White-washing of history can be a costly blunder!

Submitted by B.N.Gururaj (India), Mar 14, 2009 at 00:02

One wonders who starts this whitewashing job in liberal societies. In India, this has been going on for over sixty years, almost ever since the independence in 1947. Now, US of A is also catching on with India, by suppressing undesirable aspects of spread of Islam and its inherent violent and imperialistic ideology. It is suppressio veri, suggestio falsi. It is worthwhile to examine in US who set the ball in motion about white washing History.

Dr.Daniel Pipes is cent percent correct in cautioining against ignoring the violent history of Islam. It is not merely bad history, but worse security policy for the present. India is a standing example of the effect of whitewashing of history. Especially, after the independence in 1947, under Nehruvian influence, a new school of historiography commenced in India which tried to paint every thing pre-Islamic in India as age of darkness, or intolerant; Islamic period as one of unadulterated glory; Nationalist movement for freedom struggle as one, which was essentially a Hindu movement. Nehru himself wrote amaturish history books like "Glimpses of World History" and "Discovery of India" white washing the brutal Ghazis like Muhmad Ghazni and Muhmad Ghori as merely a bandits rather than the fighting arms of Islam. Present Indian Government engages Marxist historians and pays them handsomely for supplying whitewashed history. We in India have reached a point, where we can no longer trust the History books published in India.

The price is now being paid for this selective blindness. In the school text books promoted by the Central Government and the State Governments, nothing which is even remotely derogatory about Islam is retained. In the State of West Bengal, undesirable references were specifically identified for deletion by sending a circular through the government channels. Fanatics like Aurangzeb and Tipusultan are painted in pastle colours, not in the crimson colours that they deserve. Even the so called tolerant Mughal Emperror like Akbar committed mass murder of over 30 000 Hindus in Chittoor of Rajashtan around 1570 AD. About the reign of terror of the Delhi Sultans of earlier era such as Allaudin Khalji, Firoz Shah Tughlaq, Muhamad Bin tughlaq, Sikandar Lodhi, less said the better. Each one of them was egged on by the Ulama and so-called Sufi Saints to spread Islam and shed the blood of Infidel Hindus. The Ulama were always opposed to collecting Jezia, the religious tax from Hindus and allowing them to live, rather than give them the option of either Islam or the Sword. Millions of Hindus were sold as slaves in the middle eastern and African markets during the medieval periods. In facts, the Gypsies of Europe are traceable to India from this period, between 1200 CE to 1500 CE. Prof. Will Durant has rightly called the history of Islam in India as one of the bloodiest in the history of civilization.

Today's generation of Indian students do not have any idea at all about the violent aspects of Islam, the misery it inflicted on India during its seven hundred years plus reign. Present generation of students simply disbelieve the violent past of Islam in India, when they are informed so. They do not appreciate how deeply the hatred for followers of other religions is inculcated among young muslims exposed to madrasa education. Tableigh Movement which is wide spread in India ensures that Islam is cleansed of all signs of un-Islamic practices and tolerance. Due to lack of proper historical perspective, even other Indians fail to appreciate the threat posed by return of Muslims to puretinical islam. India's security philosophy fails to appreciate the threat posed to it by the intolerant Islamic republics like those of Pakistan and Bangladesh.

On the other hand, in the text books of Pakistan, at for the last forty years or more, the State is steadily inculcating the hatred towrads India and especially Hindus. Pakistan already has one whole generation of Muslims who have been brought up on the staple diet of India hatred and Hindu hatred.

Threat posed by Jihad and Mujahideen has not been fully appreciated. They are treated as common criminals and hooligans. This is totally wrong. They are driven men, not by temporal motives, but the lure of heavenly merits. Unless what drives these people is understood, no credible defence can be established in the society against the spread of such fanatic ideology. The consequence of such selective blindness is that there is no clearly guiding security philosophy about stemming the threat of Jihad.

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