Introduction

The subject of rewriting Indian history surfaces regularly. This is an area I’ve followed intently only after the Eminent Historians book opened my eyes to what was–is still–happening. In several ways, the book is path-breaking for the simple reason, which I’ve stated in the previous sentence: it opened the eyes of the nation to the significance–and impact–of an otherwise “boring” subject like History. It showed with plentiful evidence, the dangers of learning the wrong history about one’s nation; worse, internalizing myths and falsehoods propagated by foreigners who sought to impose their version of our history. The famous quote about history, which is always written by the victor is truer nowhere than in India’s case–for when the lamb is eaten by the lion, we get to read about the lion’s version of the lamb’s history. The lamb is no longer alive to tell the true story. More on this later.

Collateral Damage

Eminent Historians exposed and discredited an array of… well, eminent historians. The title of the book conveys an irony. The discredited historians rose to power positions by giving glowing peer reviews of books authored by people of their ilk. A constant phrase used in these reviews was “… Mr. M, an eminent historian in his own right has written yet another masterpiece that evidences his command over the subject…” Now, when Mr. M wrote a review of his reviewer’s book, he used the selfsame phrase: eminent historian!

The damage caused by this fraudulent history to millions of students’ perception of India, its culture, etc cannot be quantified but I’ll put it in one word: enormous. Before this, I need to state that almost all of these historians are self-confessed, ardent Marxists. Their universe had as the Sun, the eminent Romila Thapar, with other stars such as Irfan Habib (mouse over the words Irfan Habib for an interesting tidbit), S. Gopal (grandson of S. Radhakrishnan), Satish Chandra, Bipan Chandra, R.S. Sharma, and the lesser known (but infamous) Tasneem Ahmed.

Glimpses of Marxist History-writing: Caste=Class

India didn’t quite fit in the Marxist view of the world as the clash of classes. Its heritage, (the real) history, and most importantly, its social organization baffled these champions of the downtrodden. They had to therefore invent a history, which would portray the Indian society on similar lines as the Europe of Marx’s (and later) time. It is worth noting that India wasn’t industrialized in the sense as Europe of the time, hence no class conflict.

Thus began the first historical (?) invention: caste=class. Thereafter, it was easy. All you had to do is replace the characters, change the names in the script. While Capitalists were the dominant/powerful class in the West, their counterparts in India, according to the Marxists, were represented by the Brahmins, and Vaishyas (note the Marxists’ refrain of Brahmin-Bania conspiracy). “History book” after “history book” expounded this theme, a la Goebbels, and came to pass as “authentic” Indian history.

Glimpses of Marxist History-writing: The Aryan Invasion Theory

Perhaps the most damaging legacy left behind by the British is the Aryan Invasion Theory, which holds that Aryans were not originally from India but invaders from Central Asia. This simple statement has far-reaching consequences. In a nutshell, it says this about India: Indians should not take credit for the achievements of the Aryans because it wasn’t their contribution. Thus, Indians do not have the right to claim that the Vedas, nay, the entire Indian heritage as their own.

The Aryan Invasion Theory has been thoroughly discredited in recent years. For a scholarly exposition on this, I recommend this book. Detractors have predictably hollered with howls of “fascist,” “fundamentalist,” “militant”…

Continued in Part 2…