Reclaiming Lost History

 

In a previous post “Saffron Swords”, there was an attempt to review the book by the same name. The book sought to collate together the stories of those known and unknown fighters who put their lives at stake in defence of the motherland. They might have fought against the British or they might have fought against the Sultanate and their successors, but they did not shirk away from fighting to protect their independence. As the book argues, contrary to the popular perception, neither the Islamic invaders nor the Europeans had an easy time in managing India. They were faced with resistance at every nook and corner and in many instances, the victory they obtained was perhaps pyrrhic. Interestingly, barring the Mughals, there was hardly an Islamic dynasty that had a long uninterrupted rule either in Delhi or in other regions. Maybe the Bahamans would come close but they never had uncontested supremacy with them being constantly challenged and often outpowered by the Vijayanagara rulers.

 

Across the pages of the book, there is an underlying theme, that Indian history is written often one-sided. The brave tales of those unknowns has often been neglected or forgotten. As mentioned in the previous post, the tides of time often swallows the numerous unknowns as the individual disappears into a collective being. The memory is of the collective rather than that of an individual. Yet what the authors in the book seem to suggest is the attempt to wipe away these brave souls is more a deliberate attempt rather than a natural outcome of history. The authors believe, that the history of British India especially in the twentieth century followed by their Nehruvian successors in the independent India deliberately obliterated significant portions of history to project a face that was perhaps convenient for them. There is definitely a truth in the statements. It is well known fact, that the Communist schools of history have deliberately underplayed Hindu bravery and over glorified the conquest of Islam. The past posts have referred to the same as something akin to building up of a Mughal Man’s Burden not unlike Kipling. Apparently India was a dark place before the Islamic rulers brought in enlightenment and civilization. Where Kipling differed was he believed the whites had a role in civilizing the natives across the world. Indian communists and Nehruvians believed that while whites were enemies, it was Islam that brought in a golden age in the Indian milieu. Yet, while the arguments are valid, it would be worth pondering whether many brave tales were deliberately destroyed.

 

As noted in the previous post, the tides of time spare none. With passage of time, what remains are the outcomes rather than the memories of those series of battles fought in different quarters. What is now remembered is the Second World War and its decisive outcome in favour of the Allies. What does not get remembered are those numerous battles that were fought across the world, some resulting in Allied victories and some in Allied defeats? There were numerous soldiers who fought in the war who with their actions of bravery turned the tide or at least arrested the tide. It was not merely Napoleon being pushed out of Russia but it was the universal story of the numerous sub-sets of stories that defied Russian resistance to Napoleon. Ditto would be the scenario with the battle of Stalingrad as Russia and Stalin grappled with existential battles. The same would be holding good in India too.

 

It was not a single battle that would define Taimurlane in his conquests but what occurred would have been endless resistances. Yet, the gory tales of what happened in Delhi would be remembered for the sheer reason of the goriness of the event. The same perhaps defined the invasion of Nadir Shah when Delhi witnessed yet another massacre in 1739. This was the time of course when the Mughals were under retreat, the Marathas were rising and numerous small kingdoms had sprung across the country and the British were just few years away from beginning their empire. Hence, when one glances at history, there would definitely be finds that were unknown to the people. Some would have lost out to the wiping away by the winning rulers. Little record exists of the Naga Sadhus resistance and victories over Aurangzeb as he sought to take over Varanasi. Very little is known of those heroic battles of Talikota where the Vijjayanagara kingdom had its last stand against the united Bahaman army. There obviously buried in history the victory of the Kochi rulers over the Dutch which effectively ended their plans to conquer India. Yet the British would glorify the battle of Swally because it ended Portuguese attempts to rule the Indian sub-continent.

 

While the author laments that one has not studied many of these stories in history, there is no doubt a genuine lament. But history is rarely learnt in schools or at least hardly appears to be enjoyable the way it is taught in schools. History, to many is a knowledge that is garnered through other sources. it might have been Amar Chitra Katha or Chandamama for the kids or the television serials for many others or currently the popular source of history being the Whatsapp forwards or Twitter or Facebook posts. This is where the history telling would become different. It would be sheer impossible to remember or spread the stories of each and every brave warrior across the sub-continent. Many would be remembered through folk talks, folk dramas, folk songs or folk dances. They would be enshrined in the collective memory of the society. The new technological tools have made it possible for spreading these stories far and wide. The diffusion of the long tail of history is awaited. Yet the current focus of the Indic warriors does not seem to be using the modern tools to spread the knowledge and wisdom of history. They seem to be obsessed with text books. It must be pointed out that textbooks have finite space and cannot accommodate every warrior in every state or province. Yet, there is no doubt that the history must spread. This is where a platform like Wikipedia for Indian history would be much essential. Yet, the focus on bottom-up creation for Indic historical repository hardly seems to be on the priority list for the Indian right. Therein lies perhaps a tragedy.