History of one’s making

Khushwant Singh 'Malice'

The Hindustan Times Saturday, June 28, 2003

Distorting history to suit the mood of the times is not an invention of Murli Manohar Joshi, the minister for education, and his pliable panel of so-called historians. It has been practised ever since people became aware of their past. Indian scholars are not the only falsifiers of events. British historians indulged in it with equal zeal. Take, for instance, the Revolt of 1857. While the British call it the Sepoy Mutiny, Indians describe it as the First War of Independence. In fact, it was more than a mutiny of some sepoys of the forces of the East India Company. And it was by no means a war of independence waged by oppressed Indians.

The credit for making 1857 the year of India’s First War of Independence goes largely to the pseudo-historian, Jawaharlal Nehru. A bigger fabrication is about our freedom struggle. Indian historians make it out as a war between British rulers and the Indian masses led by Gandhi, Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Azad and other Congress leaders. It was nothing of the sort. To start with, it was inspired by Englishmen like A.O. Hume (CIC) and leaders of the Congress loyal to Queen Victoria. Tagore composed and sang Jana gana mana in honour of King George V.

majority of Congress leaders were products of British universities and Inns of Court. No sooner had they returned home, they shed their frock-coats, top hats, ties and striped trousers and took to wearing khadi kurtas and dhotis. They changed their attires, but they did not shed their British way of thinking. Far from opposing British rule tooth and nail, at times they collaborated with them as junior partners, as in Provincial Congress-led governments in 1937 and 1939. Another myth is that Indians kicked out the British. They did nothing of the sort. The Quit India movement launched by Gandhi in August 1942 was crushed within three weeks. The British were not evicted from India; they found it increasingly difficult to rule it and decided to call it a day.

Shanmukham Chetty, independent India’s first finance minister, had the correct perspective when he said, “… we have secured freedom from foreign yoke, mainly through the operation of world events, and partly through a unique act of enlightened self-abnegation on behalf of the erstwhile rulers of the country…” Pandit Nehru’s oft-quoted ‘Tryst with Destiny’ speech in Parliament in August 1947 has to be taken with a large dose of salt. He said, “At the stroke of the midnight hour, as the world sleeps, India wakes to life and freedom.” For one thing, when it is midnight in India, in half the world on the other side of the globe, it is day time and people are not sleeping.

What was a day of jubilation in Delhi was a day of mourning in Punjab and Bengal which had been sliced into halves with enormous amount of bloodshed and millions rendered homeless and impoverished. However, many people had reasons to be jubilant. Those in the defence and civil services got double promotions because the British and Muslim officials had left, industrialists who had made huge profit during the war were able to buy British companies and tea estates at throwaway prices. Indians did say good riddance to the British; they continued to send their ICS and senior defence personnel for training to England. The truth is that though there was only one Briton to more than 2,000 Indians, they were able to rule over us for 200 years because we Indians found their presence in India worth our while.

I invite the attention of educated Indians to a short article ‘The Fables of Nationalism’ by Prof Indivar Kamtekar of JNU in the India International Centre Quarterly magazine. It is truly an eye-opener, thoroughly researched, well-worded and totally free of bias. He has done a great job of debunking myths on which we have been brought up. I am not aware if he has written a history of India, but I am sure if he does so it will be well worth reading. People who live on myths of the past of their own making develop a myopic vision of the present and imperil their own future. chowk