Author:
Publication: Myvoice.opindia.com
Date: January 7, 2020
URL:    https://myvoice.opindia.com/2020/01/how-upa-wrote-nonsense-as-history-insulting-heroes-like-prithviraj-chauhan-shivaji-maharaj/

Congress Party touched a new despicable low by spreading lies about freedom fighter [and Crown Prince of Indian Revolutionaries] Swatantryaveer [Meaning of it is ‘Hero of Independence’] Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. A booklet titled ‘How brave was Veer Savarkar’ released by All India Congress Seva Dal training camp run by the Congress in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh has claimed that ‘co-founder of Hindu Mahasabha’ Veer Savarkar had a physical relationship with Nathuram Godse, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin.

[This also exposed another lie, that Savarkar was a co-founder of the Hindu Mahasabha. Swatantryaveer Savarkar was in jail in Andamans from 1911 to 1921, then in Ratnagiri from 1921-1924, and confined to Ratnagiri from 1924 to 1937 & banned from taking part in political activities. How could he have been the co-founder of the Hindu Mahasabha which was founded in 1915 when he was in jail in the Andamans?]

Think this is shocking or new? Hardly. This is something which has been done by the Congress many times in the past- slander against others. Let us see what the Congress-led UPA did in 2005 in history text books. In May 2004 the NDA lost power. In 2005 NCERT replaced all the text books in schools. Old Communist historians were dusted out of the closet and made to author textbooks. Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, R S Sharma and et al, authored the textbooks of various senior classes on orders of the UPA’s HRD Ministry, which was under Congress leader Arjun Singh.

UPA taught in History “Prithviraj Chauhan was a ‘coward’ who ran away to save his life during the second battle of Tarain with Mohammad Ghauri”!

This was written in Class XI CBSE & ICSE book titled ‘Medieval Indian History’, published by NCERT in 2005! This book published under Arjun Singh’s HRD Ministry of the UPA Government in 2005 was edited by Communist Professor Satish Chandra. It said that Prithviraj Chauhan tried to run away from the battle, but was taken prisoner, and he was ‘punished’ by Ghouri on charge of treason. What an insult it was of a valiant king!

That book said “Jaichand (generally believed to be a traitor) was, in fact a ‘hero’ who gave up his life while fighting the forces of Ghauri” and “Jaichand’s valour was unmatched & that he was killed while fighting the forces of Ghauri in Kannauj.”

That book by Satish Chandra also denied that the main cause of bitterness between Prithviraj & Jaichand was the fact that the latter’s daughter Sanyogita had eloped with Prithviraj & that Jaichand never forgave them! The book said that there were major political differences between the two kings and Sanyogita was not part of it. What distortion of history, insult of the great Prithviraj Chauhan, glorification of Jaichand by Communist historian Satish Chandra, NCERT & UPA Government.

This is just a sample. A full article was written by the then editor of Organiser Dr R Balashankar on this in Organiser, 24 July 2005. His article said:

“Ram and Krishna never lived. Prithviraj Chauhan was “punished” by Muhummad Ghuri for “conspiracy,” Shivaji never faced open battles and won only by “treachery.” These are not extracts from a Pakistani book. But the “facts” mentioned in the Government of India textbooks, issued by Arjun Singh’s NCERT.

The Union HRD minister’s campaign to paint the education field red has resulted in this absurdity being taught as history. The NCERT, has replaced all the text books in schools. Old Communist historians have been dusted out of the closet and made to author textbooks for children. Romila Thapar, Satish Chandra, Ram Sharan Sharma and et al, have authored the textbooks of various senior classes. Page after page, the tone, the language and the presentation are aimed at insulting the national heroes.

Sample this, “archaeological evidence should be considered far more important than long family trees given in the Puranas because Puranic tradition can be used to date Ram of Ayodhya to 2000 B C but diggings and extensive exploration in Ayodhya do not show any settlement of the time.” (Ancient India, Ram Sharan Sharma, book for Class XI)

And he had this to say about Mahabharata, “Although Krishna played an important role in Mahabharata, inscriptions and sculptural piece found in Mathura dating back to 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest to his presence. Because of this, ideas of an epic based on Ramayana and Mahabharata have to be discarded.”

If Ram and Krishna are to be discarded, are we to hold on to Ghuri and Ghazni? On Prithviraj, Satish Chandra says that in his second battle with Ghuri (lovingly called in the book as Muizzuddin Mohammad bin Sam) Prithviraj escaped from the battlefield while his side suffered losses. “he was captured near Saraswati (present day Sirsa)… he was allowed to rule Ajmer for sometime.” Soon, he was “executed on a charge of conspiracy against Ghuri.” Here again, Chandra dismisses the legend of Prithviraj as bunkum based on a later day folk ballet written by Chand Bardai. In one sentence he washes off collective memory and folk sources, now considered as important evidence in history. Jaichand, who is synonymous with betrayal has been given the hounours in heroism by Chandra. He died fighting Ghuri, according to him.

All the books newly introduced by Arjun Singh go on and on about the greatness of the Mughal rulers, the “strategic” mistakes they committed. Nowhere the books mention the kind of loot, plunder and destruction each of the invader unleashed on the Hindu population and its properties. There is no dearth of primary source to write a honest history. But these communists are more interested in suppressing the truth and suggesting falsehood. All these marauders had their official diarists with them, who recorded the events of the day. The Marxist historians had sufficient proof readily available with them to write if they sought for facts. But they didn’t.

Hasan Nizami, in the early 13th century wrote an eye-witness account of the conquest of Delhi by Qutbuddin Aibek, in 1192. Here are some extracts “the conqueror (Aibek) entered the city of Delhi, which is the source of wealth and the foundation of blessedness. The city and its vicinity were freed from idols and idol-worship and in its sanctuaries of the images of the gods, mosques were raised by the worshippers of one god… Qutbuddin built the Jami Masjid at Delhi and adorned it with stones and gold obtained from the temples which had been demolished by elephants and cover it with inscriptions in Toghra, containing the divine commands.”

While discussing Ramayana and Mahabharata, the latest findings in Dwarka are not even mentioned in the NCERT books. The ASI report on Ayodhya is yet to be released, but the author dismisses the excavations lightly. When they discuss the Mughal rulers they discuss their architecture, literature and governance. But on most of the Hindu rulers, only their battle defeats are elaborated. On Aurangzeb the biased Chandra says “Aurangzeb has been unjustly maligned … the Hindus had become disloyal due to the laxity of Aurangzeb’s predecessors, so that Aurangzeb had no choice but to adopt harsh measures and to try and rally the Muslims on whose support in the long run the empire had to rest.” So to please the Muslims, he imposed jazia on Hindus. Has anyone heard such non-sense in the national History textbooks?

Shivaji, who is normally addressed by Indians with the sobriquet Chhatrapati was only a chieftain, according to Chandra. Shivaji “conquered Javli from the Maratha chief Chandra Rao More. The Javli kingdom and accumulated treasures of the Mores were important and Shivaji acquired them by means of treachery,” Chapter 19 of the Medieval India textbook of Chandra says.

Shivaji is grudgingly dismissed in two pages. Prithviraj in six lines. There is hardly any mention of Rana Pratap and Haldighati. The bias, in these books is unbelievable. It is untruth, myth and fiction passed off as history. There is no end to Muslim rulers’ broad mindedness and Hindu meanness. And this is the history we are teaching our children.

The Muslims had raised a hue and cry about a book under the NDA government, which had described Mohammad as the founder of Islam. The book Comprehensive Study of History and Civics for Class VI in Uttar Pradesh had said that Quran was a compilation of his teachings. The Muslims objected saying that the Quran were not teachings but divine revelations and Mohammad was the last of the Prophets of God.

Can historians who are in the pay-roll of ideological groups in the country get away with distorting our national history? Is this the heritage that the UPA government wants the children of India to inherit? Systematically and determinedly, the UPA is trying to undermine the national pride, self-respect and the glorious history. Pandering to the communists and the vociferous minorities the government is abandoning its role in safeguarding the national interest. Arjun Singh is the henchman for all this.

In those days, in the pre-social media era, the Congress and UPA got away with saying anything. The discredited Marxist historians were employed by them to tamper and distort history, and write such insulting nonsense on Shivaji Maharaj, Prithviraj Chauhan etc & glorify tyrants.

All those who respect these icons, like Shiv Sena and various others in Maharashtra [who often say that they consider Shivaji Maharaj as nothing less than God], various Rajput organizations, who needlessly protested against the film Padmavat due to perception of that film showing disrespect for Queen Padmavati, when in reality there was nothing objectionable in it, should question the Congress about this. How it allowed such content to come in the books, why it chose those historians to author the books, who lied about the heroes? Does the Congress agree with the contents of those books? If not, how did its HRD Ministry allow such content to come in the books?

If the Congress could stoop so low in case of a National Hero Swatantryaveer Savarkar, despite he being an icon in Maharashtra, where its alliance partner Shiv Sena still considers Savarkar as a National Hero, one wonders to what level it may go in future, if it gets a chance to have history books written again. What insults based on lies will they do of heroes like Sambhaji Maharaj (the elder son of Shivaji Maharaj) who was tortured and killed by Aurangazeb [his eyes were gouged out and body was cut into pieces and thrown to vultures] after he refused to convert to Islam, and hence is called ‘Dharmaveer’?

(The writer is the author of book “Gujarat Riots: The True Story” which gives all details about the 2002 riots- Godhra and after, one of the admins of www.gujaratriots.com and one of the admins of the Twitter handle @gujaratriotscom)