hindu scriptures contain precise calculations of the speed of light and exact distances between planets in the solar system. \u2026
\n\u201cCalifornia has a large Indian American population and one of the largest school systems in the country. Changes made there have immediate repercussions for school systems across the whole country. \u2026
\n\u201cHindu Americans have a legitimate right to a fair and culturally sensitive representation in public school curricula. However, no one has a right to distort the truth and push their own political agendas at the expense of schoolchildren.\u201d
\nAurangzeb fared no better. Roads in New Delhi are named after each Mughal emperor. Aurangzeb Road has been renamed after a sarkari Muslim who was made president by the BJP: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. Quaid-i-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah\u2019s magnificent bungalow stood at 10 Aurangzeb Road. Audrey Truschke\u2019s book, Aurangzeb: The Man and the Myth is based on primary sources, analysed objectively. A vicious campaign was mounted against her by the goons of the Sangh Parivar.
\nThe author wrote: \u201cShivaji welcomed Muslims within his army; he had qazis \u2026 on his payroll, and Muslims ranked among some of his top commanders. Mughal alliances and the imperial army were similarly diverse, and \u2026 Aurangzeb sent a Hindu, Jai Singh, to besiege Shivaji at Purandar. Modern suggestions that Rajputs and Marathas who resisted Mughal rule thought of themselves as \u2018Hindus\u2019 defying \u2018Muslim\u2019 tyranny are just that: modern. Neither Mughal nor Maratha writers shied away from religiously tinged rhetoric in narrating this clash\u2026. But, on the ground, a thirst for political power drove both the opposition to Aurangzeb\u2019s rule and the Mughal response.\u201d
\nThe Modi government packed the Indian Council of Historical Record and the National Book Trust. In the changed clime, RSS ideologue Dina Nath Batra reportedly said he wanted to \u2018saffronise\u2019 education in India. \u201cI am working for saffronisation of education in the whole country and I want to complete it at the earliest,\u201d said Batra, who had forced the pulping of distinguished American scholar Wendy Doniger\u2019s book on the Hindus. \u201cLet us teach the world about the contribution of our experts and expertise towards global growth.\u201d
\nThe environment speaks for itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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