History Is Seldom Complete, Comprehensive And Totally Objective
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
23
September 2022
Dr Moin
Qazi has rued the lack of objectivity among the historians of the sub-continent that led to
permanent bad-blood and misgivings.
History is
His-story, story of man. Mind you, no history has ever been completely honest
and impartial even if the historian tries to be objective.
If old and
contemporary Hindu historians (belonging to Hindu outfits) and Europeans like
Francois Gautier besmirched the image of Muslim rulers, esp. of Mughals, Muslim
historians and emperors also did the same.
"
History is a potent tool to hide or reveal palatable and unpalatable facts and
truths at an opportune moment, " observed the British historian Sir Arnold
Toynbee, one of the greatest historians of modern era. Roman historians
Catallus and Pliny said the same thing millenniums ago.
History is
often facts agreed upon. It's invariably written from the victor's perspective.
' History is mud-slinging using pen and paper, ' Sir Jadunath Sarkar quoted
Neil Empson in one of the volumes on Shivaji.
So, saying
that historians poisoned India or for that matter any country and race's pluralistic
nature and fabric, is expecting too much of them. Historians in all ages have
been paid chroniclers like the court chroniclers of Mughal India. It's our
mistake to expect honesty and integrity from them.
And when it
comes to modern historians, we've made them Marxist, Capitalist or Left-wing
historians, expecting analysis and interpretations from them. This is bizarre!
Where's their core objectivity or supposed dispassionate duty of jotting down
events that took place in the past? if history and past events become subjects
of interpretations, the whole relevance of history is lost.
So, you get
historians like Audrey Truschke or Gautier whose historical accounts are
trustworthy in bits and pieces. They've their journalistic and academic
interpretative duties to discharge. Ergo, a Truschke will unnecessarily glorify
Aurangzeb, a Gautier will find fault with all Mughals and one Goel will tarr
all Muslims and Mughals with the same brush.
Mughal
court historian Khafif Khan would constantly vituperate against Shivaji,
calling him a mountain rat ( poor Nehru was lambasted for using the same
sobriquet for Shivaji in one of his books and later withdrew his comment !).
This is conveniently covered up by Muslim intelligentsia. Abdul Qadir Badayuni
described how Akbar the Great (!) converted 34 Rajput Hindu women and also
usurped wives of many Muslim courtiers. He was perhaps the most lascivious of
all Mughals. But these 'facts' were always suppressed for obvious reasons by
the subsequent historians.
That Shivaji
was never uniformly considered a Maharaj ( king) as late as till 1995 despite
his much-hyped coronation is a known fact. Some amateur historians eulogised
and deified him. Today, he's 'god' of Maharashtra, thanks to politically
motivated historians who extolled him to the level of god. Remember, history
and politics have a nefarious nexus.
Today's
interpretative history is sullied by political aspirations, personal agenda and
vested interests. We all know that historians are not to be trusted or even if
they're to be trusted, their account of history must be taken with a pinch of
salt.
Therefore,
don't shed tears on the falsification of history. It has always been a dubious
business, a distortion of facts and a mutilation of truth.
-----
A
regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/history-comprehensive-objective/d/128012
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