EFFACING OF HISTORY

Image taken from Singapore Times

With the rise of right-wing nationalism and populism, there have been renewed calls to rewrite
history from an “Indian point of view”. The Indian conservative right wing has always sought to
project the ancient period as the “golden era” during which Indian civilisation was leaps and
bounds ahead of all of its contemporaries. However, since 2014, outlandish and amusing
statements by people in positions of power have become commonplace. In fact, in 2014, prime
minister Modi himself claimed that the transplantation of an elephant’s head onto lord Ganesha’s
was testament to India’s scientific advancement and was a great achievement of Indian surgery
millenia ago.

In addition to glorifying the ancient period, a constant effort has also been made to denigrate the
medieval period and portray it as a “dark age” marked by invasions, barbarism, extreme
intolerance and the degradation of a once great civilisation. An interesting manifestation of this
endeavour is the dubious manner in which sections of the BJP, RSS and certain historians are
trying to lay claim to arguably the most majestic symbol of the Mughal empire : The Taj Mahal.
 Image taken from smithsoniammag.com

PN Oak, a self proclaimed Hindutva National Revisionist historian claimed in a book published
in 1989 that the Taj Mahal was built as a vedic temple in 1155, before Muslim rule began in
India. In order to understand the man’s true genius, we need to look at some other startling
discoveries that only Mr Oak could uncover. He claims that Christianity and Islam are
derivatives of Hinduism and that Westminster Abbey was a hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiv.
However, his mind boggling brilliance is reflected in his book, Christianity is Chrisn-nity in
which Oak writes, “Jesus went to India between ages 13 and 30 to learn Krishna-neeti
(Christianity) from Hindu sages”. This man who clearly mustn't be taken seriously, is frequently
quoted by the RSS and high profile BJP leaders such as Subramaniam Swamy.

Historian KN Panikkar discussed the great lengths that the BJP is going to in order to further a
communal consciousness of history. These efforts include revising school textbooks. According
to The Indian Express, between 2014 and 2018, a total of 1334 changes were made to 182
textbooks put out by the NCERT. These changes are fueled by a dangerous mission, to blur the
lines between mythology and history. There is little doubt that the divide between professional
history and the hindutva version of the past which is used to legitimise Hindu majoritarianism is
rapidly increasing. The latter enjoys state patronage and is popularised in a variety of ways.
Those who are critical of this version of history are quickly brandished as anti-nationals.
Historical research is being systematically subverted.

Image taken from wikipedia

While the writing of history is a continuous process, a teleological construction of history to suit
the cultural and political agenda of the current dispensation is a frightening prospect. In his
historical (pun intended) book 1984, George Orwell wrote about the philosophy of the
totalitarian government : whoever controls the present controls the past. What seemed to be a
novelist’s paranoia has now acquired the status of Bharat’s glory. The essential pursuit of history
has been and must always remain, the pursuit of truth.