Monday, May 25, 2015

Scroll it

On May 17th the Home Minister, Rajnath Singh, created sort of a mini hysteria among the established historians. In three tweets he forced many journalists and publications to come up with counter arguments. What the Home Ministers had said in his three tweets was –
 
“Maharana Pratap became an icon for freedom fighters because his name evoked a strong feeling of love and sacrifice for motherland”.
“Our text books have not been able to fully recognise Maharana Pratap's contribution and significance in India's history”.
“If Akbar can be called 'Akbar the Great' for his contribution then why can't Maharana Pratap be recognised as 'Maharana Pratap the Great”.
He tweeted after he inaugurated a statue of Maharana Pratap in Pratapgarh Rajasthan.
What happened in the days following the tweets can be read here, here and here   
Yes, it was here, there and everywhere. Most articles suggested that the tweets were an attempted “saffronization/communalization of history”. Lot of ink was poured to justify why Akbar was indeed great and why Maharana Pratap was just heroic at best. But the funniest pieces were written by Scroll (a left leaning online publisher). They can be read here and here and here

The first piece tells us that the textbooks we read are withholding information, which can technically mean they are lying. The article informs us that all the stories we hear or read about the Rajput valour and might is a lie. On the contrary the Rajputs failed miserably in battles for centuries. The Rajputs were in fact inept at discipline, technical & technological prowess and tactical acumen.

This reasoning is stupid at best. The rules of war in India were different from that of the nomads who had none. In India wars were fought in open spaces and civilian causalities were rare. The only large scale loss of life documented is that during the war of Kalinga. The impact of the widespread destruction was so profound on Ashok that he devoted rest of his life spreading Buddhism and drafting laws to protect environment and people.

The logic given by Girish shahane would in fact justify the swift advance of the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq and blame the loss of territory, life and history on the missing skills of Iraqi and Syrian forces. The tactical acumen Girish talks about was horrendous and in today’s time and age would qualify the Ghaznis, Ghouris, Khiljis and Baburs to be tried at the international Court of Justice for crimes against humanity. The acts that followed the wars, by the “eminent” personalities mentioned by Girish, were mass killings of civilians, destruction of places of worship, rape of women, taking slaves and sending tribute to the Ottoman Caliph. These are exactly the acts that followed the fall of Mosul, Palmyra, Anbar, etc. at the hands of the IS.

What the Home Minister said and what the likes of Scroll made it into is bizarre. The three tweets had nothing, which in any way would qualify as an attack on Akbar or the larger set of Muslim rulers. But the Left leaning and some self-proclaimed centrist journalists concocted stories. Played it out to imply the statement was an attack on “secularism” and an attempt to “rewrite history”.

But interesting thing is that publications like Scroll often carry biased and under researched articles that can be termed misleading. Take this for example Shoaib Daniyal concocts another conspiracy on how the Bengali calendar is a fusion of Hijri and Hindu calendar. Only he forgets that there is no such thing as a Hindu calendar. The Bengali calendar or Bangabda as it is called is a solar calendar unlike Hijri, which is lunar. The Hijri has no mechanism to adjust for the loss of eleven days every year or to ensure the link between months and seasons, making it useless for a community dependent on agriculture. The article ends with a note relishing how the calendar has become an integral part of agriculture and Hindu religion.  Another lie. None of the Bengali festivals are celebrated (apart from the New Year) according to Bangabda. They are all celebrated according to Vikram era.

The likes of Scroll who often blame the others for rewriting history are in fact experts in the trade. Be it the half-truths of the “eminent” rulers or outright lies like the story of Bangabda, Scroll has perfected the art of misleading.