Digging History: Distortions, Demonisation and Denial

Mere permission for photography and videography at the Gyanvapi premises of the Kashi Vishwanath temple has ruffled many feathers. The liberal-Left-secular brigade is confused, so they are trying their best to raise a question – how long we are going to dig into history? The same people who did not have any shame in blocking the roads and communalising Acts passed by the Parliament were suddenly reminded of the Parliament Act that was enacted in 1991. All of a sudden, economic recovery and inflation are the core issues for them, knowing that they have no direct correlation with either the Gyanvapi structure or other claims on places of worship. Indeed, a country with seventy-five years of Independence should have been out of historical fixations and conflicts. When the entire world is expecting Bharat to play a leadership role globally, we should deal with the present to build the future. Then, who is responsible for digging these graves of the past?

Distortion of the historical truth is the first reason people are interested in knowing the facts through legal means. The testimony of court records of the Islamic invaders themselves is good enough to understand the nature of aggression and monstrous destruction. From Qutubuddin Aibak to Aurangzeb, there were unrelenting efforts to destroy the civilisational and spiritual heritage of Kashi with the ideology of iconoclasm. At the same time, there was a continuous struggle and efforts to restore and reclaim the same. The local and foreign accounts ratify these facts beyond doubt. Unfortunately, ‘eminent historians’ have been busy distorting history by eulogising the invaders and demonising the civilisation. We can neither deal with the present nor build the future by burying historical truths.

Their foreign counterparts and self-proclaimed South Asia specialists also give character certificates to the inhuman rulers. The usual defence of these hypocrites is that religion was not the only consideration behind Islamic rulers’ ‘complex actions’. Though Gyanvapi (literally meaning Well of Knowledge) finds descriptions in Puranas, the distortionists have linked it to Aurangzeb. The communal theologists systematically spread the distortions established by the secular Jamaat of historians. The Islamists, who are the biggest victims of the religious onslaught of the communal bigots, take pride in the actions of persecutors of their ancestors. Showing reverence to the Aurangzeb tomb and ranting about the Babri Raag is an inhuman approach to deny history. Attempts to revive the same misconception about the Islamic supremacy and separatism that led to the Partition of Bharat on religious lines are made time and again, which perhaps is no longer acceptable for the common masses of Bharat. Hence, there is no mobilisation by any organisation, and still, people are reclaiming their right to pray at the destroyed and damaged places through legal means.

So, the answer to the crucial question of how long we would continue excavating history, the answer is straightforward. As long as Islamists identify with invaders like Babur and Aurangzeb, remain in the illusion of ruling this country for more than 800 years and get Left-liberal cover to whitewash the historical wrongs – the digging of history with a national perspective will continue. Caste supremacists should accept and correct the historical injustice. Racial supremacists in Europe should acknowledge the history of the holocaust and rectify the issue of discrimination. Similarly, religious supremacists also need to accept the scars inflicted on the Hindu civilisation by the invaders to ensure that the process of reconciliation leads to a harmonious national life.