Reclaim civilisational self from shallow history texts
– Anirban Ganguly
In the preface
to his three-volume classic, History of the
Freedom Movement in India, R. C. Majumdar(1888-1980), one of India’s most distinguished
20th century historians, made a very telling remark, especially relevant to
teaching the history of the Indian freedom movement to young learners. “I
have not hesitated,” wrote Majumdar, “to speak out the truth, even if it is in
conflict with views cherished and propagated by distinguished political leaders
for whom I have the greatest respect.” He also argued that a “solid structure
of mutual amity and understanding cannot be built on the quicksands of false history
and political expediency.”
One notices a
compartmentalised and selective approach to the study of India, especially when
examining the freedom struggle and the role of various regions and leaders. How
many, for example, have been taught in some detail, of the rebellions against
the East India Company rule in the southern region between 1800 and 1801? Why is the
Northeast’s contribution to the freedom struggle and its pre-British
civilisational identity and achievements not highlighted, researched and
taught? Shall we not marvel to know how V. O. Chidambaram Pillai launched a Swadeshi Steam
Navigation Company and challenged
the British monopoly of the shipping sector until he was held, charged with
sedition, and sentenced to life imprisonment? Sri Aurobindo’s columns in Vande Mataram still stir the depths of our being and shape our patriotic
sentiments. Ranima Gaidinliu’s exploits continue to inspire, as does the poetry
of the revolutionary Subramaniam
Bharati. Sister Nivedita’s contribution to strengthening scientific research in
India against great colonial opposition is worth knowing.
Political
considerations, ideological affiliations—especially of those who have always
tried to establish an imported ideology—of well-resourced groups who have
thrived in the Western academia by projecting India as a society in perpetual
conflict and instability, has largely influenced the study of history. Their
prime political objective, despite their arguments to the contrary, has been to
generate confusion and to finally deconstruct Bharat’s civilisational
self-perception. Therefore, all episodes in our history that have strengthened
that civilisational self-perception, any individual or movement that has
derived inspiration from Bharat’s civilisational self or has worked to discover
and disseminate its achievements has been marginalised and suppressed.
So
opportunistic and shallow has been the commitment to officially write the
history of the freedom struggle that Marxist historians who got down to writing it could never complete it despite
spending crores of taxpayers’ money and working on it for over four decades.
The “Towards Freedom” project that continues to languish was essentially handed over to a
group of scholars with no known commitment to India’s civilisational ethos and who used the opportunity to perpetuate a political
line and to exonerate a political class whose only contribution to the struggle
for freedom was through collaboration with colonialists and imperialists in
suppressing the movement itself.
But finally,
there seems to be a gradual reversal of that approach. Attempts are being made
to rediscover and re-interpret, as inspiring icons, many marginalised
personalities who have made epochal contributions to shape our civilisational
self and world view. Efforts are being made to study and disseminate their
contributions, the contributions of historical episodes, events and
achievements that have instilled a genuine civilisational sense in us. The
compartmentalised approach is being challenged and questioned, new ideas,
hitherto suppressed, are finding voice.
Such first
steps towards restating our civilisational self is an urgent necessity, it
alone can lead towards achieving that second dimension of freedom—the freedom
of the mind, self and self-perception. – The New Indian Express, 15 August 2015
» Dr Anirban Ganguly is Director, Dr
Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi.
