[mukto-mona] Re: Romila Thapar on decolonisation

WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/48912

Dear Sankar Da,

 

A very careful analysis of our history vis-a-vis, "Hindu/Muslim/British" contexts.

 

She combines history with social, cultural and economic views. There is little doubt that these thoughts are based on good empirical data and careful observations of Historians' point of view. She also has a very nice writing style.

 

There is however something very deep - which truly is our background, and that is Vendantism. Somehow we Indians tend to see Vedas and the end of Vedas (Vedant) as something esoteric, beautiful BUT NOT REAAAALLLLYYY real. It is sad.

 

Remember Lord Macaulay's famous speech to the Parliament in Calcutta, Feb 2nd of 1835:

 

And I quote him from that speech:

 

I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."

 

End Quote:

 

And sadly, that is what we have become - A TRULY DOMINATED NATION even today.

 

A noted Hindu Nationalist wrote and

 

I Quote:

 

In Hindu nationalist circles, the name Macaulay is synonymous with cultural estrangement of Hindus from Hindu civilization, starting with their linguistic assimilation into the global Anglophone community. The rot allegedly started with Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), member of the governing council of the East India Company from 1834 to 1838, who successfully advocated the replacement of the native languages with English as the medium of education. He formulated his policy proposal in his Minute on Indian Education, delivered in Kolkata on 2 February 1835. The Governor-General of India, William Bentinck, approved the proposal on 7 March 1835, so that it became the cornerstone of British-Indian educational policy until Independence (and remained largely in force after that as well). To impress upon us the magnitude of the disaster Macaulay allegedly wrought, his critics like to quote this appreciation by his biographer G.D. Trevelyan: "A new India was born in 1835. The very foundations of her ancient civilization began to rock and sway. Pillar after pillar in the edifice came crashing down."

 

End Quote:

 

Although I personally abhor any form of extreme nationalistic policy, I do think that a very important part of our past history has been deliberately and completely obliterated. And that is Vedanta. Vedanta is not Religion. A highly scientific and divine form of knowledge was completely destroyed by the British. Indians themselves lived in such splendor in those ancient times, that they had no time or need to preserve records. They lived in a country called "Bharat" and not "India". In Sanskrit Bharat means the "Universe". So why record history? The world belongs to you.....

 

I'm not a historian but I take keen interest in history but not in isolation. Like all my analysis I try to view things from different angles. Even though "Hindu Extremists" did take an extreme view of Lord Macualy's statement, but the point is that the speech was made. It is recorded in History. I have actually attached the newspaper clip of the speech for this audience.

 

Rather than looking at the way history has been interpreted for us by the Westerners, I urge all of you to go back 4000 or even 5000 years and then start moving forward. You must remember to view India in the context of China, Egypt, Greece and other countries when you move forward.

 

You will see the affluence, the glory and the decline - reasons why "We are what we are today".

 

Warm Regards,

Sitanshu Ray

  

 

 

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