Author: Tarun Vijay
Publication: The Times of India
Date: December 2, 2001
Yes: A history that is biased and
insults national heroes, communalises events and downgrades a community
is dangerous and needs to be corrected
The British wrote history to suit
their empire and the Leftists distorted it to further their 'ism'. It's
time now to correct these wrongs in a transparent and objective manner
so that India benefits, not any 'ism' or party. Hence, Prime Minister Vajpayee
is right in saying that distortions in history have to go. A history that
is biased and insults national heroes, communalises events and downgrades
a community is a dangerous recipe and needs to be corrected.
It is indeed ironic that unless
we go on learning faithfully that Guru Tegh Bahadur had resorted to "plunder
and raping", Shivaji's victories were merely "the growth of Maratha national
sentiment", the "execution" (not martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur) "was due
to the intrigues of some members of his family" and Jats were "plunderers",
we are sure to be condemned as "agents of saffronisation".
To be secular and a decently desaffronised
Indian citizen, it is necessary to- learn that Savarkar, Khudi Ram Bose,
Prafulla Chaki and Hardayal were terrorists and not freedom fighters and
the oaths before Goddess Kali by Bengal revolutionaries were taken by terrorists.
Aurangzeb was a "jinda pir or a living saint". In ancient India "people
ate beef but not pork on any considerable scale", and Alauddin's attack
on Chittor to get Padmini is a "popular legend" unacceptable to "many modern
historians". These are some of the secular gems quoted from the books of
honourable historians like Prof Satish Chandra, Arjun Dev, Romila Thapar
(who is also the distinguished resource person for Shah Rukh Khan's Asoka)
and R.S. Sharma.
Our children should read what the
West Bengal's leftist government is teaching kids. See an extract from
the, textbook for Class V. "Islam and Christianity are the only religions
which treated man with honour and equality..." A job well done to please
the party masters and neo-colonialists of the Marxist hue: Half-truths,
half-lies, hypotheses presented as facts and facts obscured. The arrogance
of power and paisa make them use the word "saffron" abusively. It hardly
matters to them that it is the colour of Bharatvarsha that is India since
time immemorial and that it denotes renunciation, devotion, victory and
strength. If the sky is expressed through blue and nature through green,
India is expressed through saffron. If anti-saffronisation campaigners
have their way, even the name of the nation would not be Bharat or Hindusthan.
One smacks of "Sanskrit" and the other has a "Hindu" word in it! The hate
and hostility for a different viewpoint, and especially for anything Hindu,
is so evident that the Taliban would find their real comrades here.
The basic idea is to reduce the
burden, provide value-based education and implement the S.B. Chavan Committee
report submitted to Parliament. The curriculum commits itself to "scientific
temper characterised by the spirit of enquiry, problem-solving, the courage
to question and objectivity leading to elimination of obscurantism, superstition
and fatalism..." (Page 40).
There is no reference to astrology
but the government simply tried to take forward what previous Congress
regimes were doing with regard to education about astrology in many mainstream
universities like Rajasthan and Ujjain. If the Vedas aren't taught here,
where would you expect them to be taught? In Saudi Arabia?
Talibanised minds indeed! They destroyed
the Bamiyan Buddhas. These are destroying the spirit of Bharat. Wrong history
needs to be righted otherwise the nation will stand wronged.
(Tarun Vijay is the editor of 'Panchjanya)
