WRITING NEW ITIHAS

A WIDE CANVAS

WRITING NEW ITIHAS

Foreigners and their blind Indian boot-lickers accuse Indians (Hindus) of not having sense of history. For them, history means a chronicle of events, covering the life of royalty, recording the succession of kings etc. They have created their own standards for verification, such as archaeological evidence.Where they cannot understand something, or do not wish to understand due to some prejudice, they leave it out. Such history covers only comparatively recent events. This they call the historical period. All else is considered mythological or legendary stories.

 This is absolute rubbish- as whole societies have existed for long in different parts of the earth, which is very ancient indeed, running into billions of years. To say history began in the recent past is the height of nonsense. But that is the western standard.What else  do you expect from people who claim descent from apes!

In all societies, members have communicated with each other. Before writing was 'invented'- about which too the westerners have their fancy theories- each society had oral records of their life, which they preserved carefully, and passed on to the next generation. This was an important aspect of culture and education in all societies. This was not confined to the elite but through rituals, song and dance and other community events, made the members learn and remember their past. Obviously, in recording and passing on  the events, they gave importance only to the main events, which it was necessary for them to remember. This can be seen in all pre-modern societies even today.

India has been exceptionally lucky in the sense that we had a perfected language(Samskrut) and great poets to record things. We had a highly developed sense of discrimination- we knew how to call what. The ultimate knowledge, which alone could liberate man from the limitations of samsara- this mundane existence, subject to repeated birth and death- 'mrutyu samsara sagara' in the words of the Gita- this alone was called 'Knowledge' proper- Veda. It was not mixed with any mundane developments. The ancient mythologies and legends were called 'Purana'- immensely old- as the term implies. Any systematic body of information, guide-rules, codes, and regulations , subsidiary teachings , etc were called 'Sastra'. Thus we have dharma sastra, niti sastra, artha sastra, sastras relating to many things such as training horses and elephants, dance, warfare, even cooking, even kama sastra!. Every human endeavour was subject to proper rules of development, leading to perfection. Every branch of mundane knowledge had its sastra-well -defined rules. And we have our history- called exactly by its most appropriate name: Iti-ha- aasa: it happened like this; hence ITIHASA! The foreign idiots who knew neither our language nor our traditions could not understand things and gave their own fancy interpretations. Thus they looked for history in the Veda and imagined secular events there! 

This reminds me of a story of Mulla Nasruddin. Like our Narada, he comes very handy to illustrate great principles and simple truths alike. Once he was found searching for something under the street lamp. A neighbour noticed it  and enquired what it was about. Mulla said that he was searching for the key of his house. The neighbour asked him how he lost it. The Mulla said that he had gone to the market and had lost his key there. The neighbour naturally was astounded- he asked the Mulla what was the point in searching for the key under the lamp post in the street when he lost the key elsewhere. The Mulla said: " Oh, what to do! I lost the key in the market in the evening. The market is closed now and it is dark. There is enough light only under this lamp. So, I am searching for the key here". Likewise our foreign Mullas search for history in the Veda, when we have a separate category called history!

 A 17 th century painting of Mulla Naserddin.
CC BY-SA 3.0 via wikimedia Commons.
It is now in Topkapi Palace Museum Library.

A book-cover showing  our favourite Mulla!
Public Domain Wikimedia Commons.

Obviously, our history is not chronological. Take our own individual lives. Over a lifetime of say 70-80 years, do we remember  every single day, month, year, event or only the important ones? Would we even care to remember them all? Likewise in the history of societies, not every day to day event is worth recording.

 In his small book, 'Hind Swaraj' Mahatma Gandhi gives a telling example. Suppose there are two good neighbours. They have been friendly , never quarrelled and fought and lived peacefully for years. There is no police record, no court case, no complaints with any other authorities. There is no public record at all to show that these two neighbours lived cordially for decades. On the contrary, imagine two neighbours who had frequent quarrels, property or other disputes, with plenty of complaints to all authorities. So there is a big record in their case. Now who has a better history? The peaceful or quarrelsome neighbours? The peaceful neighbours lived as neighbours should live- maintaining love and cordiality. But the quarrelsome fellows lived as bad people and bad neighbours. The public will naturally talk about them- because it is a departure from or violation of normal conduct. Now Gandhiji explained that the Indian way is to take for granted what is normal, and record only the deviations and the exceptions. So, our history is not chronological.

From: www.hindswaraj09,blogspot.in. Gratefully acknowledged.

Ramayana mentions so may generations of Rama's ancestors. Ikshvaku, Raghu, Bhagiratha, Dasaratha were all illustrious scions of the dynasty. But Rama alone has a Ramayana about him- because exceptional things happened in his lifetime! And he was also an exceptional  king and man: deprived of his rightful throne and exiled by his stepmother, he quietly obeyed and did not rebel, even when urged by others; he did not return, even when requested by his brother , who was supposed to be the beneficiary of the arrangement; he did not hate or curse the stepmother for the injustice.  His wife was abducted and he went to war to recover her, but even then he gave a chance to the abductor to mend himself and avoid war! During his exile, he did not enter any town or village, but only lived in the forest,as a hermit, as he had been asked to. Even when he subdued others, he did not covet their kingdoms, but restored them to the rightful heirs. One of his brothers accompanied him to the forest, though not required to do so, out of brotherly love. The other brother, who was supposed to rule, considered himself a regent and kept the paduka of his elder brother, the rightful ruler, on the throne and lived like a mendicant like his exiled brother , from a nearby village, not entering the city or palace for 14 years. This life was thus exceptional in every way and it becomes the subject of our main Itihasa. After all, what do we want people to remember- the good things , or the bad things- like how a son like Aurangzeb imprisoned his father, killed his brothers and seized the throne? The people who say Indians have no sense of history, have no any sense at all! 

Those who consider the Ramayana to be mere story or mythology should ponder whether any other society thought of such ideal brothers and relations even in imagination! The story of Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible records that Cain, the first-born son of the first parents, Adam and Eve, created by God, killed his brother Abel. What a start to humanity- is it any wonder that Christian nations fought two world wars among themselves or dropped atomic bombs to kill thousands of civilians?

Cain slaying Abel.
painting by Peter Paul Rubens.

Take the events that happened in the world in the last century. 500 or 1000 years hence, what would deserve to be remembered?  We had two world wars which killed over 1 billion people. Hitler caused the Holocaust that killed over 6 million Jews. Millions of Russians died in the two world wars, and millions were killed in the purges by the communists. Japan indulged in the most brutal behaviour towards its opponents in the war. And finally, America dropped the Atom bomb on Hiroshima-Nagasaki and brought the second world war to a formal close- the first time the highest achievement of science was deliberately used to kill people!

A montage of World War I Scenes. Public Domain Wikimedia Commons.

Mushroom clouds over the bombing of Hiroshima.
By Nagasakibomb.jpg. The picture was taken by Charles Levy from one of the B-29 Superfortresses used in the attack.
CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons.
Perhaps this is the most heart-rending picture in the whole of the 20th century-  the result of the development of supreme science, ending human life!

Then we have other things like the creation and collapse of the Soviet Union; the control of China by the Communists; the integration of Europe, forgetting centuries of strife; we have ethnic strife in countries of Eastern Europe; we have rise of militant Islam, which is changing the face of the countries in the middle east. We have the large scale pollution of our air, water and other natural resources. We have the large scale disappearance of whole species of plants, insects, animals, and the rain forests. We have the eradication or control of old scourges like the plague and cholera, but the rise of new uncontrollable ones like AIDS, Heart disease, diabetes, etc. We have the prospect of drug-resistant bacteria. We have global warming, receding glaciers and arctic ice.

A NASA picture showing the formation of lakes as the glaciers recede in Bhutan-Himalayas.These will cause tremendous floods, while the glaciers themselves are receding and shrinking. The long-term disasters are unimaginable.

Now, we also know that many countries became free from colonial rule; that elections take place in the democracies; that one American President was assassinated. We know that man went to moon and sent space vehicles to other planets. But if we compile the history of the world for the benefit of people five centuries hence, what will  we include that  will interest them? Certainly, not every damn silly thing that our newspapers record daily and report. Too many events/changes are taking place almost daily that we have lost our sense of direction and proportion, and sense of meaning- something about which Alvin Toffler wrote in his "Future Shock" over 40 years ago. People five centuries hence would and need not have our present mental dispensation. Likewise, why don't we admit that people who lived two thousand years ago need not have had our present mentalities in recording events! They did not lack a sense of history- but their sense of history was different from ours!

And 5 centuries from now, what will stand out as important- the political, economic, social arrangements that prevail now, or the ecological changes and the natural calamities that will follow? People at large hardly have any sense of history or direction. Take a simple thing. 30 years ago, we used to drink water  directly from our rivers. 20 years ago, we used to draw water from wells in our house and it was potable. Today, the wells have mostly dried up; where it is still not dry, the water is not drinkable, as also our river water. In our villages, the surface wells have dried up due to bore-wells, and the water is polluted due to chemicalisation of agriculture. Since rain is the only source of fresh water in the world, and especially important in India due to the monsoon phenomenon, and we have destroyed all traditional forms of storage like lakes, who can say what will happen in the next 50 years- leave alone 500 years? We are already buying our drinking water in the cities- and you may bet, this is adding to our GDP!

The USA  has a very short history of about 230 years. Yet, read the books by so called professors and leading historians- no two agree on anything to a substantial degree.  Every single so called fact is called into question.Each historian has his own slant.Each professor in each university has his own take, and influences students in a particular direction. Washington and Jefferson were once the heroes; now the universities psychoanalyse them and paint them as abnormal people.Now, whose history is correct, or right  or even factual? So many new 'facts' are unearthed about the tallest leaders like John Kennedy, which if we had known then would not have made us think of them as leaders at all!

 How many of us know all the facts about the public life and private conduct of Jawaharlal Nehru? How many of us know how he became Prime Minister in the first place? How many of us know exactly how we got Independence or why Partition took place? It is not that ancient history alone is full of legends. Recent history too is made of legendary stuff. The authorities who write history supply their own legends. Over 60 years after Independence, we still do not know many things, and dynastic interests of the ruling clique dictate what is recorded as history. 

Those who talk of archaeology as the proof of history, what archaeological proof will be available about our freedom struggle, two centuries hence?  All records are linguistic- oral and written. We have so many memories of Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders- where are they recorded? And even when we record them, how do we interpret them? How do we know that succeeding generations will not distrust them? Gandhi called for Satyagraha in 1919- which is celebrated.But do people know that he also stopped it midway and it was a failure and a fiasco? He called for Quit India in 1942 which is celebrated. But do people know that he was jailed  and silenced for 4 years, that the movement was crushed within 6 months, that the communists and Dr. Ambedkar supported the British and not Independence then, that when Gandhi, Nehru and others were in jail, Dr. Ambedkar was enjoying power as a member of the Viceroy's council? In which history book are these things recorded? And yet today, all political parties are celebrating Dr.Ambedkar! During his lifetime, he was not the undisputed leader of the 'depressed classes'- in fact, he drew very little support from them in the elections, and he claimed to represent labour! (In fact, Dr. Ambedkar represented to the british authorities that it was the depressed classes which had helped the British to gain power and control  India!) It was the Congress, and the higher-caste people in it who struggled for the depressed classes. Which history book records these events? Though public records and archival material are available, the history that is taught in our schools and colleges is largely legendary, and not factual, based on the available records!

 E.V.Ramasamy Naicker sent a telegram to British authorities in July 1947 that the English should not leave India, and that if they left, they should create a separate arrangement for Madras presidency (the Tamils and Muslims) so that it would not join Independent India, but would be part of the British empire! How many know this now? Yet, EVR is celebrated as a great leader, and it is his political heirs who rule Tamil Nadu, not those representing the party that fought for Independence! I would not be surprised if one day, he is also made Bharat Ratna! And why not, when self-seeking sportsman and film singer can be made one!  This is the sense of history of modern Indians. And they criticise the old history! The situation is amusing, but for the tragic consequences.

Let us have humility, and not deny the old wisdom or decry the old masters, while we have no understanding of and answers to the new disasters that we are causing in the name of development. India does not have to follow the West to disaster.