Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi accentuates attempts atthe removals, deletions and additions in history and other textbooks which aim at creating a narrative where the children are to be fed only one version, a fantasy of what the present political dispensation wants us to see.
It was but natural that the family elders always tried to shield the children from any violence which happened within the family in the past. Every past tragedy or untoward moment was withheld until the child gained maturity and until we thought that the ‘shock’ would be absorbed by a much-matured mind. The anxiety of the family elders to ‘protect’ the young minds from all bitter truths which might affect them was understandable and natural.
But what is not comprehensible is what, on the contrary, the family elders are doing in contemporary India! In the name of rationalising the course and ‘correcting’ the imbalance, all references to inter-religious co-operation and the making of a common culture are being exorcised. But what is being retained, even emphasised is reference to clashes between communities, both religious and social.
THE AGENDA
Actually, if we look at the ‘new’ courses to be taught, both at school and college (and perhaps at university) level, three or four types of attempts are visible. The first of them appears to be an attempt to project the remote past (read Ancient) as the glorious and golden phase, in which Indian civilisation (Bharat Varsha, to be exact) was at its zenith with an ideal society, free of all blemishes like caste related issues, but with empowered women having a status equal to that of men. It was actually an era of knowledge and scientific development and an era when India was the guru of all.
Secondly, the attempt is to prove that a phase of subjugation starts with the ‘foreign invasion’ of the Muslims. All past knowledge gains are either suppressed or extinguished, while the social ills like the suffocating caste system with its prejudices, suppression of women’s rights, introduction of practices like Sati, purdah and slavery, all creep in under the influence of Islam. On top of it, during this phase the society comes under the severe pressure of ‘anti-Hindu’ measures like temple destruction, jizya and mass conversions.
Thirdly, it is the last 1000 years which are actually the years of subjugation, first when Muslims, and then the Christians brutally crushed all aspirations of the Hindu masses.
Lastly, the attempt is to distort the story of the freedom movement and to show that actually in the last 70+ years our history has been distorted by removing all references to the participation of Hindus in it, and highlighting the role of Congress with leaders like Gandhi and Nehru, who sold the country to those who enslaved us: the Muslims and the Christians. But for Nehru and Gandhi, India could never have been partitioned and the life of lakhs of Hindus could have been saved.
These are some of the highlights which inform the proposed changes in the History Syllabus.
ATTEMPTS AT ‘REVISIONS’
Now if one looks at what changes were sought for the teaching of History at the BA Honours level in 2020-21 via a proposed framework issued by the UGC, we find that one of the deliberate attempts was to project a view that the idea of India, that is Bharat, was there since the very beginning and that it did not evolve over time. Unlike what the modern research has shown worldwide, the students are to be indoctrinated that there was no ‘Aryan Migration’ to the subcontinent, instead, the original homeland of the Aryans was India, from where they migrated to other places.
This necessitates two further revisions: (a) that the Harappans were not replaced by Aryans, as they were one; and (b) this civilisation was spread from Indus Valley to what is now known as North India which was then watered by a river which has since ‘disappeared’: the Saraswati. This then leads to the necessity of ‘finding’ the elusive river, via archaeological excavations to find its ‘dry bed’.
To accomplish all this, and to prove the greatness of the Vedic past, the Epics are to be treated as authentic and contemporary ‘sources’, and not as just fantastic stories compiled over a period of time. In this reading of the past, texts like the Manusmriti were to be de-emphasised. This helps in obscuring all passages and evidences dealing with caste, gender or racial discriminations in Ancient India.
The same type of suppression and insertions was resorted to when dealing with the Medieval, which to the present dispensers of knowledge, like what James Mill and Utilitarians had conjured, was a Dark Age: an age when ‘foreigners’ who were Muslims, devastated and subverted all that had been gained in the glorious past.
In this scheme, from being an impartial reporter of Indian civilisation and sciences, Alberuni was to be derided and condemned. AmīrKhusrau too was to be ignored, and Abul Fazl was to be banished. The students were to be told as to how the Khaljis, especially Allauddin, were barbarians who ‘subjugated’ Hindu women. All references to AllauddinKhalji’sfinancial reforms and market control measures were deleted: what was retained was only references to wars, rapine and mayhem. Muhammad Tughluq’s agricultural reforms are also done away with. Actually, the entire Delhi Sultanate (1206-1526) is covered in just one sub-unit!
The Mughals were of course retained, but only selectively. There is no reference to Akbar, Jahangir or Shahjahan in the UGC syllabus except when posited as those who tried to harm the Hindu cause! Thus, while Babur and Akbar are wished away, Rana Sangram Singh is there as a patriot fighting for Bharat, and Maharana Pratap is emphasised as the one who actually was the one who stood up to Akbar. Wars of Chitor and Ranthambhore with emphasis on massacres are there, but all references as to who was the commander of the Mughal Army against Chitor and Ranthambore are removed.
There is no reference to the share of Rajputs in Mughal administration and polity, or the tolerance and cooperation between communities. All credit for trying to understand Hinduism is shifted from Akbar and laid at the doors of Dara Shukoh. Dara is retained as he is to be used as a prop to highlight the villain Aurangzeb, who is of course retained in the course: after all the greatness of Shivaji as a champion to Hindu cause can never be shown unless pitted against the Islamic Aurangzeb!
‘Hindupadpadshahi’, a phrase attributed to Peshwa Bāji Rao during the reign of Muhammad Shah, is brought forward in time and is dealt under the reign of Aurangzeb! Actually, references to Kabir, Dadu and others, like them too, stand removed. At yet another place, this time dealing with Social History, reference is made to ‘Hindu Society’ as separate from ‘Muslim Society’.
Similarly, in the syllabus dealing with Modern India, Colonialism is treated with kid gloves. All aspects of economic, social and cultural history of India for the period 1857-1947 are removed, as are details of British administrative measures including drain of wealth from India. Even Bengal famines (1943-44) are not worthy of inclusion.
Unfortunately, the same agenda is being forwarded by the recent deletions in NCERT textbooks. In the name of rationalising the course for the students from Class 6 to Class 13, a large number of deletions are made. Very conveniently all references to caste divisions and discrimination in pre-Muslim India stand deleted. Such references however are retained in the textbooks of Medieval India. The chapter dealing with an all-inclusive culture, where a shudra was sitting next to a high caste, creating a single page of an illustration, the Hindu artists and master craftsmen in the Muslim Court, all references to the development of an all-inclusive school of Architecture are removed. Now a student will never know of a past where a Hindu geometrician, ThakkuraPheru, employed as the Mint Master of Delhi under AlauddinKhalji would inform others in his Sanskrit work, how to construct a dome, or an arch, and all references to how and when that great book on Hindustani music, Rag Darpan, was written or translated into Persian. Movements like those of Kabir too experience the axe.
Here I am mentioning only a fraction of the changes which are being effected: For a detailed analysis of what was proposed to be removed or is being removed, one may refer to Irfan Habib’s article on UGC Framework (see e.g. NewsClick dated 2nd August 2021). For more recent changes, perhaps every journal (see, for instance, the special issue of India Today) and newspaper (see, for example, details carried by Indian Express) has elaborated on them.
THE ‘WHY’ OF THESE REVISIONS
Are all these changes only for the purpose of ‘rationalisation’ of an already overburdened student who is reeling under the effects of the deadly Coronavirus Epidemic? Or is it to ‘correct’ the balance? Or de-emphasise what had been unduly over emphasised? Is ‘space’ being created to ‘insert’ what had unfortunately been left out so far – the local heroes and heroines, the local dynasties and rulers, etc. Or is it simply to remove Mughals who were foreigners and had nothing to do with India?
If we give credence to even what is listed above (which is actually not exhaustive), one sees a different agenda, and it is not something related to correcting the balance, including those which were left out, or leaving the Mughals out. Couple it with the deletions being made in textbooks of other subjects. And then things become clearer. Recently it has been brought to light that even references to Darwin’s theory of evolution, which was a part of the Science syllabus, also stands removed, as are references to Gujarat riots of 2002, Emergency, as well as the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassins. Also removed are any references to the ban on RSS by Sardar Patel.
What appears is more sinister: An attempt to tailor our past as per the fanciful ideas of Hindutva! All the removals, deletions and additions add up to creating a narrative where the children are to be fed only one version, a fantasy of what the present political dispensation wants us to see. Creating a narrative based on falsification and twisting of facts, a narrative which by suppressing facts envisages a glorious Brahmanic past with an egalitarian and scientific society which was then subverted by outsiders who not only were responsible for all the ills which mark the Indian society today!
The Dalits, the lower castes, the women, even Buddhists had no role to play. All Dalit, and even Peasant Movements were out, as were all minority groups. We were, and we are, just one ethnic and religious group: all others are the foreigners out to harm us. It’s a majoritarian high caste pro-Brahmanic narrative with a unilinear past, with no place for anyone else. All references to how the Hindu Right opposed social and agrarian reforms (the annulment of zamindari and Hindu Code Bill) are gone. The British Rule which forwarded the policy of divide and rule is lauded, while Gandhi and Nehru challenged this narrative, stand in need to be removed and even denigrated! On the other hand, the cementing role of Mughals stands condemned.
The present dispensation wants to churn out a generation of Indians who will be fed on this unilinear version: they would know of no difference of opinion, or how we became what we are: a product of interactions, both due to conflict and cooperation. They would never know of the technological developments, or the progress made in various scientific fields during the Medieval phase of Indian history. They would also be blind to progress made in the Medieval society (the Composite Culture) and steps taken in the fields of literature and arts. Also not known would be the first great work which deals with detailed tabulations (the Ain-i-Akbari), which is unique in the world!
The resultant mutant Indian would be an Indian who would be a majoritarian with no concept of tolerance or difference of opinion. He/she would be a machine – more truly a robot with no brain of his own who would be a tool in the hands of majoritarian politicians which can be easily made to do the bidding of a brute heartless dictator!
But mind you, this is not the first time that it is happening: it happened in the past, and it led to a holocaust and en masse extermination of Jews, who were treated as the ‘other’ in their own homelands. However, also remember that when, as a result of the holocaust, the spell was broken, it led to the dismantling of the authoritarian and majoritarian Nazi philosophy.
Are we heading towards a second holocaust? Whatever you may answer to this, remember the spell will once again be broken.
[Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi is Professor of History, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh and Secretary, Indian History Congress]