Need a Historical Reawakening of India!
As a student in school, I was one of the very few ones who actually liked history. For most of my classmates it was a collection of some irrelevant stories which even if they learned by rote would not really be helping them with their life and goals. To be fair they were not really wrong!
I too didn’t really pursue history as a viable career option but went into Engineering (Surprise!) and later did MBA but somewhere that longing for history remained. After a long pause, it came roaring again when I went to Germany for my first international assignment.
An Eye Opener
Every nook and cranny of Germany was filled with a thousand year of history. Palaces, Monuments, Forts, Museums and Memorials, the country was filled with them and so was the larger European region. While it was an enriching experience, the reality of my own country hit me hard, really hard.
Where are the Grand monuments of Hindu Kingdoms of our oral history and myths? Why is there nothing to showcase our valorous past which survived so many invasions and yet retained the Hindu identity? Why was it that our History books were nothing but story after story of defeat of Hindu Kings? Where is the story of resistance? Resistance which continued for a 1000 year; stretching from the first Muslim invasion to our eventual freedom in 1947.
It was a rude awakening for me!
It also helped me understand why my classmates hated history so much. It was nothing but a defeatist narrative of an enslaved country. It was not a proud re-telling of events which helped us survive and win our sovereignty.
The Disconnect from the past
Even if leave aside the academic history of our country. The disconnect with our past is apparent everywhere.
We talk about a very long history of civilisation in India, one of the oldest surviving civilisations but when we look around, the oldest monuments are actually very recent ones. Most of the ones which are older than 100 years are either British or Muslim monuments. The very few Hindu Monuments which survived are either in Deep South or in inhospitable regions of Rajasthan or Himalayan mountain ranges. This is particularly applicable for temples in India. Some of the ancient India temples are in ruins or a pale shadow of their former selves. A small illustrative mosaic is below for your reference and thought.
Clockwise starting from Top Left
- Remains of Krishna Janmsthan of Mathura
- Famed Akshay Vat of Prayagraj
- Second Kashi Vishwanath Temple, now it is Gyanvapi mosque.
- Sheetla Mata Mandir in Kade Kausambi
- At 1000 year old temple which was encroached upon and hidden beneath the construction around the current Kashi Vishwanath Temple
- Hanuman Temple Prayagraj
The Apathy Continues in the modern era
Even if I leave the monuments of antiquity aside, where are our memorials for First World War, Second World War, China War, Pakistan Wars and IPKF. After a wait of almost 70 years we finally have a National War Memorial but it is still under construction whereas a country like South Korea has a huge National War Memorial which truly impresses any visitor. It is in the heart of Seoul and has free entry!
Where is the monument to honour the Indian National Army (Azaad Hind Fauj) or the memorial for the mutineers of the Royal Indian Navy of 1946!
There is only one small memorial in Imphal, Manipur and not a single on in New Delhi and not one in Kolkata either.
We are weak at recording, keeping and honouring our history. This allows others to write our history for us and history is narrative. We need to truly uncover our history, our story. Not the one that has been handed down to us by our colonial masters and their post-colonial followers in the marxist tradition of history that has become the bane of our civilisational strength.
Marxist History – A falsified political narrative created in the corridors of JNU and Old Delhi Establishment
Marxist History of India
Our history from the Marxist narrative is nothing a bunch of stories of losers and everything great that came from outside of India. This has been used for too long to suppress the confidence of our nation and our history and our identity.
And I will not be wrong if I proclaim – History is identity!
It is what binds us as a nation state and it is the foundation of our civilisation state. This blog series is my attempt to rediscover my history, our history and to reset the defeatist notion introduced in our history books.
A more comprehensive history of India
This is my attempt to record and narrate the story of our achievements from antiquity which helped us survive when all our peers from antiquity are long gone. I would also like to question the western narrative handed down to us. While not yet firm, the few topics that I would be covering next few articles are
- Indus Valley Civilisation – The connection to our present
- Aryan Invasion/Migration Theory – The bogus theory still being taught in India
- The Iron Age in India – The oldest record iron works are in India. Yet the supposedly nomadic Aryans taught Indians to work with Iron!
- The age of Indian exploration in Indian Ocean
This is not an exhaustive list. Contemporary history is something that I do intend to cover but for that I need collaborative effort to help record the history from people who help created it!
Please do share your thoughts and experience with India History and what can we do to make it more interesting and relevant for the masses.
Ashish Srivastav 