Neha Dabhade
Report of Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer
Memorial Lecture
“Muslims in India today are depicted
as signifiers of horrible histories- of rape of Hindu women, partition,
fanaticism”, pointed out Prof. Tanika Sarkar, reputed historian and
celebrated academic, while delivering the 19thDr. Asghar Ali
Engineer Memorial Lecture on 31st October, 2022. The lecture titled,
‘Making and Teaching of Indian Past’ was organized by Centre for Study of
Society and Secularism and chaired by Prof. Harbans Mukhia, prominent historian
and author. Prof. Sarkar through her erudite lecture explored two themes,
firstly, the different dominant approaches or frameworks to teaching of history
and secondly Hindu nationalist historical project and its prominent premises.
This lecture was attended by over 200 participants comprising of eminent
scholars, academics, civil society activists and large number of students.
Prof. Sarkar noted that the basic
premises of Hindu nationalist teaching of history are twofold- pride in the
great Hindu past and stigmatization of Muslims as foreigners and outsiders. She
observed that RSS has been the most influential entity to shape and control
historical narratives and teaching of history. It has shaped the broad popular
understanding of Indian history in the public domain. In order to understand
how these narratives are seeped into the popular imagination despite having no
basis in historical research, facts and evidences, she illustrates the
different sources like educational institutions, curricula of history, syllabi
on one hand and other mediums like historical fictions, children’s comics,
media depictions and tourist guides have been controlled and influenced by
Hindutva ideologues.
Prof Sarkar points out that basis of
this distorted historical facts and narratives emanate from the ideology of
Hindutva and the thoughts of some of the prominent ideologues. For instance,
Prof. Sarkar illustrated, Savarkar in his writings merged faith with
geographical origins by making the ideas of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Indian’ synonymous.
According to him, Hindu faith was born inside India and this faith constitutes
the essential essence of the country. While Savarakar, according to Prof.
Sarkar, does problematizes caste division in Hindu society, he brushes it away
by claiming that Hindus is one big family since the blood of all castes has
mingled over centuries. Following from Savarkar’s thoughts, territorial origin
of faith becomes the test for nationalism. Faiths and their followers born
outside of Indian territory are looked upon as ‘foreign’ and ‘outsiders’.
Prof. Sarkar addressed in her lecture,
one of the most popular myths and narratives that Muslims who came to India had
diabolic religious ambition and not just political ambition. That is to destroy
Hindu religion and converting Hindus into Islam. Prof. Sarkar however, points
out that such narrative fly in the face of historical evidence since there is
no evidence to prove that the Muslim rulers converted large number of Hindus.
Another falsehood being spread claiming to be historical ‘fact’ is that Muslims
considered it as their religious duty to kidnap and force into their religion
non-Muslim women in India reflecting their lust for carnage. Savarkar, observes
Prof. Sarkar, goes to the extent of blaming Shivaji for not abducting Muslim
queens and women. Such narratives have been given contemporary spin in the form
of allegations of ‘love jihad’. Muslim men alone are blamed for raping Hindu
women during the Partition violence while there was equal number of instances
of Muslim women being raped by Hindu men during the Partition. However, rape
has become the defining feature of Muslim men alone.
Prof. Sarkar through the above examples
explained the adverse impact historical narratives based on distorted facts and
history has on the social fabric. These historical narratives throbbing with
overpowering emotion and rhetoric and devoid of reason or historical truth wipe
out complex histories. Prof. Sarkar lamented that such narratives tend to wipe
out lived realities of everyday living and shared histories. Hindutva ideology
which interprets and reconstructs history in such exclusive terms also then
demands that ‘good peaceful’ Hindus refashion themselves in the image of the
imagined enemy. It demands that Hindus too become fanatical and cruel to beat
the Muslims at their own game, thereby perpetrating the spiral of violence and
hatred.
This hatred and violence was most
visible during the partition, for which the Muslims are blamed. However, Prof.
Sarkar, traced back the origin of the two nation theory, which is popular
attributed to Jinnah. She points out that Golwalkar famously in his writings in
late 1930s said, “ To keep up the purity of the Race and its culture, Germany shocked the
world by her purging the country of the Semitic races — the Jews.. a good
lesson for Hindustan”. When asked what status would the Muslims and Christians and other
non-Hindus have in India, Golwalkar retorted that non- Hindus may stay in
India, wholly in subordination to the Hindu nation, claiming nothing, deserving
nothing, no privileges and not even citizens’ rights. This was much before
Jinnah spoke about the partition.
Prof. Sarkar grapples with the question
that why inspite of such narratives being devoid of historical evidence have
entered popular historical imagination and gained credulity amongst large
swaths of people. Prof. Sarkar attributes this to the relentless work of RSS to
propagate such narratives and its success in training its cadre in teaching
history. Prof. Sarkar points out that RSS has a well thought out strategy for
dissemination of history. Prof. Sarkar observes that RSS has 38 mass fronts and
one of them dedicated completely to history. Hindutva ideologues and RSS have
worked relentlessly on the sources of popular history including comics and
media. These sources were largely neglected by serious historians and other
ideologies.
Prof. Sarkar illustrated how RSS placed
great value in training its cadres for teaching history. While the Sangh- RSS
and its affiliates train its cadre on daily basis in its Shakhas,
Golwalkar asked even homebound mothers and wives to transmit these lessons to their
Dalit neighbours. This also indicates how the Hindutva organizations have
expanded their outreach to different sections of the society. The cadre of the
Sangh is highly motivated and ready to work far away from their homes in
discomfort to train and transmit historical narratives in communities and
people. Electoral victories alone don’t account for the success of RSS and
affiliates in influencing and shaping historical narratives or even corporate
or NRI support. But this success is on account of rigorous dissemination of
history through its various mass fronts like Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Sanskar
Kendra etc.
Prof. Sarkar also critiqued the other
political parties for never sparing a thought to history and its dissemination.
She illustrated this point by discussing the case of West Bengal. Though West
Bengal was ruled by the left for over three decades continuously, little or no
attention was paid to the teaching of history. Prof. Sarkar observed that
either the textbooks made for dull reading or had the same stereotypes against
Muslims. The Bengal intelligentsia were never involved as a resource and the
NCERT textbooks not referred to while teaching. Similarly though the left
parties at one point of time had solid mass base and sizeable cadre, they didn’t
develop permanent cadre base equipped with pedagogical mission or develop any
educational institutions like the RSS and the right. No educational alternatives
were proposed and developed.
In contrast, the RSS took the approach
of ‘man-making’ precedes ‘nation-making’ and laid emphasis on history and
education in a systematic way, pointed out Prof. Sarkar. One of outcomes was
the proliferations of educational institutions like the Saraswati Shishu
Mandirs, colleges and universities under different names but with the same
ideology. Though secular institutions exist, they have a limited reach amongst
the middle class and upper middle class. However, the institutions established
and run by the right have reached out to even marginalized sections of the
society including adivasis and dalits. The Akhil Bhartiya Itihas Sankalan
Yojana for instance which is established in Kullu has researched into local
adivasi folklore and histories depict them having affinities to the historical
narratives of the right. Prof. Sarkar elaborated that in addition to such
strategies; the right also provides different kind of aid, medical help, etc to
mobilize the vulnerable sections. While the left and other parties may have
focused on the survival problems of the people through trade unions, they left
out the discourse on historical, cultural and social values, something that the
right successfully managed.
Prof. Harbans Mukhia, chair for the
lecture in his remarks observed how history is used by political parties for
political agenda. He problematized the periodization of history into the ‘neat’
categories of ancient, medieval and modern. He discussed how these periods have
come to be identified with religious identity of the dominant rulers- ancient
with Hindu kings, medieval with Muslim kings and modern with English rule.
Prof. Mukhia further problematized how medieval history of India associated
with Muslim rule has become synonymous to dark ages or decline of Indian
civilization from its glorious past thereby stigmatizing Muslims.
The lecture was well appreciated. Many
students asked questions to the speaker and chair. In the past, Dr. Asghar Ali
Engineer memorial lecture was delivered by prominent scholars including Romila
Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik, Christophe Jaffrelot, Rajeev Bhargava and Zoya Hasan.
Watch the
Lecture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQUg6AnjeGc
--
Centre for Study of
Society and Secularism
Mumbai
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