Omitting the Dark Saga of Muslim Rule from NCERT Textbooks is an Awful Idea if True

AT SOME POINT, one gets tired of regurgitating. Yet, one plods along the  lonely furrow in the larger interest of this sacred Rashtra and Dharma. 

Two years ago, I had written rather extensively on the NCERT’s decision to delete chapters related to the Mughal rule from its 12^th class textbook titled Themes of Indian History-Part II, in a chapter entitled Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (C. 16th and 17th centuries). Back then, the NCERT had issued a clarification denying the same and  we can leave it at that for now.

This time, it appears that the NCERT is all set to repeat the same feat of dropping lessons covering the so-called Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal rule from its Class 7 textbook entitled Exploring Society - India and Beyond. At the moment, only Part 1 of this textbook is available on the NCERT website. The media has reported that Part 2 has not yet been published; so I’ll withhold my critique of the same. 

But in our era of headline-grazing and instant, ill-informed commentary, nuance and detail are casually sacrificed.  

Perhaps no other country has witnessed such pitched battles over history writing and historiography for such a sustained period as India. We can understand this phenomenon from a rather perverse perspective. Pakistan easily resolved the problem of its history by declaring its pre-Islamic past as an era of darkness; it could do so because its holy book, the Quran, provided it a readymade guide. In the Quranic scheme of things, the entire period before the advent of Islam is a period of Jahiliya or ignorance. The former USSR and Maoist China did the same by literally burning every single book and trace of its past. 

In India too, a similar exercise was attempted by the Marxists who achieved   success which was grossly disproportionate to their numbers. While they were unable to fully exterminate our real history, they succeeded in brainwashing at least four generations of Indians by feeding them distorted, whitewashed and vandalised history. Their sickening story is widely familiar now; how they adopted a two-pronged tactic of downplaying Hindu achievements and whitewashing Islamic atrocities and glorifying Muslim rulers at the same time.  

But the post Marxist attempts at rectifying this damage — especially over the last decade — has been rather lame, ineffective and lacking in rigour and generational vision. 

From this perspective, if Part 2 of the aforementioned NCERT textbook titled Exploring Society - India and Beyond does actually omit the history of Islamic rule in India, it will do more harm than good. The Marxists had an unambiguous and long-term political agenda and history was just one of the vehicles to realise the agenda. This impelled their sanitising of the Muslim rule and glorifying tyrants and bigots as saviours and equalisers. 

Thus, the antidote must not be an omission of the Muslim rule but to place it in its true theological and historical context and to explain how its consequences are playing out even as I write this. You cannot counter distortion with denial and hope for a different outcome. For what it’s worth, India remains a majority Hindu country because our ancestors preserved the memories of their pain and loss against extraordinary odds. 

Perhaps the eminences at the NCERT and the larger official history establishment could take guidance from this timeless Vedic tenet: 

enaiva sasṛje ghoraṃ tenaiva śantināstu naḥ ||

That which has created the terrible has also created that which is peaceful.

We need to develop an infinite capacity to stomach and face unpleasant truths if we are serious about making meaningful and hopefully, permanent course corrections. You cannot cure cancer with a BandAid. 

The idea is not to unduly criticise the NCERT or similar official bodies but to explore the roots of the problem plaguing Indian history. They date right back to the day India achieved a dubious independence. I’ve narrated this story in great detail in my book, 70 Years of Secularism. But to summarise that story in a sentence: the research, writing and teaching of history was destroyed the moment it was flung into the domain of politics. Here is a quote from Dr. R.C. Majumdar’s 1960 address delivered at the Institute of Historical Studies. It makes for shameful and melancholic reading.  

Way back in 1915, Majumdar’s senior contemporary, Acharya Jadunath Sarkar wrote the following in Bengali in a historical journal. 

And then again, about three decades prior to Majumdar’s speech, Acharya Jadunath Sarkar wrote the following in a letter to Dr. Rajendra Prasad:

See how neatly this resonates with the aforementioned Vedic dictum? 

This profound inner attitude and conviction is precisely what made the work of these titans timeless and enduring. They also form the raw material for history textbooks at all grades. The NCERT and similar organisations will render true national service if it imbibes this spirit of truth-telling sans malice or extraneous constraints. 

Including lessons on the Muslim rule in India should be mandatory. Removing them will be disastrous for future generations and will further endanger our national unity.