communalising history

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Communalising history?Vinod KumarKashmir HeraldApril

2003http://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/communalisinghistoryx.htmlEver

since the Bharatiya Janata Party led government came to power in Delhi the

"rewriting" of history has become a contentious, at times acrimonious, issue.

Marxist historians who had dominated writing history books under the Congress

patronage for decades have suddenly started accusing the BJP government (and

the Sangh Parivar) of "communalising" or "saffronizing" history. Those who

contest Marxists' version of history were labeled as "communal" while they

call their own version as "secular". Dr. DN Jha, a Professor of History at the

Delhi University belongs to the 'secular' school of History. In the year 1999,

at the Punjab History Conference held at Patiala, he delivered his presidential

address focusing on the theme: "Against communalising History". Some of the

"secular historians" have, in fact, globalized this issue by talking about it

constantly at the International conferences and seminars across the globe, and

particularly in North America and Europe.Various aspects of "rewriting" history

have been dealt with in the Indian media at length. There are many points of

contention but the most notable two that make the issue so divisive are (i)

the treatment given to Aryan invasion theory and (ii) how Muslim invasions and

rule are portrayed in history books.History can be neither secular nor

communal. Simply, history is nothing but a record of events as they happened as

best ascertained by available evidence. While dealing with history as a

subject, 'objectivity' should only be the sole criterion and nothing else.

Again, this objectivity must be sustainable on archeological or other

verifiable evidences. Furthermore, whenever new evidences come along through

new scientific methods or newly found evidences at a particular historical

site, the "wrong" historical records and books must be corrected to reflect the

truth as it unfolds. At any rate, objectivity should be the guiding factor while

writing history books, past or present.In his keynote address Dr. Jha told the

audience "the Hindutva forces, in their bid to aggravate religious conflicts

in the country, argue that Hindus were forcibly converted to Islam and

Christianity in the past and therefore they have to be reconverted so as to

take them back into the Hindu fold. But such an assertion has no basis in our

history…. The idea that the Muslims were destroyers of 'Hindu' temples and

that they converted 'Hindus' to Islam by force is extremely tendentious and is

largely unfounded."Citing Alberuni Dr. Jha said "the use of force in this

conversion was neither necessary nor possible". To the best of my knowledge, of

all the twenty or so books about India written by Alberuni, only one titled

Indica has survived. It is not clear how from reading Alberuni, Dr. Jha drew

the above mentioned conclusion. Alberuni's book is not about Muslim conquest of

India. It is "an account of the religion, philosophy, literature, geography,

astronomy, customs, laws and astrology of India about AD 1030".Conversion of

Hindus or the demolition of Hindu temples by the Muslims was not the subject of

Alberuni's book. Yet, he made some observations as and when these touched upon

the issues he dealt with in his book. Alberuni wrote Prince Mahmud that

"utterly ruined the prosperity of the country" and calling these as "wonderful

exploits" by which Hindus became like atoms of dust scattered in all

directions. This, he goes onto observe, has created "the most inveterate

aversion towards all Muslims". Keen as he was on learning about Hinduism and

India, he laments that this has caused the Hindu sciences to "retire far away

from those parts of the country conquered by us" and have fled to places where

"our hands cannot yet reach". He stayed, it is surmised in Punjab - the area

under Prince Mahmud's occupation.If Dr. Jha was looking for the full extent of

the destruction of temples and conversion of Hindus, he should have rather

looked into Tarikh-e-Yamini written by Prince Mahmud's secretary Utbi and other

Islamic sources dealing with the exploits of Muslim invaders and rulers.When it

comes to the destruction of temples, the Somanath temple evokes strongest

emotions. Somanath is mentioned fifteen times in Alberuni's Indica. While

discussing the sacredness of the Somanath idol and its origins and

construction, Alberuni records that the idol was destroyed by Mahmud and broken

parts shipped to Ghazni; "the upper part with all its trappings of gold, jewels

and embroidered garments" being kept at his residence and another part before

the door of the mosque of Ghazni, on which people rub their feet to clean them

from dirt and wet". Part of it was thrown into the hippodrome of the town,

together with the Chakraswamin, an idol of bronze brought from

Thanesar.Additional proof of the destruction of Somanath temple, again, is

recorded in a letter written by Aurangzeb. He wrote:."The temple of Somnath was

demolished early in my reign and idol worship (there) put down. It is not known

what the state of things is at present. If the idolators have again taken to

the worship of images at the place, then destroy the temple in such a way that

no trace of the building may be left, and also expel them (the worshippers)

from the place." (Quoted in Jadunath Sarkar's History of Aurangzeb from

Inayetullah's Ahkam, 10a, Mirat 372)Somanath temple was demolished by the

Muslims -- from Mahmud to Aurangzeb - and rebuilt by the Hindus several times -

the last time soon after India gained her independence.Focussing on Somanath

temple does not, in any way, imply that this was the only temple demolished by

the Muslims. This was one of thousands that met similar fate. Breaking of idols

and demolition of places of worship was not unique to medieval Muslims. The

latest example of this practice was witnessed by the entire world only two

years ago (April 2001) when in opposition to calls from all quarters centuries

old Buddha statues carved on hillside in Bamiyan were demolished in

Afghanistan."The possibility of a forced mass conversion is, in fact,

contradicted by Muhammad ibn Qasim himself who, according to Baladhuri, is

believed to have said: "The temples shall be unto us like the churches of the

Christians, the synagogues of the Jews, and the fire temples of the Magians."

Dr. Jha went on to say.Islamic warriors spared some temples. However, this was

not done as an act of tolerance or compassion towards Hindus. Alberuni writes

about one such incident. When Muhammad bin Kasim conquered Multan, he inquired

"why the town was so very flourishing"? When told the cause was the idol of

Aditya, for there came pilgrims from all sides to visit it. He decided to

"leave the idol where it was but he hung a piece of cow's flesh on its neck by

way of mockery." When the Karmatians occupied Multan, Jalam ibn Shaiban broke

the idol into pieces and built a mosque at the same place, Alberuni went on to

add.For reasons best known to him, Dr. Jha does not tell all the facts of the

history. He gives only a sanitized account of Muslim invasion, and

exploitation. At Debal, the temples were demolished and mosque founded; a

general massacre endured for three whole days; prisoners were taken captive;

plunder was amassed. At Nirun, the idols were broken, and mosques founded on

the site of the temple of Budh, notwithstanding its voluntary surrender. The

account of Mahmud's invasions is full of demolition of temples (at Thanesar,

Mathura, Kannauj, Somnath - to mention a few), plunder, massacres, enslavement

and forced conversions.Hajjaj, the governor of Irak and sponsor of Muhammad bin

Kasim's campaign to Sind had written clear instructions:"My dear cousin, I have

received your life-augmenting letter. On its receipt my gladness and joy knew

no bounds…. But the way of granting pardon prescribed by law is different

from the one adopted by you…. The Great God says in the Koran: 'O true

believers, when you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads. The

above command of the Great God is a great command and must be respected and

followed." If at times Hindus enjoyed some freedom in the practice of their

religion; it was dictated less by any principle of justice or humanity, than

the impossibility of suppressing the native religion by the small number of

Muslim invaders. The Hindus were never treated equal to Muslims. They had to

pay higher taxes in addition to humiliating Jiziya. The truth is that Muslim

invasions, almost without exception, were followed by a great massacre and

demolition of Hindu temples. All means from the sword to political to economic

pressure in the form of excessive taxation and humiliating Jiziya were used to

convert Hindus to Islam.When the Communist Government of West Bengal issued

orders not to mention demolition of Hindu temples by the Muslims in textbooks,

at least indirectly, they accepted that, indeed, this had happened. However,

historians such as Dr. Jha go to extraordinary lengths to deny, hide and twist

true historical facts.What is presented by Dr. Jha is far from objective

history. It is communal history - history favoring one community at the expense

of the other in contradiction to all available evidence. Ironically, Dr. Jha

while protesting against "communalising" history is very much doing the same.

What India needs now is "true" academic historians who won't be afraid to call

a spade as spade.

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