There was a news item in Telugu TV News channels last week that Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu stressed the need for everyone to know about history as those who do not know history can’t create history. Another news story entitled “Books of Nehruvian historians should be set afire: Swamy” (The Hindu, 6 October) goes on to read: “Marxist, Muslim and Western historians” were in the line of fire on Sunday at a seminar organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh-backed Akhil Bharatiya Itihaas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY) to offer tribute to ‘A Forgotten Hindu Emperor, Maharaja Hemchandra Vikramaditya” with BJP leader Subramanian Swamy calling for burning of their books.
This is only a week later to our Prime Minister underlining at the UN General Assembly the need for G-ALL instead of G-4 or G-8.
The hobnobbing with fanatic nationalism at one extreme and cosmopolitan humanism at the other was never limited to any one country, any one party or any one individual leader even as seen in recent history.
We know Americans talking about “Government by the people, for the people and of the people”, which in practice is “Government by money, for money and of money”. Obviously no religion worth the name can be mixed with such politics, may be drinking and driving is mixed occasionally!
Maharaja Hemchandra Vikramaditya seems to be really a forgotten name in view of Michael Hart in his “100 Most Influential Persons in Human History”, mentioning only three names from India i.e. Vardhaman Mahaveer, Buddha and Ashoka.
But just as views are made news and vice versa by influencing media today, history and mythology can never be mixed up either by false propaganda or by burning of books.
It looks during the above seminar Swamy threatened to file cases for himself for the liberation of so-called disputed sites of Mosques at Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi.
Swamy as a highly educated, respected and informed person should know that no mosque can ever be constructed at an illegally acquired site, never at a place where idol worship ever used to be conducted. It is precisely for this reason that the Babri Masjid Committee openly challenged any one to prove that there was any temple at the site of the mosque so that they themselves will take up demolition of the mosque!
A mosque constructed properly anywhere in a valid and legal manner originally remains a mosque till the last day in the eyes of Islam and Muslims, whatever others may think, say or do.
The vital clues to Monotheism, Unity of Creator, Unity of Humanity and Unity of Religion could not be destroyed even by burning of huge libraries together. Even today we know the Upanishads say, “He is One with no second” (Ekam Evadvitiyam), as well as that the first of Ten Commandments given to Moses ask “not to associate anything with One Lord”.
Swamy is not today the lone person, who thinks he can change history by burning books and killing innocents!