Politics Of Indian History -2

ramana · 05-31-2006, 01:50 AM

From Deccan Chronicle, 30 May 2006. Op-Ed
QUOTEThe histories of India
By H.Y. Sharada Prasad

History has many uses. First and foremost, it is considered a basic tool of nation-building. Every nation tends to think it has made a unique contribution to human civilisation and would like to impress it on the citizens from their earliest years. Hence the animated controversies that take place over textbooks of history. 

For a long time, persons in sympathy with the ideology of the Bharatiya Janata Party had a complaint against the government. They felt that leftists were allowed too much of a say in the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) which draws up the curriculum and prepares the model text-books for our school system. The result, according to them, was that a Marxist (hence non-Indian) interpretation of history was injected into the minds of our children from their earliest years; also that the writers spent too much time on minor controversies, such as whether the Vedic Aryans were beef-eaters or not. So when the BJP came to power, out went the left-tainted books and in came books with an acceptable lotus tint.

When the BJP was voted out and the reins of office were again in Congress hands, one of the first things that the new government did was to announce that panels of authors had been appointed to draw up new text-books that would take the place of the lotus series. Three or four weeks ago I saw a large advertisement announcing that a whole lot of books for schools had been prepared and were up for sale. I have been reading them with some alacrity. I want to share with readers my first impressions of some of them. 

The curriculum lists history and geography as part of social science. The child begins studying them in Class VI, that is, when he is 12 years old. The mind of a 12-year-old isnât a tiny clean slate, like the mind of a six-year-old. He would have overheard the conversation among his adults, or himself formed part of the slogan-shouting brigades of urchins supporting a particular party or candidate. He would also have been an avid watcher of television. He would have read several books of Amar Chitra Kahaniyan, along with Asterix. In other words, a sizable number of cultural concepts and constructs would have taken root in his young mind.

That being so, it would be wrong to imagine that a textbook read at the age of 12 will become the normative influence in a young person. In the hands of an inspired teacher, it might do so, provided that the book itself is the work of a genius. Ishvar Chandra Vidyasagarâs primers in Bengali, Vallatholâs in Malayalam, and Shivarama Karanthâs in Kannada were examples of such books. But Karanthâs books were removed on the ground that he was not a trained pedagogue and that he lacked even a university degree.

There are quite a few plus points about the new textbook in history for Class VI. It is neatly printed and copiously illustrated in pleasing colour schemes. The very title of the book is unexpectedly different â not A History of India for Beginners but Our Pasts.

The use of the plural suggests that we have many pasts and should not demand or imagine that there need be a single version of what happened. The authors provide a good answer to the question why we need to bother about pasts that have gone by: âThe society we live in has been fashioned by those who came before usâ¦ When we study history we begin to see how these changes happenedâ¦ History is not only about political events. It is about everything that happens in society.â 

The book consists of 12 chapters. Their titles are given here as they vividly bring out the way in which the authors have gone about their work: 1) What, where, how and when?; 2) On the trail of the earliest people; 3) From gathering to growing food; 4) In the earliest cities; 5) What books and burials tell us; 6) Kingdoms, kings and an early republic; 7) New questions and ideas; 8) Ashoka, the Emperor who gave up war; 9) Vital villages, thriving towns; 10) Traders, kings and pilgrims; 11) New empires and kingdoms; 12) Buildings, paintings and books.

For years, the Aryans have posed a great problem for writers on Indian history. Did they come from outside? Who were the original inhabitants? The present authors have dealt with it in an ingenious way, that is, by totally ignoring their existence. The fifth chapter, which speaks about the Vedas, goes on to say: âThe people who composed the hymns described themselves as Aryas and called their opponents Dasas or Dasyus. These were people who did not perform sacrifices and probably spoke different languages.â It is to be seen whether this will satisfy the old disputants.

If Our Pasts is unorthodox in its treatment of the Aryans, it is equally unorthodox in its treatment of the epics. The first two Indian epics it mentions are not the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, but the Tamil works Silappadikaram and Manimekalai. 

The authors trace the origin of the Bhakti movement to the Bhagavad Gita, âthe sacred book of the Hindus, which is included in the Mahabharata. In this Krishna the God asks Arjuna his devotee and friend, to abandon all dharmas and take refuge in him, as only he can set Arjuna free from every evil.â One can foresee that several schoolmasters will feel uncomfortable with this interpretation of the Gita.

A couple of little known facts brought out by the book are the existence of ostriches in India during the Paleolithic period, and the fact that there is only one mention of the river Ganga in the entire Vedic hymns.

The book would have gained if greater care had been devoted to the editing of the manuscript. We have too many awkward passages like:

l âWhen people die, their relatives and friends generally pay respect to them. People look after them, perhaps in the belief that there is some form of life after death. Burial is one such arrangement.â l âNot everybody could have been a specialist. We do not know whether only men were specialists or only women were specialists. Perhaps some women and men may have been specialists.â

l âArcheologists have found seeds of wheat, barley, rice, pulses, millets, peas, and sesame. Bones of a number of animals, many bearing cut marks that show they may have been used have also been found. These include cattle, buffalo, goat, sheep, dog, horse, ass, pig, sambhar, spotted deer, black buck, antelope, hare, and mongoose, besides birds, crocodile, turtle, crab, and fish.â

l âAccording to this system of belief (Bhakti), if a devotee worships the chosen deity with a pure heart, the deity will appear in the form in which he or she may desire. So, the deity could be thought of as a human being, lion, tree, or any other form. Once this idea gained acceptance, artists made beautiful images of these deities.â

The companion book on geography for Class VI, The Earth Our Habitat, I am sorry to report, is even more carelessly written. Take, for example, this paragraph about the weather on page 56:

âFor example, as such it may be hot or cold; sunny or cloudy; windy or calm. You must have noticed that when it is hot continued for several days you donât need any warm clothing. You also like to eat or drink cold things. In contrast there are days together, you feel cold without woollen clothes when it is very windy and chilly, you would like to have something hot to eat.â

H.Y. Sharada Prasad was adviser to Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi

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