My Books Review: May '12

1) Eminent Historians – This work of Arun Shourie is an eye-opener for all to the wrongdoings of the leftist historians of India from decimating the institutions of national importance to tampering the history. Arun Shourie’s style of writing is described to be based on rigorous analysis and meticulous research. You have all the reason to vouch for it once you’ve completed the book.

The gist of the book is given in these lines: “Tarnish every person, Institution, Period, Confidence...Ascribe tolerance, magnanimity to the intolerant...Portray the inclusive, Open tradition as the one out to swallow others, and the exclusivist, totalitarian ideology as the ideology of broad-mindedness, of peace, tolerance...Denounce as 'communal' anyone who demands proof...Blame victims for the consequence of the ideology of the oppressors...Suppress the role of comrades in aiding imperial rulers...Tarnish leaders, reformers who led the nationalist movement...All the while control institutions, hog patronage, exercise power, and have a good time...”! They have denied the idea of India, Hinduism and have shown ruthless invaders (who were actually religious fanatics) as emancipators, they have employed their intellectual faculties to whitewash the Islamic rule in India which was characterized by loot, violence and conversion all in large scale, they have hushed up all the facts of communists who played treacherous role in the freedom struggle with covertly allying with the British. They have belittled the ancient religion of India, used scorn profusely wherever they can to describe ancient India.   

            What the Marxist historians have made an institute like ICHR is given in detail by their partisanship and nepotism by taking Ayodhya issue as an example. A huge amount of public fund is misused by the eminent historians in the name of big projects which are never completed. Shourie gives various instances of tens of historians with many high sounding projects but are never completed. Their various techniques of falsifying history and countering the opinions of others are listed with solid examples.

            In 1989, West Bengal board of secondary education had issued instructions that “Muslim rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned”. The instruction was faithfully implemented and thus history was distorted. This is just an example. The Marxist or communists historians have been doing such mischievous acts for decades. It’s just that their nexus and network are so strong that they attract no trouble. 

“In regard to our religion, the trick is threefold. The textbooks denigrate religion, attributing to it the evils which it serves the progressives’ purpose of highlight. Second, in each of these instances the examples they give are linked by them to Hinduism. Third, among religions, Islam is always presented as the one, progressive, emancipatory religion. Of course, the final emancipation comes in the form of the soviet revolution of 1917! ”

            They have bequeathed the legacy of Macaulay’s education. What if Marx, Macaulay and Missionaries come together? How would their design be? Simple: “Make them ashamed of the things that they revere- their god, their scriptures, their language, Sanskrit; and make them hate the one group which has been charged with the task of continuing their religion and culture.” If we see the present day India, we have to admit their design has been greatly successful.

            The party line remains the same of the school: “There is no Hinduism, it is brahminism; brahminism equals intolerance and persecution – of Buddhists, Jains and of course the Shudras; Islam equals peace, equality, brotherhood, the ascent towards monotheism; the left, means equality, freedom and everything nice; revolution means the rule of workers and peasants!” dissecting many of their assertions and proving them false, Shourie writes “Each of these assertions is a blatant falsehood. But these historians, having, their control of institutions, set the standards of intellectual correctness, the one who questions the falsehoods, even though he does so by citing the writings of the best known Islamic historians of those very times, he is the one who is in the wrong.”

            To counter the fact that Muslims destroyed thousands of temples of Hindus, a lie of Hindus destroying Buddhist viharas is invented. ‘A lie repeated many times becomes a truth’ is standard technique used in the Marxist school of thought. The lie is completely exposed in the book by citing many works. Before the advent of Islam, Buddhism was the religion of Bactria, Parthis, Afghanistan, Gandhar. It was Islam which destroyed Buddhism in all these places.  

            The eminent historians take liberty in denigrating the Indian gods by saying like ‘Indra is amoral’, ‘Lord Krishna has rather questionable personal record’, ‘and Lord Shiva is just a development of phallic cults’. They assume Hindus could not have done anything worthwhile and original and develop their theses in those lines. According to them even true geniuses like Aryabhata, Varahamihira are unoriginal. Their contempt is reserved only for Hindu culture and Hindu culture alone.

            Engels propounded a theory according to which all the societies should pass through these stages: classless primitive society; slave economy, feudalism, capitalism, socialism and finally communism and he said it was a universal law that no country or society was an exception to this sequence. A few writings of Lenin say that all the spheres of the society like economic, spiritual, political, religious can be understood and analysed by having the aforesaid sequence of development in mind. So, our eminent historians of India who are well-versed with the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin have religiously tried to see our history through the lenses of class and class struggle.  This sometimes gets preposterous when they try to give explanation of concepts like Bhakti, karma and reincarnation through class, class struggle and oppression. But that’s how they are conditioned to see the entire society, history and in short the whole world. That’s why communism is sometimes called quasi-religious.

            In the next part Shourie contrasts the writings of Soviet historians and our own historians on Ancient India. He conclusively proves that soviet historians are more objective and loyal to true history than our own eminences.

            “These intellectuals have over years captured an array of institutions and professions. Through this dominion they have controlled public discourse in general. They have set the intellectual fashion; they have determined what is politically correct and what is not. The effects are all around us.” Though their number is not great, they have managed to occupy key positions in journalism, history, arts, theatre . They decide what book should be reviewed in their newspaper and who should review it needless to say the person who advocates their lines would be given such an opportunity. In this way they have hijacked the entire political discourse.

In the concluding remarks, Shourie proposes the way out, what needs to be done to control the damage that’s already been done and not to further that damage.

This is the first ever full scale book that I read of Arun Shourie. His style of writing is indeed a marriage of extensive research and rigorous analysis. It’s a highly recommended book which should be read by all who wishes to know the misdoings of our eminent historians, the techniques that they employ, the ramifications of their deeds and the way out.

2) Chitadanta - It’s a kannada novel written by K.N. Ganeshiah. It’s a suspense thriller which revolves around a murder but explores many historical incidents like Alexander’s invasion, Buddha’s tooth mystery etc. For further details go to 
http://blogesha.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/%E0%B2%9A%E0%B2%BF%E0%B2%A4%E0%B2%BE%E0%B2%A6%E0%B2%82%E0%B2%A4/