In today’s blog, I am writing about a few points the answers for which the people like me who were born after independence, are still searching for because we were not taught about these in any history books during our schooling days.
1 First is about an Emperor of ancient India:
- His name is preceded by the word Great or Mahan in Hindi by historians.
- The Emperor whose State Symbol ‘Ashok Chakra’ is on our national flag.
- The Emperor whose State Symbol four-faced lion has become our national emblem, with the inscription of Satyamave Jayate’.
- The Emperor on whose name the Indian army gives Bravery Awards.
- The Emperor ruled over United India (which included modern-day Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan) for the longest time.
- The Emperor, none could match his valour, wisdom etc, before him and after him.
- The reign of the Emperor is considered as the most golden period of Indian culture, and intellectuals by historians.
- During the reign of this Emperor India was considered as the World’s Guru and the land of the Golden Bird (Sone Ki Chidiya).
- During the reign of this Emperor, the work on the GT road commenced, trees were implanted across the road, inns were constructed along the way, and hospitals were constructed for people and even animals.
This Emperor Ashok, the Great is not remembered in our country. There are no celebrations on his Jayanti, no holidays in his name. And surprisingly after independence, the history subject’s curriculum in the school had not much information about him and his wisdom.
2 We were taught in schools about the proverb “ Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar”, whereas the fact is that this proverb should have been” Jo Jeeta Wohi Chandragupt”, because seeing the valour of King Chandragupta, King Sikandar refused to fight with him, and as a peace offering got the daughter of his Senapati married to Chandragupta.
3 In our history books Mughal Emperor Akbar was given the title of ‘Akbar, The Great’, instead of Maharana Pratap as Akbar could never conquer Rajputana. Akbar was a known womanizer, in whose harem there were thousands of women, who were his Keeps, and he also prohibited his daughters and sister from getting married, This emperor became great in our History Books.
4 In our history, Emperor Shahjahan is described as the great lover and creator of structures and is credited with the making of the Taj Mahal, and other structures, whereas in the Rajputana history which is coming out now credits Maharaja Jaisingh as the person who is responsible for making Hawa Mahal, Tejo Mahalaya ( now known as Taj Mahal).
5 The honour which Maratha King Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj should have got has been given in our history book to tyrant Aurangazeb, who killed his brothers and imprisoned his father for the kingdom.
6 How come Tejo Mahalaya became the Taj Mahal, Lalkot became Lal Qila (Red Fort), Dev Mahal of Fatehpur Sikri became Bulund Darwaja, and many more were named after Mughal/Islamic names in our history?
7 Lastly, how the Hindu gods like Lord Krishan and Lord Ram disappeared from history books, and Lord Ram’s birthplace became disputed.
The main cause of the changes in our history is the Congress rule after independence. Friends, do you know when our country was partitioned in 1947 and India and Pakistan were created based on Hindu and Muslim majority areas, who was our first Education Minister –he was a Muslim leader in Hindu majority country, known as Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, (from 15th Aug 1947 to 22 Jan 1958). As all know now, both Mahatma Gandhi and the first PM Nehru were biased towards Muslims even after the partition of the country on a religious basis. There were three more Muslim education Ministers between 1963 and 1967, and they were Humayun Kabir, MC Chagla and Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. Then there was Nurul Hasan from 1972-1977. So in the first 30 years after independence, we had Muslim Education Ministers for almost 20 years. So in this period with the blessing of the Congress government and Muslim Education Ministers total Hindu history was changed in the educational curriculum.
The second cause of distortion in our history was Nehru’s leaning towards the Russian pattern of Socialism and leftist ideology which made the Hindu religion disappear from the history books. And the subsequent governments followed the same education pattern. It was only after the NDA government led by Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, that the misdeeds of the Congress government came into the open, and reality sunk in the majority of Hindus.
Waiting for your feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
25th January 2024