Authentic reflections

Our understanding of history is shaped not just by facts and factlets, but also by factoids – which often become the most important element in the way we look at our histories. I have deliberately used history in the plural (for that is the way history is), as every time period and geography have so many narratives. A historian has to look beyond the gazette notification that gives the when and the what: the challenge is to discover the why and how.

But before we proceed further, let’s look at the dictionary meanings of the terms. A fact is something that has actually happened; though perspectives may vary. Thus, whether August 15, 1947 symbolises freedom at midnight/transfer of power/brutal Partition, the fact is that the Union Jack was replaced by the Tricolour. Then there are factlets, like the emblems worn by Lord Mountbatten and the tiara worn by his Lady, which make the narrative ‘juicy’, and finally, we have factoids like India achieving her freedom entirely on the strength of a non-violent satyagraha—these are oft-repeated media statements which over time get accepted unquestioningly. And then we have ‘facts’ which get appropriated, as for example, all of India’s military success and self-sufficiency in food to Mrs Gandhi, whereas the fact is that it was Shastri who gave salience to the Jawan and the Kisan.

Utpal Kumar’s ‘Bharat Rising: Dharma, Democracy and Diplomacy’ is an attempt to place facts, factlets, and factoids in perspective, as he builds an alternative narrative on some of the contemporary issues which India that is Bharat is currently facing. Two years ago, when I gave my book on the reorganisation of Indian provinces the title ‘We the People of the States of Bharat: the Making and Remaking of India’s Internal Boundaries’, it caused many people to ask: why I used Bharat in the main heading and India in the subtitle. My argument was that while British India had administrative provinces, Bharat had reorganised itself on the basis of linguistic identity which had been an article of faith during the freedom movement. Ever since the invites for the banquet hosted for the heads of government at G20 were issued by the President of Bharat, the new name for India has been, in a manner of speaking, ‘formalised’. As such, this collection of twelve essays in Bharat Rising under two broad heads: ‘Dharma and Democracy’, and ‘Democracy and Diplomacy’ neatly fits into the new narrative which seeks to challenge the perspective offered by the Thapars of JNU. It did not have Ambedkar’s text as prescribed reading in Modern Indian History when I signed up for a Masters’ programme in 1979.

Let’s now examine the book at length. The first chapter deals with ‘the new historical awakening’ which may have seen its physical manifestation in the inauguration of the Ram Mandir at Ayodhya on January 22 of this year, but dates back to the nineties, when the Nobel laureate Sir VS Naipaul said that this was India “becoming alive to, and taking cognisance of her history”. Utpal takes the Aryan Invasion Theory to task not just because of lack of archaeological evidence, but also because our Vedas, epics, and Puranas actually talk of out-of-India migration. In ‘New India Going Back to Its Civilizational Roots’, Nehru’s secular credentials are questioned, especially in the context of leaving out the Muslims from the ambit of the Universal Civil Code, which if enacted at that time would not have given reason and cause to the BJP to raise the issue now. Even Shashi Tharoor in his otherwise admiring biography of Nehru concedes, “if Muslim politicians developed a vested interest in minority-hood, the Nehruvian state evolved a vested interest in its perpetuation”.

Rajiv Malhotra, who delivered the keynote address at the third edition of Valley of Words, in his book, ‘Snakes in the Ganga’, talks about the threats to Sanatana culture and traditions from missionaries, cultural emissaries, and the divisive politics of the high priests of Dravidian and Dalit ideologues. This forms the core of the third chapter in which the author makes a clear distinction between ‘religions seeking converts, and religions accepting converts’. Thus, Indic religions – Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism — could be missionary without losing their pluralistic and tolerant tendencies.

The fourth chapter is on ‘Codes, Commandments, and Natural Law’. The author reiterates the pot made by Yuval Noah Harari that the agricultural revolution was “history’s biggest fraud” and asks “did humans domesticate plant species like wheat, rice and potato, or was it the vice versa?” Mad so the question is: if the world looks beautiful in different colours, why should the idea of one religion, one tradition and one way of life be thrust upon it? This chapter makes a very strong case for the liberation of the Hindu temples and endowments from the clutches of the state.

In ‘Brahmins, Dalits and the Curse of Whisperers’, the author talks of the not so well-documented atrocities and forced migrations—of Brahmins in Madras during the heydays of Dravidian movement, the anti-Brahmin

riots in Bombay and Central provinces after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the massacre of Namasudra refugees from East Bengal at Marichjhapi in Sundarbans by the CPM-led goons and cops, so vividly captured in Amitav Ghosh’s ‘The Hungry Tide’.

In ‘Three Musketeers and the Nehruvian Tyranny’, we get an overview of how Veer Sarvarkar, Netaji Subhas Bose, and Babasaheb Ambedkar — three (among the many) iconic figures were systematically denied the public space and discussion in the narrative of the new India. Ironically, several decades after their death, there is considerable scholarship and research on all three of them.

The next six chapters constitute the second part of the book. In ‘Brave New Diplomacy in an Uncertain World’, Modi and his ebullient Foreign Minister S Jaishankar are credited with having given India “more pointed, purposeful and assertive diplomacy in a long time”. Both as a diplomatic professional and as minister, Jaishankar has made the point that at a time “when the US is weakening, and China is still far from maturing, there are new opportunities for ‘middle powers’ such as India”. He carries the same theme in ‘India’s Rise and the Western Dilemma’, for the only way the US-led West can save the liberal world order from China is through their mutually beneficial relationship. For this, India must play its part in addressing the Dragon in the Room. When this reviewer organised a debate ‘India must recognise Tibet and Taiwan’, the MEA was in an overdrive–but it is time that this issue was discussed at many more fora.

The tenth chapter is on our next-door neighbour Pakistan which faces an existential crisis of identity. Located as it is in South Asia, with its languages and cultures so heavily influenced by the Indus Valley and its successor civilisations, it denies its roots to forge an affinity with the Arab world. However, under the current dispensation, Modi has reached out directly to the Arab world and the Gulf nations and built alliances that are based on strong economic foundations, thereby leaving Pakistan in the lurch. The penultimate chapter is devoted to the land of the rising sun, and the QUAD—best exemplified in the ‘Two Seas’ speech of Shinzo Abe in the Indian parliament in August 2007 (your reviewer was privileged to have met him during his visit to New Delhi). Last but not the least is the bias which the ‘liberal media’ of the West—The Economist, The New York Times, BBC, Time, Washington Post et al—hold about India, and perhaps this suits their ‘agenda’, supplemented with ‘funds’ from the Dragon Kingdom.

Do pick up a copy of this book if you want to buttress your arguments on any of the issues raised in the book – the forty-eight pages of detailed notes contain interesting facts and factlets that will help you to rule out the factoids that may have entered the deep recesses of your mind!

The writer, a former Director of LBS National Academy of Administration, is currently a historian, policy analyst and columnist, and serves as the  Festival Director of Valley of Words — a festival of arts and literature