SACW | March 14, 2007 History, Myth making and unreason in the Sub continent

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | March 14, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2377 - Year 9

[1]  Fear of emergency in Pakistan (M B Naqvi)
[2]  India: Yogi Adityanath's crocodile tears (Subhash Gatade)
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History, Myth making and unreason in the Sub continent
[3]  What Makes Sri Lankans One?  (Tissa Jayatilaka)
[4]  Pakistan: Distorting history  (Editorial , Dawn)
[5]  Pakistan: History: An Obscurantist View (Editorial , The News)
[6] History distorted - Pakistan persists with biased textbooks (Kuldip Nayar)
[7] India: Romila Thapar for focus on linguistic exchanges to study Aryans
[8] The Questionable Historicity of the Mahabharata (EJVS)
[9] Many shades of unreason (Khushwant Singh)
[10] Book review: A composite vision of history (A. R. Venkatachalapathy)
[11] Book review: Deconstructing Hindutva  (Ram Puniyani)

____


[1]


Deccan Herald
March 13, 2007

FEAR OF EMERGENCY IN PAKISTAN
BRACING FOR A CHANGE
By M B Naqvi

The resurgence of Islamic terrorists and divided 
opposition makes emergency a likely option.

It seems to be a season for emergencies and 
postponing of elections - at least among the 
Muslim states of the subcontinent. Following the 
Bangladesh example, the Gen Musharraf regime is 
now preparing to hold the presidential election 
in time, so as to claim that Gen Pervez Musharraf 
is the elected President till 2012. But the 
elections due later this year would be postponed 
for a year. And for good measure, a state of 
emergency would be imposed.

What that emergency will entail would depend on 
several factors. An important minister in the 
Musharraf regime, son of former dictator Gen 
Zia-ul Haq, Ejazul Haq, has said "if the 
conditions deteriorate any further by the 
resignation of opposition party deputies, the 
likelihood will be either emergency or martial 
law". He looks after the religious affairs 
ministry and liaises between a moderate and 
modern Muslim President and religious parties.

Too much political activity and freedom enjoyed 
by the press and TV media are things that irk the 
army and Musharraf. They love the garrison's 
discipline and wish to see it replicated in the 
country. So much talk of emergency and martial 
law is indicative and looks like preparing the 
ground for a clamp-down.

But one thing can safely be said: If martial law 
is declared, it will have to be headed by someone 
else and not Gen Musharraf. The reason is simple. 
It will come to change the state of affairs 
created largely by Musharraf. His remaining the 
President and even the Army Chief would be hard 
to reconcile when this change happens.

There is a rising tide of unrest in the 
background. There is the resurgence of Islamic 
extremism that begets militant outfits, 
particularly the Taliban and makes the continued 
existence of al-Qaeda elements possible. The 
extent of the Taliban influence is shown by 
nearly 250 murders of Pakistan army supporters 
and friends of the government and the daily 
murder of some suspected spy of either Pakistan 
or America.

The Taliban are now dictating terms on the local 
population. No barber can shave a beard in most 
parts of Federally Administered Tribal Areas 
(FATA). The shops that sell audio or video 
cassettes suffer frequent attacks and many of 
them are closing down in fear. The Taliban 
administer their rough and ready justice and have 
started performing some functions of the State.

Americans and the Nato claim that the Taliban are 
using FATA areas as sanctuaries and are launching 
attacks from there. The US wants Pakistan to 
ensure that this does not happen. But the 
Musharraf regime has been unable to prevent that. 
It is obvious that some tension is growing 
between Pakistan and America.

There are in fact two insurgencies going on in 
Balochistan. One is aimed at the Musharraf 
government by Baloch nationalists and the other 
is aimed at America, particularly in Afghanistan 
by the Taliban. The latter can even be called a 
1980s-like war against American occupation of 
Afghanistan. The Taliban in FATA are also in a 
state of war with Islamabad for political aims. 
It must be recognised as an insurgency, because, 
should they succeed, they would set up their own 
Islamic Caliphate with Sharia as its law. That 
would take FATA out of Pakistan and merge with 
what they expect to be an Islamic Afghanistan 
after the American forces have been ejected.

The situation in Sindh is none too happy either. 
The province is alienated, but there is a 
paradox: Much of rural Sindh still supports 
Benazir's PPP. In cities it is of course 
Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) that gets the 
votes. But the hearts and minds of ethnic Sindhis 
beat in unison with the Sindhi nationalists, who 
form the opinions here.

The regime is fond of advertising its economic 
successes. It says in fiscal 2005 it achieved 8.4 
per cent GDP growth. But that has now slowed down 
to around 6 per cent. Pakistan is attracting FDI 
and it is all set to take off. Irrespective of 
the GDP growth, there is a clear downside to it: 
it is fuelling inflation and poverty is growing. 
The regime, however, denies the growth of poverty 
and claims that it has brought poverty down from 
34 per cent of the population to 23 per cent in 
four years.

The opposition is badly divided and is mostly 
rated as impotent. One noisy opposition comes 
from the six religious parties alliance, 
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). It is a peculiar 
opposition. It critically helped Musharraf to 
amend the Constitution when he needed it, though 
it says it regrets it now. Independent 
commentators call it the secret weapon of Gen 
Musharraf. The PPP, the largest party that 
received the most votes even in 2002, cannot 
abide bythe MMA. It also hates Nawaz Sharif's 
PML(N), the second largest party in terms of the 
national vote. But Nawaz's PML is closer to the 
MMA in outlook than to the PPP. The fact emerges 
that the three major opposition parties are in no 
mood to cooperate or fit to start a nationwide 
agitation for any common purpose. Moreover, fair 
elections cannot be held in Pakistan after all 
the military rulers' machinations and their 
secret agencies.

On top of everything there are two problems that 
can be the undoing of any government in Pakistan: 
one is, of course, the rise of Islamic extremism 
that will keep on producing ever greater crises. 
The second is the growing disenchantment of 
America with Gen Musharraf's regime that has so 
far been the best bet of the Americans. In terms 
of affirmations, the Bush administration remains 
loyal to Musharraf. But who can blame the 
Americans if they are also thinking of possible 
alternatives.

______


[2]

www.sacw.net > Communalism Repository - March 13, 2007

YOGI ADITYANATH'S CROCODILE TEARS
Can The Drama Whitewash His Black Deeds ?

by Subhash Gatade

http://www.sacw.net/DC/CommunalismCollection/ArticlesArchive/gatade13march07.html
or
http://tinyurl.com/39h8pq


______


South Asia Citizens Wire  | March 14, 2007 | Dispatch No. 2377 - Year 9

  History, Myth making and unreason in the Sub continent
=============================================

[3]

Daily News
March 8, 2007

WHAT MAKES SRI LANKANS ONE? - Highlights of and 
Reflections on K. Indrapala's...:
The evolution of an ethnic identity

by Tissa Jayatilaka

OPINION: In the first ever Galle Literary 
Festival held several weeks ago, some of us 
participated in a discussion titled "What Makes 
Sri Lankans One?'. Opinion, not surprisingly, was 
divided amongst the participants.

Some were of the view that we aren't one and 
indeed questioned whether we need(ed) to be, one! 
Others felt that the 'Sinhala Buddhists' consider 
themselves to be the 'owners' of Sri Lanka and 
this 'Majoritarian' viewpoint vitiates dreadfully 
our notion of our 'oneness'.

Another tended to the idea that our common 
humanity makes us one whether we like it or not 
whatever may be our imagined ethnic and religious 
origins. Yet another observed that we were one 
people in the past and, once the fitful fever of 
contemporary ethnic rivalry has subsided, he is 
optimistic that we will surely return to that 
oneness at an auspicious future date.

Some argued that embracing the federal idea might 
hasten that seemingly elusive future while others 
felt that that goal could well be achieved within 
the parameters of a unitary state.

As is to be expected, most of us who participated 
in the discussion in Galle were arguing from our 
personal vantage points guided by our own biased 
politico - emotional convictions.

Interestingly and unsurprisingly perhaps, the one 
person who seemed the most dispassionate amongst 
us, the one who was most sanguine about our 
impending return to oneness notwithstanding the 
troubled and confused thinking that dominate our 
thought and action of today is a historian.

Perhaps he is aware, as other unbiased 
historians, of the fact that it is easy to 
misinterpret history to suit political expediency.

This is a pastime, as old as the hills, that has 
been indulged in by certain lax historians the 
world over. Such distortions and tragically 
irresponsible scholarship have diminished our 
humanity over centuries. During times of conflict 
- whether they be conflicts originating in 
communal, national or international bickering - - 
history and its closely allied discipline of 
archaeology are not infrequently among the first 
casualties.

The foregoing observations and preamble were 
prompted by my reading the other day of one of 
the most sane and readable books on Sri Lankan 
history I have encountered in a long while. I 
refer to K. Indrapala's 'The Evolution of an 
ethnic identity the Tamils in Sri Lanka C. 300 
BCE TO C. 1200 CE' published by My Publications 
for the The South Asian Studies Centre, Sydney, 
Australia in 2005.

Had I been the beneficiary of Prof. Indrapala's 
superb insights found in his latest publication 
before the Galle Literary Festival, I could have 
been a far better participant at the discussion 
there. To those unacquainted with this wonderful 
human being, Prof. K. Indrapala is a product of 
the University of Ceylon at Peradeniya during its 
glory days.

He read History and received his first degree 
with Honours in 1960 and from that time until 
1975, lectured in History in that university 
having read for and obtained his doctorate from 
the University of London in between. In 1975, he 
moved to Jaffna as the Foundation Professor of 
History in the new Jaffna Campus of the 
University of Sri Lanka which later became the 
University of Jaffna.

In 1977/78, he was Japan Foundation Fellow and 
Visiting Professor of the Tokyo University of 
Foreign Studies, Tokyo. In 1984, he was appointed 
Foundation Professor of Southeast Asian Studies 
at the Tamil University, Thanjavur. He now lives 
in Australia.

Prof. Indrapala is a remarkable Sri Lankan and is 
one of very few amongst us who can claim to be 
tri-lingual, i.e., proficient in all three 
languages in use in Sri Lanka. Several eminent 
men contributed to the making of Indrapala the 
man and scholar that he has become.

Among the significant of those contributors for 
my purposes in this article, however, are the 
poet Sagara Palansuriya (who initiated him into 
the study of Sinhala when he was ten years old), 
Dr. Klaus Matzel and Ven. Nanavasa Thera who 
helped familiarise Indrapala with different 
languages that enabled him to understand the 
history and cultures of various people with a 
perspective that would have been near impossible 
to develop without familiarity with their 
languages; Prof. K. Kanapathypillai, Prof. 
Tennekoon Vimalananda and Prof. W.J.F. LaBrooy.
While Kanapathypillai and Vimalananda helped 
develop Indrapala's interest in epigraphy the 
latter, the Head, Dept. of History at Peradeniya 
in the 1960s, it was he who encouraged Indrapala 
to research into the history of Tamils of Sri 
Lanka when the young Indrapala's interests lay in 
medieval South Indian History.

The necessary first hand knowledge of archaeology 
was provided to Indrapala by Dr. P.C. Sestieri 
(UNESCO Adviser to the Government of Ceylon), Dr. 
Vimala Begley (University of Pennsylvania Museum 
Project), Dr. P.L. Prematilleke, Dr. Siran 
Deraniyagala, Dr. R. Nagasamy (Director 
Archaeology, Tamilnadu), Dr. P Ragupathy (Jaffna 
University) and Prof. Senake Bandaranayake. Thus 
several Sri Lankans -'Burgher', 'Tamil' and 
'Sinhala' - and other citizens of the world from 
both near and far have lent Indrapala a hand 
along the way.

It is this combined human labour that made it 
possible for Prof. Indrapala to give to the world 
of Sri Lankan scholarship this wonderful gift of 
The Evolution of An Ethnic Identity. It is a gift 
that may serve to enlighten the purblind, the 
pseudo- nationalist and the Sinhala and Tamil 
supremacist in our midst.

Significantly Prof. Indrapala has dedicated his 
book 'To the innocents who lost their lives as a 
direct consequence of misinterpretations of 
history'.

We could interpret this dedication to include all 
human beings, irrespective of time and place, who 
have lost their lives due to misinterpreted 
history no less than to those Sri Lankans who 
have suffered such irreparable loss in recent 
years in particular.

A major contributory factor to this tragic state 
of affairs in South Asia, points out Prof. 
Indrapala, is the dangerous tendency of those 
with 'little learning' in history to consider 
themselves superior to the specialists in the 
field. It is useful to let him speak for himself:

In South Asia, with its long and chequered 
history and multi-ethnic population, every other 
person with some education seems to consider 
herself or himself as an authority on history and 
tends to pay scant respect to the views of 
specialists, if those views do not agree (sic) 
with what she or he holds to be the truth.

Through a process of selective quoting, with no 
regard for the nature of the source, favourable 
views are put forward. I have no doubt that a 
number of general readers will show unusual 
interest in this book. Many are likely to view 
what is said here in the light of contemporary 
prejudices.

To them, I wish to say that Sri Lanka has been, 
from time immemorial, the home of various ethnic 
groups. There have been political and social 
conflicts among them but the kind of ethnic 
consciousness and destructive prejudices that 
have surfaced in the twentieth century and 
continue to plague the island were not part of 
Sri Lanka's pre-colonial history.

The first kings that we know of in the centuries 
before the Common Era were not all of the same 
ethnic group or religious persuasion. Neither 
were the last kings of the island before the 
European invasions. (Author's Preface to The 
Evolution of An Ethnic Identity, pp. viii-ix).

There is much wisdom to be gleaned from the above 
sober reflection as the political ideologies 
espoused by competing groups in times of conflict 
affect not only ordinary citizens but also 
intellectuals, some of whom (mis) interpret 
history and archaeology to support the views they 
favour. As the clich’ has it, the first casualty 
in war and conflict is truth.

Such criminal distortion of history we now know 
occurred in Germany, Japan and certain other 
countries during the Second World War. According 
to experienced and unbiased specialists among us, 
it appears that, in the last three decades, a 
number of Sri Lankan scholars, resident in the 
country and outside of it, have been guilty of 
peddling their wares in the academic marketplace 
in a most disappointing manner.

They have been feeding narrow political and 
ideological fantasies while Sri Lanka was 
burning. History has been enlisted and mobilised 
to fight the issues of our day. Some 
politico-academic historians have become willing 
recruits for this battle.

As Eric Hobsbawm has pointed out, however, Sri 
Lankans do not have a monopoly in this arena of 
pseudo-scholarship. We live in an era where in 
many countries history has become a highly 
dangerous weapon in the hands of political 
activists.

In his On History, (New York 1997) Hobsbawm tells 
us that 'History is the raw material for 
nationalist or ethnic or fundamentalist 
ideologies... If there is no suitable past, it 
can always be invented...The past legitimizes. 
The past gives a more glorious background to a 
present that doesn't have much to celebrate...'.

Prof. Indrapala notes that the kernel of The 
Evolution of An Ethnic Identity is to be found in 
a series of 13 popular articles under the title 
"Tamils in Ancient Sri Lanka" that he published 
in 1969 (May - August) in the Sunday edition of 
the Sri Lankan Tamil daily Virakesari.

His intention was to impress upon the minds and 
hearts of ordinary citizens of Sri Lanka the fact 
that there were close relations between the 
pre-historic peoples of Sri Lanka and South India 
and that the Sinhalese ethnic group evolved in 
the island as results of Prakritic influences 
that spread among the pre-historic people.

The purpose of writing this book, Prof. Indrapala 
tell us, is to draw attention to some of the 
salient aspects of Sri Lanka's distant past. 
Although the narration of the historical 
developments leading to the emergence of two 
separate ethnic identities ends in 1200, the 
story does not end there.

The dawn of the 13th century marks the beginning 
of the political separation of the two groups 
according to Prof. Indrapala. Most of the 
non-Sinhalese elements in the population of the 
island at this point in time came to be 
concentrated in the North, while most of the 
Sinhalese were confined to the south.

Neither group considered itself inferior to the 
other. The forces that held power in the North 
did not consider themselves to be ruling a 
smaller kingdom in the area under their control.

They aspired to the overlordship of the entire 
island whilst their counterparts in the South, 
too, claimed to be ruling the whole island. 
Tennilankaikkon (King of Lanka) was one of the 
epithets used to describe rulers in the North; 
Lankesvara (Lord of Lanka) continued to be one of 
the titles used by the southern rulers.

While the rulers of Sri Lanka's North and South 
claimed to rule the whole country, though in fact 
they were de facto rulers of separate kingdoms, 
the Tamils of the North and the Sinhalese came to 
be isolated from each other. Meantime we learn 
that migrations from South India continued 
unabated bringing Tamils as well as Keralas and 
other South Indians to the North and South of Sri 
Lanka.

Prof. Indrapala informs us that there is 
absolutely no evidence of enmity between the 
Sinhalese and the Tamils in the centuries 
following the fall of Polonnaruva, despite the 
occasional invasions of each other's territory by 
the Tamil and Sinhala rulers.

The significance of this point is that we need to 
stay away from an anachronistic attribution of 
group-based enmity to the realpolitik of medieval 
Sri Lanka and southern India.

We learn from Prof. Indrapala that until the 
arrival of the European colonial powers there 
existed close relations between the Tamils and 
Sinhalese in many areas of activity.

With the rise of Saivism, the one area in which 
such close relations were never to be seen again 
in religion. Although, interestingly, as we see 
from scholars like Charles Hallisey, Buddhist 
engagement with the figure of the Buddha became 
more devotional and emotional in ways probably 
influenced by Saiva Bhakti.

We learn further that the arts of the Tamils came 
into intimate contact with those of the 
Sinhalese, at both the elite and folk levels, 
resulting in an interesting cultural dialogue 
that helped to shape the late medieval arts of 
the Sinhalese. This dialogue is markedly to be 
seen in dance, music and drama.

In The Folk Drama of Ceylon (1966), Ediriweera 
Sarachchandra has shown us how two of the 
traditional forms of Sinhalese music, Vannam and 
Viraha, and two of the major genres of Sinhala 
drama, Nadagama and Kolam, arose as a result of 
contact with Tamil music and folk theatre.

Bharatha Natyam had arrived in Sri Lanka in the 
11th century. Evidence from sculpture and 
painting, Sarachchandra has argued, strengthens 
the view that Bharatha Natyam constituted the 
entertainment of royalty and the lay elite.

Prof. Indrapala tells us that the status of the 
Tamil language in the Sinhala kingdom in the 
pre-colonial period would be an eye-opener to 
many. He informs us that, where necessary, 
Sinhalese kings and other authorities used the 
Tamil language for their epigraphic records.

He illustrates this fact by pointing us to a 
Tamil translation that exists on the same walls 
at the Lankatilaka Temple as does the Sinhala 
original of a record inscribed there.

This was in the 14th century. That Tamil 
inscription, we are told, is the longest Tamil 
epigraph in the island. We learn much more. The 
Tamil language was taught in the Buddhist 
pirivenas (religious schools).

Some of the products of these institutions who 
became prominent scholar monks were well-versed 
in Tamil. Ven. Totagamuve Sri Rahula was one of 
the most reputed among them.

Even in the mid-20th century there were erudite 
Tamil scholars among the Buddhist clergy such as 
the Ven. Hissalle Dhammaratana who read learned 
papers in Tamil at international conferences and 
seminars held in South India and elsewhere as 
H.L. Seneviratne has recorded in his The Work of 
Kings (1999:107).

Leslie Gunawardana has brought to our notice that 
a Sinhalese monk has spoken proudly of his 
ability to preach both in Sinhala and Tamil. 
Alagiyavanna, a Sinhalese poet, who obviously 
felt very proud of his knowledge of Tamil (and 
other languages), has gone to the extent of 
sneering at those not as fortunate as him to 
acquire such multi-language skills.

Alagiyavanna, in his Subhasitaya, Prof. Indrapala 
explains in his notes, has said that he composed 
this work for the benefit of the creatures who 
are ignorant of Tamil, Sanskrit and Pali (demala 
saku magada nohasala sata ta).

Happily it was not all one way in the area of 
language and literature. There were Tamils, too, 
who showed their skills in the Sinhala language. 
The Tamil Buddhist monks who came to reside in 
the monastries of the Sinhalese kingdom in the 
13th and 14th centuries, Indrapala points out, 
were probably versed in Sinhala as much as they 
were in Pali, although their literary output was 
in the latter language.

C.E. Godakumbura, in his Sinhalese Literature 
(1955), has informed us that a Tamil Buddhist 
poet named Nallurutu-mini wrote the Sinhala work 
Namavalilya (referred to usually as the 
Purana-namavaliya).

Leslie Gunawardana (1990) considers the author of 
the Namavaliya to be a "Tamil prince who was 
married to the daughter of King Parakramabahu 
VI". Gananath Obeyesekere has argued that there 
have been Buddhist migrations as well as 
migrations of merchants and folk specialists from 
South India to the Sinhalese kingdom.

The moral of the above cited historical and 
cultural evidence surely is that it is wrong to 
speak of 'racial' purity or exclusivity or 
superiority in modern times. The reality based on 
such historical and cultural evidence is that 
from very early times Sri Lanka has been settled 
by people from all parts of India who mixed 
freely to produce a new and unique culture.

The story of ethnic interaction becomes richer 
subsequent to the fall of Polonnaruva as a result 
of the emergence of a third major group, the 
Muslims. Their origins, we are given to 
understand, go back to the West Asian as well as 
Indian Muslim trade settlements at the ports and 
market-towns of Sri Lanka.

We have to bear in mind, Prof. Indrapala reminds 
us, that these Muslim traders married local women 
and, therefore, their descendants share the 
ancient ancestry of the Sinhalese and Tamils. We 
are asked also not to forget the fact that the 
Malay soldiers and the Portuguese who came later 
did not bring their womenfolk with them but 
married locally.

Thus the Malay and 'Portuguese' Burgher 
communities, too, share the ancestry of the 
others. Such a fascinating story of ethnic 
interaction does make all of us Sri Lankans one, 
doesn't it? It also challenges strenuously the 
myth of the mono-cultural, mono-lingual people 
who migrated from some part of North India to 
settle in a Sri Lanka supposedly peopled only by 
demons.
Prof. Indrapala's fascinating study is an attempt 
to re-remind us of our rich past during which the 
southernmost parts of India, comprising mainly 
the modern states of Kerala and Tamilnadu and the 
southern parts of Karnataka and Andra Pradesh, 
together with Sri Lanka formed a single cultural 
region.

Prof. Indrapala identifies this as the 
South-India-Sri Lanka region. He believes that 
the Sinhalese and Tamils are ultimately descended 
from the Mesolithic people who occupied almost 
all parts of the island in pre-historic times.

These Mesolithic people, we are informed, spoke 
different languages, all of which were replaced 
as a consequence of 'elite dominance', in the 
Early Iron Age and the Early Historic Period, by 
a Prakrit language in most parts of the island, 
especially in the south and the centre, and by 
Tamil in the northwest, north and northeast.

Prakrit, Prof. Indrapala notes, as the lingua 
franca of South Asian trade, had an edge over 
Tamil from the very beginning. The evolution of 
the two identities as Sinhalese and Tamil, 
assimilating many small social and cultural 
groups, according to Prof. Indrapala's study, 
reached completion by 1200, although further 
assimilation, development and changes would 
continue in the later centuries. From about 1200 
onwards, there is a marked geographic division 
between the two identities.

Prof. Indrapala points out the severe limitations 
of 19th century writing of Sri Lankan history by 
British officials who based themselves largely on 
the uncritical acceptance of the Sinhala and Pali 
chronicles. It is as a consequence of this lapse 
that colonial historical writing came to 
subscribe to the view that the Sinhalese were the 
'proper inhabitants' of the island in ancient 
times and that the Tamils were invaders.

Before, long the Sinhalese were identified with 
the 'Aryans' and the Tamils with the 
'Dravidians'. With the exception of Early History 
of Ceylon written by G.C. Mendis, the other 
handful of Sri Lankan history books in use even 
as late as 1930 were according to Prof. Indrapala 
authored by historians of British origin.

These writings, based as they were on the Pali 
and Sinhala chronicles, sagacious Sri Lankan 
historians have told us, inevitably set the tone 
for the Sinhala-centrist approach that has 
remained the dominant characteristic of Sri 
Lankan historiography until recent years.

We have to be mindful of and cautious about the 
manner in which history is 'used' in fighting 
contemporary issues. A friend and colleague I 
admire and respect, Prof. Amal Jayawardane, in 
his insightful introduction to Perspectives on 
National Integration in Sri Lanka has underscored 
the absolute need for discriminate and 
dispassionate assessment of history especially 
when seeking to understand complex present issues 
in the light of past experiences.

The late E.F.C. Ludowyk, a former Professor of 
English in the University of Ceylon, is author of 
two general histories of Sri Lanka that any 
professional historian would be proud of.

His words are apposite in the context of our present ethnic rivalries:

'... the legendary heroes once created to satisfy 
the old needs are still resorted to in the 
entirely different circumstances of the present. 
That cultures have their mythical heroes is not 
surprising, indeed it would be strange if they 
should lack them.

There is a slight distinction to be drawn, 
however, between this and the need for heroes... 
To have invented what was once required is surely 
the normal and economical satisfaction of 
desires, to be met with in the history of 
individuals and communities. But to insist on 
satisfying a recurring need at all times in the 
same old ways is surely an indication of 
deep-seated malaise.

To be, at the present time, dependent on the 
mythopoeic creativeness of ages long past is to 
argue an inability to face up to the demands of 
the contemporaneous. When we continually cry for 
a cause, for a hero whom we could follow, when we 
need the sustenance of legendary forefathers, we 
are most probably showing symptoms, not only of 
angry unhappiness, but also retarded adoloscence 
(emphasis mine).

(E.F.C. Ludowyk, The Story of Ceylon, London 1967:33)

Similar sentiments, if more robustly expressed, 
are to be found in a piece written to The Island 
of 4 August, 2001, by another much admired friend 
and colleague, Prof. Sudarshan Seneviratne.

In it he warned us that the fields of 
archaeological and historical study in 
contemporary Sri Lanka are imperiled by certain 
unfastidious practitioners of these disciplines 
pursuing agendas of their own. Here is how 
Seneviratne acquainted us with this pernicious 
trend:

The future of both historical and archaeological 
studies in Sri Lanka is at crossroads facing a 
dilemma of priorities, choices, resource persons, 
attitudes and, above all, quality of research.

It is indeed reasonable to question the extent to 
which a new breed of charlatans and political 
animals in these disciplines are responsible for 
the emergence of an ahistorical attitude and an 
anti-historical bias in schools, at seats of 
higher education and the country in general.

'Anti-Orwellian' historians in this country who 
have slithered their way through 'corridors of 
power' have not only compromised the very 
fundamentals of intellectual decency but are now 
in the process of subverting the study of history 
for personal ends and political expediency.

Another leading historian who has expressed 
similar concern about this unfortunate trend in 
some of our historical writings is Prof. Leslie 
Gunawardana: A trend which appears to be 
gathering strength is represented by some 
researchers in the field of archaeology and 
history who see in their work the fulfillment of 
a duty to highlight the splendour of the Sinhala 
or the Tamil group as the case may be, and to 
bolster the claims of one's own group to disputed 
territory.

While it has led to a growth of interest in 
research related to ethnic studies, this 
development has brought in its wake a noteworthy 
relaxation of intellectual rigour in research.

(Gunawardana 1994)

The deeper one delves dispassionately and 
scrupulously into Sri Lankan history the more one 
will find out how much the Tamils and Sinhalese 
have in common. They have a shared history and 
culture, and a common descent as Prof. Indrapala 
has demonstrated. The eminent Cambridge scholar 
and historian of science Prof. Joseph Needham has 
echoed Prof. Indrapala's own conclusions.

Discussing one of the finest achievements in 
ancient hydraulics in his monumental work on the 
science and civilization of China, Prof. Needham 
has noted 'that the achievements of the Indian 
civil engineers in ancient and medieval times are 
quite worthy to be compared with those of their 
Chinese colleagues,' but concluded that 'it was 
never in India that the fusion of the Egyptian 
and Babylonian patterns achieved its most 
complete and subtlest form.

This took place in Ceylon, the work of both 
cultures, Sinhala and Tamil, but especially the 
former' (Science and Civilization in China, IV, 
Cambridge 1971:368).

The Sinhalese and Tamils achieved a remarkable 
hydraulic civilization in Sri Lanka about a 
thousand years ago.

Together we could achieve so much more in the 
future if only we combine our resources for our 
collective betterment instead of frittering them 
away in futile and deadly combat.

We must be grateful to Prof. Indrapala for 
labouring academically to seek to assist us to 
salvage ourselves from the national wreck we are 
in at present.

______


[4]

The News International
February 23, 2007

Editorial

DISTORTING HISTORY

The reservations expressed in the National 
Assembly by several members of the MMA against 
the inclusion of content related to South Asia's 
pre-Islamic history, particularly chapters 
related to Hinduism and Buddhism, is outrageous 
to say the least. The view taken by the MMA MPs 
that this is being done as part of some 
conspiracy to 'secularise' the country is 
untenable and itself conspiratorial. Of course, 
the implication by labelling all this as part of 
a so-called secular agenda is to equate it -- as 
the religious right does without fear of being 
corrected -- with 'la deeni'. This wilfully 
distorts the meaning of secular in the Pakistani 
context by equating it with godliness which it is 
not. In the peculiar Pakistani situation those 
who advocate secular views are not to be termed 
atheists or anti-religionists. In fact what they 
do propose or wish to see is a government/state 
that respects the rights of its citizens without 
regard to their religious beliefs and which 
treats them all equally before the law.

The problem with the religious right, 
particularly the views held by the MMA members of 
parliament, is not so much that what they believe 
in is retrogressive and deserves to be in the 
Dark Ages but rather that they insist on foisting 
their obscurantist and prejudiced worldview on 
everyone else. One must commend the government 
MPs who tried to reason with the MMA MPs on this 
issue by rightly trying to tell them that 
students need to be told of all the history of 
the region that they live in and that this should 
include pre-Islamic history as well. The speaker 
of the National Assembly is reported to have 
tried to reason with the MMA MPs too but 
inexplicably caved into their pressure and 
referred the matter to a parliamentary committee 
-- which means that the MMA will have an another 
opportunity to stoke it.

As for the government, one unequivocally applauds 
this move to expand the content of history that 
is taught to students in the country. 
Regrettably, for quite some time -- and taken to 
an extreme during General Zia's extremely 
debilitating years in power -- the history that 
has been taught to students in the mainstream 
system of education has been one-sided, warped, 
biased and extremely selective. It glosses over 
the very rich period of the Indus civilisation 
and how it affected and shaped the region that 
Pakistanis live in today, makes little or no 
mention of the flowering of Buddhism in parts of 
what are today northern Pakistan and ignores the 
fact that Hindu kings also ruled over the region. 
After all, these civilisations are very much a 
part of our history, whether the MMA likes it or 
not. It is not Hindu history, as the MMA would 
have it, but Pakistani, and, in fact, world 
history. If Hinduism and Buddhism, or, for that 
matter, any other culture or religion, are a part 
of this history, then they, too, must be covered. 
Moreover, one cannot understand why the MMA 
thinks that learning about the ancient history of 
Pakistan will take away from the history of Islam.

Students of history should be told all these 
facts and should not be fed selective knowledge. 
That is one reason why the mainstream system of 
education has more often than not produced 
graduates who do not know much about the history 
of their own region. Not only that, they tend not 
to be well-rounded individuals and have low 
tolerance levels for those who come from a 
religion or faith different from theirs. Besides, 
the way that history is taught normally -- and 
Pakistan Studies as well -- is that students are 
fed propaganda to hate India and Hindus in 
general and end up having a feeling of 
superiority that is based less on fact and more 
on the disinformation that is fed to them. Of 
course, there is much that is wrong with India 
but there is much that is good and teaching only 
one side is not to teach history but spread 
disinformation and hate. Besides, there is much 
wrong with Pakistani society as well so it's not 
a particularly good policy to teach students a 
history which tells them that their society and 
culture is the best in the world -- certainly 
better than that of the 'non-believers'. The 
government will hopefully disregard the hue and 
cry raised by the MMA and carry on with this 
meaningful curriculum reform. If done in a proper 
manner, then maybe our future generations will 
accord our ancient cultural heritage and sites 
like Moenjodaro and Harappa the respect that they 
deserve.


o o o

[5]

Dawn
23 February 2007
Editorial

HISTORY: AN OBSCURANTIST VIEW

GIVEN the MMA's aversion to laws and trends that 
promote liberal and humanistic thinking in 
society, it should really come as no surprise 
that the religious alliance created a rumpus in 
the National Assembly the other day over the 
teaching of Pakistan's pre-Islamic history in 
schools. Angered by a parliamentarian's defence 
of the inclusion of chapters in textbooks on the 
era predating Islam's advent in the subcontinent, 
the MMA staged a walkout with one legislator 
shouting "That may be your historyŠour history 
[starts] from Makkah and Madina." This kind of 
attitude is ridiculous. For not only does it mean 
a rejection of the process of continuity and all 
that has shaped our evolution as a society and 
nation, it also smacks of the kind of obscurant 
ideology that is being zealously promoted by the 
religious orthodoxy. Such an attitude is the 
result of the dogmatic interpretation of religion 
and is largely responsible for the growing 
divisions among the people. Under these 
circumstances, the repudiation of the past does 
little to instil a sense of collective pride in 
and ownership of one's historical heritage and 
antecedents - something that could have 
transcended divisions and helped promote national 
unity.

There is no doubt that the story of Islam in the 
subcontinent is an interesting one. There is 
testimony to that in Sufi literature and music 
and in the several architectural gems, including 
mosques, mausoleums and forts, that are found all 
over the country. But should this obscure the 
equally fascinating ups and downs and phases of 
history before the advent of Islam? Should the 
dust be allowed to settle forever on Moenjodaro, 
Taxila and Mehrgarh? Are we to draw no lessons 
from the tolerance of the Buddhist king Asoka 
whose edicts are carved in stone? Are the glories 
of Gandharan sculptures, the product of an age 
that combined the best in Grecian and Indian art, 
to be shunned as un-Islamic? Our clerics have 
only to look at other Muslim countries to 
understand that a pre-Islamic heritage can easily 
be reconciled with today's faith. Modern-day 
Egypt with its Pharanoic past is just one 
example. The government must stand its ground on 
allowing lessons in Pakistan's pre-Islamic past 
and not give in to the MMA's ludicrous demand.

______


[6]

The Tribune
March 12, 2007

HISTORY DISTORTED
PAKISTAN PERSISTS WITH BIASED TEXTBOOKS

by Kuldip Nayar

THE Pakistan government's proposal to revise 
tainted textbooks in the country evoked an 
interesting discussion in the National Assembly 
the other day. The government wanted to revise 
history so as to include a chapter on Hinduism, 
Buddhism and ancient emperor Chandragupta Maurya.

The religious parties, however, were opposed to 
the proposal. They said that "their history 
starts from Mecca and Medina." The government 
tried to justify the teaching of pre-Islamic 
history on the ground of learning and knowledge. 
Even members against the government supported it 
and argued that students should not be kept 
ignorant about the subcontinent history such as 
the Indus Valley or the Gandhara civilization.

The National Assembly's Speaker, too, intervened 
to make the point that there was no harm in 
studying pre-Islamic history for the sake of 
knowledge as he and his contemporaries did in 
schools, colleges and universities. The National 
Assembly where the government raised the matter 
was divided not on the lines of party but on the 
attitude.

The liberal members were arrayed against the 
non-liberals. Yet, the government developed cold 
feet and referred the matter to a committee. This 
is one way of postponing the matter indefinitely. 
It looks that the revision of the books, if any, 
will now take place after new elections scheduled 
for the next year.

In the meanwhile, history books will continue to 
pollute the atmosphere between the two countries 
and play up the "wars" between Hindus and 
Muslims, with the latter always emerging 
victorious. Mohammaed Bin Qasim and Mahmud 
Ghaznavi, the first two Muslim invaders of India, 
are glorified for destroying kafirs (infidels).

Textbooks in Pakistan have been used to mould 
students, especially in schools, in a particular 
religious cast. History has been turned and 
twisted to serve the purpose. Since partition was 
on the basis of religion, the Pakistan government 
thought that the advent of Muslim rule in India 
was the best period from which the history should 
begin. This was done long ago after the death of 
Qaide-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who did not want 
to mix religion with the state.

It looked odd not to connect with history the 
monuments belonging to the times of Mohenjadaro 
and Taxila standing visible in Pakistan. Yet the 
government did so. Students could see the anomaly 
and were confused. The post-partition period was 
that of strengthening the Islamic ethos which 
could not be watered down by including the relics 
of Hinduism as part of the heritage.

But the Pakistan rulers could neither silence the 
conscientious objectors nor the foreigners who 
found the mutilation of history preposterous. The 
debate did not abate at any time. Since there was 
no tall leader after Jinnah to join issue with 
religious leaders -Liaquat Ali lived only for a 
short period - the history books in Pakistan 
continued to skip the pre-Islamic Hindu rulers.

Strangely, the British rule figured prominently. 
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a popular leader, could have 
corrected the textbooks. But he wanted the 
mullahs on his side to withstand the pressure of 
the military, a third chamber by that time. To 
placate religious leaders, he, in fact, declared 
the Qadian sect as non-Muslim, making it illegal 
for its followers to go even to the mosque. How 
could he have revised the history books?

It goes to the credit of President General Pervez 
Musharraf to broach the subject of rectifying the 
mistakes in textbooks and wanting to include in 
them the civilizations representing Mohenjadaro 
and Taxila. Religious forces are up in arms 
again. The MMA (Muttehaida Majlis Amal) is in the 
forefront. It may raise the matter during the 
election campaign.

Having been born in the spirit of jehad Pakistan 
has perforce to keep its spirit and tone alive. 
This is evident from the textbooks prescribed for 
classes VIII and IX. I glanced through them at 
Lahore some time ago. The books correctly 
highlight the glories of the Mughal period: "In 
the entire history of the subcontinent no other 
dynasty acquired as much importance as the Mughal 
dynasty."

In contrast, the Hindu period is dismissed in one 
sentence: "The Hindus were not much interested in 
history and we have a very few historical records 
of this period." Dilating on the greatness of the 
Mughal rulers one of the books says: "The Hindus 
considered the king as the incarnation of god and 
considered it a religious duty to see him in the 
morning."

Babar is described as changing the architecture 
of the Hindus because he "did not like it" and 
"he found the rooms so small that they were dark 
even in the day time." The Muslim buildings "were 
much larger and airy."

Shivaji is described as a person who believed 
"that all kinds of deceit and treachery was fair 
in war" and one "who made no discrimination 
between the Hindus and Muslims in his plundering."

The downfall of the great Mughal Empire is 
attributed to this: "They had lost in the course 
of time their great spirit of jehad and 
self-sacrifice." In an introduction to Indian 
history and culture, prescribed for class VIII, 
the chapter on the Muslim invasion of Sind says: 
"Its administration by Muslims was marked by 
political wisdom. Toleration was extended to the 
Hindus who came to be known as protected people 
and were allowed to stick to their faith and 
observe their religious practices in return for a 
tax called jaziya, or poll tax."

India has seldom raised the question of history 
books with Pakistan at the ministerial level. It 
did so once when P.V. Narasimha Rao was the 
foreign minister. He pointed out at a meeting in 
Islamabad that India-Pakistan relations had been 
adversely affected because students in Pakistan 
were taught "biased" history.

It is a pity that not many in Pakistan follow 
Jinnah's liberal ideas. If he wanted to rewrite 
history, he would have done so soon after the 
birth of Pakistan. The mindset of bureaucrats and 
the military have communalised the atmosphere in 
Pakistan more than that of the religious parties. 
History's mutilation is only one facet.

______


[7]

Pune Newsline
February 27, 2007

THAPAR FOR FOCUS ON LINGUISTIC EXCHANGES TO STUDY ARYANS

DNA analyses, prone to contamination, can hardly 
be used identify 5,000 yr-old race
Express News Services

Pune, February 26: Rather than endlessly debate 
whether Aryans were aliens or locals, 
archaeological and historical theory should focus 
on the linguistic exchanges that led to 
restructuring of cultures, said eminent historian 
and professor emeritus of the Jawaharlal Nehru 
University Romila Thapar while delivering the 
convocation address at the 4th convocation of 
Deccan College in Pune on Monday.

Insisting that the past was being formulated to 
serve specific ideologies of the present, Thapar 
said, "We have witnessed attempts to treat the 
past as unitary, self-sufficient and indigenous, 
even if the definition of indigenous remains 
obscure. The interface of societies tends to be 
denied."

Thapar said a crucial aspect of historical 
linguistics was the merging of languages as a 
result of different cultures living together, 
which was reflected in the ongoing debate on the 
Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic elements in ancient 
Vedic Sanskrit. "Tracking the evolution of these 
cultures and their interconnections is far more 
intellectually challenging, than the arid 
quick-sand of debating whether Aryans are aliens 
or local," said Thapar.

Criticising the current "fashion" of citing DNA 
analyses of the Indian population for identifying 
the Aryans, Thapar raised the question whether 
present-day genetic samples could be reliably 
projected to five thousand years ago, since they 
were also prone to contamination through bacteria 
and microbes. "The selection of samples for DNA 
analyses has to be less arbitrary than present 
and the mechanisms of analyses need much greater 
refinement," said Thapar.

Thapar also expressed skepticism at the texts 
referred to by historians while postulating 
archaeological and historical theories. "Texts 
are prone to the bias of the authors and cannot 
always be taken at face value, since they have an 
agenda and, on occasion, resort to fantasy," she 
said. As examples, Thapar cited the failure to 
locate the famous hall said to be built for the 
Pandavas at the Indraprastha excavation site, or 
the lack of archaeological evidence for the 
prosperity of Ayodhya as mentioned in Ramayan.

Thus, Thapar said that historians should rely on 
actual material evidence to supplement the 
paucity of information found in the texts. She 
also emphasized the need to educate the public to 
avoid the mushrooming of "wild theories".

______

[8]

THE QUESTIONABLE HISTORICITY OF THE MAHABHARATA
Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies, VOL. 10 (2003), ISSUE 5 (Sept) :
http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs1005/ejvs1005article.pdf


______


[9]

The Tribune
  March 3, 2007

MANY SHADES OF UNREASON
by Khushwant Singh

JN. Srivastava of Ghaziabad has collected data on 
predictions made by our leading astrologers which 
turned out to be false. Some of it makes amusing 
reading. In its annual forecast published by The 
Times of India in its January issue of 2004, it 
predicted that Aishwarya Rai would marry Vivek 
Oberoi by the end of the year. She is still 
unmarried and is engaged to marry not Oberoi but 
Abhishek Bachchan some time this year. When 
Karisma Kapoor married, Bejan Daruwala predicted 
she would make an ideal wife: "She got Raja 
Hindustani and he got Biwi Number One," he 
pronounced. A month later Karisma hauled up her 
newly wedded husband to court and gave him a 
tongue-lashing before the Judge. Both are back in 
happy matrimony. But you have to give it to 
Daruwala, he lends religious sanction to his 
predictions by chanting 'Sri Ganeshaya Namah'. He 
is a Parsi.

Not to be forgotten are prophecies made about the 
end of the BJP-led government headed by Atal 
Bihari Vajpayee. It was predicted it would be 
back in power before the end of 2004. There are 
as yet no signs of it doing so. Such false 
prophecies are on the menus of star-gazers' 
restaurants every day, but have failed to fill 
the bellies of our multitudes which continue to 
hunger for them. Their champion, Murli Manohar 
Joshi, remains unfazed. When asked after losing 
his election, if he still believed in astrology, 
he replied emphatically 'certainly' (pronounced 
in Almora accent 'suttonly'). The same is true of 
T.N. Seshan, former head of the Election 
Commission who failed in his bid to become 
Rashtrapati, but remains unshaken in his belief 
in the divine messages sent down by the stars. So 
all kinds of irrationality thrives: changes of 
spellings of names (Jayalalitha to Jayalalithaa, 
Shobha De to Shobhaa De) altering ingresses to 
homes and offices and turning around furniture 
etc, according to Vastu. Unreason manifests 
itself in numerous ways. Even reminding people 
that most of our great leaders like Dayanand 
Saraswati, Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit 
Nehru disdained astrology as superstition, makes 
no difference. There are other examples of 
enlightenment which we should keep in mind. When 
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was to be sworn in as 
President and asked to suggest an auspicious day, 
he replied in his gentle manner: "Days and nights 
are formed by rotation of earth on its axis. So 
long as the earth rotates, each day and every 
moment is auspicious for filing nominations for 
Supreme Commander of the Indian Army."

Dr J.V. Narliker, equally eminent Indian 
scientist in the realm of astronomy, blasted 
astrological forecasts based on eclipses of the 
sun. He said, "Eclipses are mere shadows and 
don't effect human life in any way. The grounds 
on which the original beliefs were based have 
long been debunked." It might be worth 
remembering that on August 15, 2001, while M.M. 
Joshi was still lauding Vedic astrology and 
mathematics, 128 scientists signed a declaration 
in Delhi to the effect that "Vedic maths is 
neither Vedic or Maths. As such it would be a 
fraud on children to introduce it in their 
syllabus."

Has the kind of debunking made any difference to 
astrologers and people who have horoscopes cast 
on birth to guide them in choosing careers, 
life-partners or gauging their spans of life. 
Reason and logic cannot pierce the skulls of the 
thick-headed; they remain thick-headed to the 
last even though they manage to live longer than 
predicted in their horoscopes.


_______


[10]


Book Review / The Hindu
Februray 27, 2007 


A COMPOSITE VISION OF HISTORY

A. R. Venkatachalapathy

A history of Sri Lanka beyond the competing call 
of ethnic nationalism and myth making


THE EVOLUTION OF AN ETHNIC IDENTITY - The Tamils 
in Sri Lanka, C. 300 BCE to c. 1200 CE: K. 
Indrapala; Kumaran Book House, Chennai-600026.

Rs. 350.

Reading this important book by the well-known 
historian and archaeologist K. Indrapala, which 
charts a history of Sri Lanka beyond the 
competing call of ethnic nationalism and myth 
making reminded me of a beautiful poem by the 
noted Sri Lankan Tamil poet Cheran. Written as `A 
Letter to a Sinhala Girl Friend' after a few 
months of working together at the archaeological 
excavation site at Mantai, the poem makes a 
poignant, if romantic, plea for understanding 
between the two warring ethnic communities.

Ernest Renan once remarked that "Forgetting, even 
getting history wrong, is an essential factor in 
the formation of a nation." Reading this book one 
is tempted to believe that it has nowhere been 
more so than in war-torn Sri Lanka.

Shared history

Traditional histories have portrayed the two 
ethnic communities, Tamil and Sinhalese, forever 
at war. Indrapala locates the origins of such 
invidious history writing to colonial 
historiography, which was based mostly on narrow 
interpretations of Sinhala chronicles that fed 
the theory of `Aryan' invasion.

He strongly believes that the two communities 
have `a shared history and culture' and refuses 
to see the historical evolution of Sri Lanka in 
ethnic terms. Instead he relates it to wider 
historical changes and interaction with South 
India; this historical region he calls the SISL 
(South India-Sri Lanka region). By demonstrating 
the absolute lack of evidence of any large-scale 
migration from the Indian mainland, he argues 
that both the Tamil and Sinhala communities 
emerged from indigenous Mesolithic peoples of 
pre-historic times. He then argues for language 
replacement, that is language change occurring 
without any corresponding population change, as 
the cause for the emergence of Tamil and Prakrit 
speaking peoples in the proto-historic period. 
Political change, and religious, economic and 
technological interaction between south India and 
Sri Lanka fuelled cultural change leading 
ultimately to the rise of ethnic identity.

Interpenetration

Based on a reading of Sinhala chronicles, which 
flies in the face of popular conceptions about 
them underpinning ethnic exclusivity, he shows 
the interpenetration of politics in south India 
and Sri Lanka. Both Tamil and Sinhala kings 
sought help from across the strait. Tamil 
soldiers fought in the armies of Sinhala kings 
who also hired Tamil bodyguards. There were even 
sections of the army organised under Tamil 
officers. Pallava and Pandya kings sided with one 
group or the other. Some Tamil kings win the 
adulation of the chronicles for their just rule 
while a Sinhala king banishes Sinhala Buddhist 
monks and replaces them with pious Tamil Buddhist 
monks in an act of purification.

This `harmonious' situation led to significant 
achievements, for instance, in architecture. 
Pallava artisans introduced the Tamil or 
Dravidian style of architecture to Sri Lanka 
which is manifest in the Mahayana Buddhist 
structures. Tamil traders also played a big part 
in this interaction. Quoting Joesph Needham, the 
outstanding historian of science and technology, 
he points out to the spectacular feats of 
hydraulic engineering where "the fusion of the 
Egyptian and Babylonian patterns achieved the 
most complete and subtlest form" were to be found 
in Sri Lanka and not in the Indian mainland.

Evolution of ethnicity

Thus, in the early historic and medieval periods, 
there was a great amount of cultural diversity 
and the coexistence of the two yet-to-be fully 
formed ethnic communities. But what played a 
decisive role in the evolution of a Tamil ethnic 
community was the rise of Saivism from about the 
eighth century and the distinctiveness that the 
Tamil language gave to the people in the north 
and northwest of the island. The final seal was 
put by the century of Chola influence ending in 
1070 A.D. On the other side, gradually the 
Tamil-speaking people in the central and southern 
parts were assimilated into the Sinhalese.

This is the burden of Indrapala's story. He 
argues his case through a rich summary of 
existing and new research in the fields of 
archaeology, epigraphy and historical 
linguistics. Apart from his own research he draws 
substantially from the work of R.A.L. H. 
Gunawardana and Sudarshan Seneviratne. Even 
though his writing style is loud at times, he 
succeeds largely in conveying his argument 
clearly even if at the cost of some nuance.

One can only speculate on the course of Sri 
Lanka's recent politics if such a non-sectarian 
and composite vision of history had been accepted 
by the post-colonial Sri Lankan state and had 
been incorporated in school textbooks and 
official history. A little knowledge is 
dangerous. And a little historical knowledge is 
even more so. Historians are at best 
conscience-keepers and alas, can scarcely undo 
the injustice done "to the innocents who lost 
their lives as a direct consequence of 
misinterpretations of history" to whom this book 
is dedicated.

______


[11]   
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/03/book-review-of-sp-udayakumars.html


Book Review / in Frontline:

DECONSTRUCTING HINDUTVA

Ram Puniyani

A well-researched study of the politics of Hindutva.

(PRESENTING THE PAST: ANXIOUS HISTORY AND ANCIENT FUTURE IN HINDUTVA INDIA
by SP Udayakumar')

THIS contribution to the understanding of 
Hindutva politics examines the communal politics 
of the Rashtriya Swyamsewak Sangh (RSS) combine, 
which revolves around the idea of `Lord Ram'. The 
frenzy whipped up by the combine in the early 
1990s led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid 
in December 1992 and unleashed a wave of 
anti-Muslim violence. This, in turn, consolidated 
the RSS combine and catapulted it to the seat of 
political power at the Centre later in the 
decade. Ram is central to the deconstruction of 
this phenomenon for Udaykumar, who was one of the 
first to start websites distributing daily emails 
with analytical articles and news items on 
Hindutva, way back in 1998, before the BJP came 
to power through the parliamentary elections that 
year.

The writer's concern for pluralism and democratic 
norms is evident in this scholarly, 
well-researched work. The RSS used communal 
historiography in its drive to communalise 
society. History has been central to the project. 
Presentations of a glorious past are followed by 
laments about the `corruption' brought about by 
`foreign' intruders, especially Muslims. This 
version of history is popularised by the RSS 
through its shakhas (branches) and schoolbooks 
and through the media. The RSS, founded in 1925, 
has over the years built up a formidable array of 
branches and subordinate organisations that carry 
on the work of popularising the idea of a `Hindu 
nation'.

With nearly 100,000 shakhas and 2,500 dedicated 
pracharaks, the organisation has mobilised over 
three million volunteers. The propaganda is 
supplanted by street actions of intimidating 
members of minority communities. The Rashtra 
Sevika Samiti, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the 
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, the Bajrang Dal and the 
Jan Sangh which later metamorphosed into the 
Bharatiya Janata Party, all belong to the RSS 
family.

The RSS ideology is characterised by an emphasis 
on `cultural nationalism'. This book brings out 
the resemblances between the Hindutva ideology 
and fascism, between Hindutva's coupling of 
communalism with nationalism and Hitler's 
combining of the idea of a `pure Aryan race' with 
German nationalism. Like Fascists in Italy, 
Hindutva forces have penetrated the 
administrative apparatus in India; in the style 
of Mussolini, they operate through all available 
social platforms linked to religion, art and 
politics.

The author examines the way in which the RSS 
imparts ideological indoctrination to its core 
cadre, who in turn form organisations in 
different walks of social and political life. 
While the RSS stays in control at the top, 
recruits at the grassroots deal with local 
situations. The propaganda machinery developed by 
the RSS shows it has taken its lessons from Paul 
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister for Public 
Enlightenment and Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. 
It uses the fear of the `other' to drive home the 
message that `we are under threat' and that only 
the early elimination of the `other' will avert 
disaster.

The mode of propagation of the Hindutva ideology 
is word of mouth, which has been operative for 
the past 80-odd years. This book analyses 
identity-construction practices in independent 
India. It shows how the `popular myth', the 
`nationalist myth', and the `intelligentsia myth' 
get translated into `social common sense' 
determining the behaviour of communities towards 
each other. It shows how the RSS, in creating 
this `social common sense', keeps Ram at the 
centre of the whole process. At a conceptual 
level, Udaykumar would have done well to point 
out why Ram is at the centre of the RSS project. 
The centrality of Ram to the Hindutva project is 
not coincidental.

The Hindutva version of history was constructed 
through a long process during the period of 
British rule. It looked at Hindu kings as symbols 
of integral nationalism, Hindus being a `nation' 
since times immemorial. Islamic nationalists 
began their history with the rule of Muslim 
kings, while Gandhi and other Indian nationalists 
identified with the ancient past as well as the 
medieval period when syncretic traditions were 
formed.

Udaykumar gives a scholarly review of the way the 
Hindu nationalists constructed history. The roots 
of communal historiography lie in the rise of 
communalism during British rule, when the past 
was projected as a `glorious' one and the threat 
of the `other' was highlighted. This is where Ram 
fits in with the `destroyed' temple at his `birth 
place'. Past injustices must be avenged by 
demolition of the mosque.

While the construction of a glorious past and the 
threat of the other is done in an emotionally 
charged fashion, the agenda of upholding the 
`virtues' of the caste structure is accomplished 
in a more subtle way in the writings of M.S. 
Golwalkar and others who eulogise the Manusmriti. 
This historiography finds its culmination in the 
politics of the BJP, which calls on Muslims to 
`Indianise' themselves through `cultural 
nationalism', another name for the acceptance of 
Brahminical values at the political level. Muslim 
historiography runs a parallel claim - that India 
belonged to Muslims before the British came.

This adds fuel to the fire of Hindu communal historiography.

In the Hindu communal narrative, Hindus are the 
descendants of Ram battling Ravan-like forces of 
the foreign aggressor. Udaykumar does well to 
highlight Voltaire's description of history as 
myth rewritten by each generation. Each political 
stream writes its own history, picking up an 
incident, real or imaginary, and interpreting it 
in its own way. The interpretations of the 
mythology surrounding Ram are diverse, ranging 
from that of the Savarkar school regarding him as 
a great hero to that of E.V. Ramasamy Periyar and 
B.R. Ambedkar who pointed out the retrograde 
values for which he stood. "Just as much as its 
ancient historical roles, the recent 
socio-cultural and political roles of Ramayana 
have been many and varied. The contemporary 
Ramayana that has come to be presented in pseudo 
nationalistic light now has an altogether 
different emphasis and agenda," Udaykumar says.

The telecast of "Ramayan" on Doordarshan was the 
first major cultural manipulation of Hindutva, in 
which the Congress played no mean role. Actors 
who played the lead roles were even roped in to 
canvass for the party during elections.

Udaykumar aptly remarks: "For Hindutva forces, 
Ram is history and Babar is an interruption; for 
Muslim communalists, Ram is myth and Babar is 
history; for secular Indians, both Hindus and 
Muslims, Ram is heritage and Babar is India's 
history; and for much of India's poor, as a 
popular adage puts it, things remain the same 
whether they are ruled by Ram or Ravana"(page 70).

The book explains how history has been abused, 
citing a book by Har Prasad Shastri that claimed 
that Tipu wanted to convert 3,000 Brahmins, who 
in turn preferred to commit suicide. Dr. V.N. 
Pandey challenged this version and the book was 
withdrawn, but the story was told in schoolbooks 
at junior high school level in Uttar Pradesh in 
the 1970s. The book also shows, quoting relevant 
correspondence, how the British pursued a policy 
of `divide and rule'.

Hindutva politics is based on a stream of 
Hinduism that has kept in subjugation the lower 
castes and women. In contrast to the divisive 
concept of Hindutva, Udaykumar posits Gandhi's 
concept of religion, in which all religions are 
rivers that meet in the same ocean. For Gandhi, 
religion stood for truth and non-violence. The 
idea that Hindus form a homogenous community and 
have a common set of interests is faulty. There 
are multiple diversities among Hindus - economic, 
linguistic and cultural - that the RSS combine 
seeks to gloss over.

The book is rich in its overall insights but it 
might have also examined why Hindutva politics, 
which was dominant from the 1920s to the 1940s, 
remained on the margins in the 1950, the 1960s 
and the 1970s. Why was it resurgent in the 1980s?

Even during British rule, there was a section, 
namely landlords and the clergy, which wanted to 
stick to old social and economic privileges. 
These sections, belonging to both communities, 
held on to communal values to hide their real 
intent of preserving the status quo in caste and 
gender relations.

As we see the ascendance of a single global 
power, which is asserting and imposing its 
economic and political agenda, there is a 
proliferation of identity politics across the 
globe. The rise of the Skinheads and the 
Christian Right in the United States are 
manifestations of the process that seeks to block 
the journey towards liberty, equality and 
community. It is no coincidence that whenever 
colonial powers are dominant, they bring in only 
material changes while changes relating to social 
transformation are put on the backburner.

Some minor errors in the book are jarring; for 
instance, the Rashtra Sevika Samiti is called 
Rashtriya Sevika Samiti. It was not K.B. Hedgewar 
who was one of the accomplices in Gandhi's 
murder; it was V.D. Savarkar of the Hindu 
Mahasabha.

Ram Puniyani was formerly a Professor at IIT 
Bombay. He is the secretary of the All India 
Secular Forum.




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Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on
matters of peace and democratisation in South
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