Rewriting History is not 'Saffronisation'
The history and historiography of India still carry the colonial imprint. The task before us is to place Indian history on a sound basis.
Philosopher George Santayana once said: 'History is always written wrong; it needs always to be re-written.' This is particularly the case with India, which has been the victim of invasions and colonisation over several centuries. After India became free in 1947, there were hopes that a nationalist school of history might come into existence and correct the
distortions introduced by colonial rulers. This was not to be. The history
establishment fell into the hands of a Westernized elite hostile to Indian
traditions and aspirations. Recent attempts to rewrite history books, correcting colonial and other distortions are meeting with fierce resistance from vested interests. Instead of engaging in debate, they seek to avoid change with cries of 'saffronisation.'
A basic prejudice about Indians that was introduced by European scholars and repeated by their Indian followers is that 'the ancients were not at all concerned with keeping records for posterity as we do today.' The very fact that generations of Vedic priests took extraordinary pains to
preserve the Vedas is proof enough that they DID want to preserve them for posterity. It was Karl Marx, not any ancient Indian sage who insisted that India had no history, and what is called history is simply a record of
successive intruders. This has now become the central dogma of the Marxist school as indeed it has for the inheritors of the Eurocentric colonial thinking like Michael Witzel, who has now become the main spokesman of anti-Hindu propaganda masquerading as scholarship. This is what brings together the Indian Marxists and some Western Indologists on the issue of the Aryan invasion (or migration).
Factual errors
History books written by such scholars are riddled with factual errors and gross misinterpretations. For example, there is ample evidence to show that the Vedic civilization evolved in India and was not brought by any invading Aryans from Central Asia as claimed by European scholars and their Marxist followers. The Rigveda for instance is full of oceanic descriptions,
with prayers for the safety of ships and navigators. This shows that the poets of the Rigveda could not have come from the landlocked Central Asia.
When presented with this evidence, these scholars insist that Vedic oceanic
references are strictly celestial myths used by poets who had never seen the ocean. While such symbolism does exist in the Rigveda, the very fact that the Vedic poets mythologized in terms of the sea and ships shows they were intimately familiar with them. Myths and legends associated with the
elephant-headed God Ganesha were not created by people who had never seen the elephant. But oceanic references in the Rigveda cannot so easily be brushed aside just because they are inconvenient to the upholders of the
Aryan invasion theory.
What is really at issue is the teaching of history and creating suitable historiographic methodology for the study of ancient India. The Vedas are part of Indian history and this history cannot be perverted to suit the careers and reputation of a few scholars. In order to derive meaningful results, it is important to focus on fundamentals-both facts and methodology. The last few decades have thrown up a lot of new data from diverse sources that pose a major challenge to historians. These include the
Vedic Sarasvati River and the decipherment of the Indus (Harappan) script.
All this cannot be ignored simply to save the reputations of a few scholars with outdated ideas. We expect the latest findings in physics, mathematics and computer science to be taught in our schools and colleges. History cannot be an exception. Our children deserve nothing less.
History or colonial theology?
The current debate, ranging from Vedic interpretations to scientific contradictions, brings an important point to light: it is not enough to correct or remove distortions like the Aryan invasion; nothing less than a fundamental re-examination of the underlying historiography is called for.
Otherwise, more speculations and conjectures that contradict empirical data are inevitable. When we do take a close look at colonial historiography, two facts stand out. First, the use of education, including history education, as a political tool to sustain European rule. Secondly, the application of a theological approach to history by scholars more familiar with Christian beliefs than science. This included such luminaries as F. Max Muller who
rejected Darwin's Theory of Evolution in favor of the Biblical Creation Theory, which holds that the world was created with all its life forms at 9:00 AM, 23 October 4004 BC. Lord Macaulay, who sponsored Max Muller, made no secret of his plan to use education as a tool in colonial administration.
In his own words: 'We must at present do our best to form a class who may be
interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons,
Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.' This was an integral part of the British divide and rule strategy, for it created a privileged elite that had a stake in colonial rule. As Lord Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay observed, 'Divide and rule was Roman policy, and it should be ours.'
But Macaulay and other educators went further. They wanted Christianity to replace Hinduism, which they felt would cement the rulers and the Indian elite further. In a letter to his father, a Protestant
minister, Macaulay wrote: 'Our English schools are flourishing wonderfully.
The effect of this education on the Hindus is prodigious. ...It is my belief
that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolator among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence.'
Macaulay's protégé Max Muller happily concurred in a letter to his wife: 'It
the Rigveda] is the root of their religion and to show them what the root is, I feel sure, is the only way of uprooting all that has sprung from it during the last three thousand years.' Two years later he also wrote to the Duke of Argyle, then acting Secretary of State for India: 'The ancient
religion of India is doomed. And if Christianity does not take its place,
whose fault will it be?' Reverend W W Hunter was still more blunt when he said: 'Scholarship is warmed by the holy flame of Christian zeal.'
It was this zeal for making Indian sources conform to a Eurocentric belief system that is responsible for the present unhappy state of Indian history and historiography. There were supplementary causes like German
nationalism and crackpot race theories that played a role but have moved to the fringes though race occasionally raises its head in Indo-European studies. After independence, Marxism, another Eurocentric doctrine, moved to fill the vacuum left by the retreat of Euro-colonialism.
While some scholars continue to use linguistic arguments in support of their claims, linguistics has shown itself to be of limited value while cosmology gives rise to fiction and fantasy. Swami Vivekananda, who possessed both deep scholarship and true spirituality said more than a century ago: 'Study Sanskrit, but along with it study Western sciences as well. Learn accuracy, study and labour so that the time will come when you can put our history on a scientific basis. Now it is for us to strike out an independent path of historical research for ourselves, to study the Vedas
and Puranas and the ancient annals (Itihasas) of India, and from them make
it your sadhana (disciplined endeavor) to write accurate, sympathetic and soul-inspiring history of India. It is for Indians to write Indian history you never cease to labor until you have revived the glorious past of India in the consciousness of the people. That will be the true national
education, and with its advancement, a true national spirit will be awakened.'
More than a century later, this is yet to happen though a few tentative steps are being taken. We certainly cannot allow vested interests to block progress with cries of 'saffronisation.'
N S Rajaram is a mathematician, linguist and historian. His books include Vedic Aryans and the Origins of Civilization with David Frawley and The Deciphered Indus Script with Natwar Jha
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N S Rajaram
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