Some MODI factors, its not only amusing but also ......... It is when the BJPs prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi makes a series of gaffes about recent Indian political history that really tells you how important and yet unimportant the subject is. Modi has so far addressed a series of rallies held across India, where the BJP has prided itself on the crowds who have attended and the money they have paid to attend this, even as the party has showed up the poorer contrast made by Rahul Gandhis allies. His serious errors on history, on the other hand, have been dismissed as just slips of the tongue. Consider these examples: in a speech that referred to Sardar Patel, Indias first Home Minister, Modi said that despite the formers stature as one of the most senior leaders of the freedom struggle, his funeral was not attended by then Prime Minister Nehru. Modis aim in this instance was to claim Patel, Indias Iron Man for the state of Gujarat, which in itself is a gross misreading of history in itself. But there are other gaffes which reveals Modi really does not care about history. Taxila, as he said in another speech, was never in Bihar and neither did Alexander invade India (apart from the northwest part of the subcontinent now in Pakistan). Alexander also did not die by the banks of the Ganges. It is also not merely carelessness for a public figure to forget Mahatma Gandhis first name and substitute Mohanlal for Mohandas. Modi paints a poor contrast to Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Admittedly, leaders like most of us dont write copious letters to each other any longer but Nehru was a well-read, and a man interested and well-informed of India. His sense of history allowed him a greater understanding of the subject. Nehrus Discovery of India which is a historical exploration of India from Vedic times begins with how moved he was to see the crowds who came to his meetings. It reminded him of the vast multitudes that made up India. Discovery..., which was a book that he wrote while in incarceration at Ahmednagar Fort, begins with the Vedic Age for the cities and sites of the Harappa culture had just begun to be discovered. Nevertheless, it is the story of India, an old country made up of people, several of whom had come from outside and made it their own, enriching the land and its culture in the process. Nehrus other book on history, Glimpses of World History was written as a series of letters to his daughter Indira Priyadarshini, and reveals his scholarship but a writer at ease with a subjects immensity and complexity and richness. While these books were written during Nehrus years in prison, as Prime Minister, he continued the tradition of corresponding voluminously, and these preserved documents reveal not merely his depth of knowledge but his own awareness of his role and his sense of being part of a continuum. Modis carelessness with history is specific to him and also a general failing. The latter is visible on several levels : It isnt merely a diminishing of history, as compared to the sciences or even maths, as a subject that can get you somewhere or even that students are no longer convinced of its utility, except as a tool in mastering exams and performing well in quizzes. It does not matter that a historical sense gives you a richer understanding of the world. The more disturbing aspect which is related to this wider ignorance of history is that it makes it easier for certain groups to write history in their own fashion, and pass it on as the only historical truth there ever is. Every country ideologically committed to a party and its beliefs is guilty of this, but in India, it is the right wing whose late understanding of history and its even devious use of the subject has had terrible impact and threatens more devastating consequences. An early example would be Golwalkars We, Our Nationhood Defined a book that clearly misinformed and distorted race as a concept. In more recent decades, creating a history to sustain the BJP-VHP led Ayodhya movement has been more long-lasting and has also yielded results for the BJP. As Vinay Lal elaborated in his The History of History what has aided the dispersal of much of this unhistoricism - for it is so, as scholarship and research will clearly show up otherwise - is the widespread reach of the internet that allows for the diffusion of countless websites pertaining to such history and its also related to the spread of the Indian Diaspora that looks to such information to ease and comprehend their own alienation and ignorance about their home country. The fact also that there is in comparison little web-related counter-argument to such historical falsifying ensures even laughable distortions get undue attention - as an example, simply Google for Taj Mahal as an earlier standing Hindu temple.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 13:17:03 +0000
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