Manufacturing History
By Ram Puniyani
SACW
23 November, 2003
History
has become an important tool in the hands of politics and if one is
to assess its influence one has just to see the effect of the mystified
notions on the intercommunity relations, its role in demonizing the
minorities. By now these myths have become firmly planted in social
commonsense. The fertile ground of mystified history gets its reppleshinment
on the regular basis from those who stand to benefit from the popularization
of such notions. In his recent speech on the occasion of Guru Dakshina,
Vijayadashmi (Oct. 2003) RSS supremo came up with latest thesis on
conversions to Islam. Mr. Sudarshan pointed out that but ìthe
people of Valmiki samaj were originally from warrior class. Some historians
maintain that the Islamic invaders used to place two options before
the vanquished Hindu warriors; accept Islam or work as scavengers cleaning
their toilets. While many so-called upper caste people opted for Islam,
these warriors demonstrated their uncompromising commitment to their
religion by opting for the mean jobs rather than giving up their religion.î
Earlier Ashok Singhal
of VHP had on similar lines pointed out that all those communities who
defied conversion to Islam by the Muslim armies had to flee to the Jungles,
and became impoverished in the process and so became untouchables.
Thus now the origin
of untouchability are firmly located with the invasion of Muslim rulers,
somewhere around 8th century. And again the internal problems are externalized,
coming clean as far as the caste and untochability problems are concerned.
This assertion shows the confidence of those percolating such myths
that now they have sowed the seeds of this
understanding, mythical one, of history so deep that any thing can be
passed off as history. Untochability and caste system are much much
older than the arrival of Muslim Kings, its mention being there in most
of the Puranas, centuries before even the Islam was born. Untouchability
became part of the caste system somewhere in first Century A.D. And
caste system
cannot be separated from the Brahminical Hinduism.
Conversions to Islam
and Christianity have been a source of great discomfort to the ideologues
of Hindu Right for political reasons. Conversions away from the Brahminical
Hinduism are as old as Jain and Buddha religions. These were the earliest
religions which challenged the Brahminical system, the caste hierarchy,
much before the advent of Christianity and Islam in this land. Christianity
was the first amongst
these two latter religions to have come here. Its work amongst the poor
and adivasis did attract many to embrace this religion, and its appeal
continues even till the day, despite the missionaries being beaten up
for their travails. As lot of battering is being given to those working
amongst Adivasis the result is that working in the remote places is
becoming difficult.
Despite its being there for centuries the number of adherents to Christianity
is 2.18% as per the census of 2001. There was no particular increase
in this slow growth during the British rule contrary to the popular
notions that it is British who brought Christianity to India.
Islam spread in
India first due to the Arab traders, due to their interaction with natives.
Later it spread here due the influence of Sufi saints and those who
converted to Islam were the low caste untouchables who wanted to escape
the tyranny of Brahmins and Janindars, those who aspired for entry in
the places of worship which was barred to the low caste, those who aspired
for social equality. Swami Vivekanand sums up the cause of conversion
to Islam ìIt is wrong to say that Islam spread on the point of
sword. It was to escape the tyranny of the Brahmin Landlord that the
Shudras embraced Islam.î Dr. Ambedkar did suffer all these agonies
before declaring that he wants to leave the Hindu (Brahminic Theology)
fold.
To attribute the
spread of Islam to Kings defies the whole logic of the goal and agenda
of Kings. Religions generally spread due to the humanistic teachings
of saints and not due to the tyranny of Kings. Most of the kings did
claim that they are ruling so as to spread a particular religion but
the only King who made efforts to spread his religion was King Ashoka.
Communal interpretation of History has seen religion as the sole and
prime motive of the actions of the Kings. Even here we see that the
spread of Islam has been more in areas where Shudras were more, away
from the direct tyrannical influence of Muslim Kings, e.g.in Kerala
and East Bengal. Kings, no doubt, might have used the threat of conversion
as a matter of
humiliation to the defeated kings. But that again is small number. The
alliances of Kings in medieval times defy the religious divide propagated
by communal view.
The percentage of
Hindu officials and Kings in Mughal administration went on rising form
the times of Babur to Aurangzeb. Many a Rajput Kings were n alliance
with the Mughal rulers. Akbar had two hindu kings amongst
his nine jewels, and Raja Mansingh was his important general. Similarly
the King who is regarded as the most bigoted, Aurangzed, had the services
of many a hindu kings. The same applies to Hindu kings like Shivaji
and Rana Pratap, i.e. they having Muslim confidants in their administration.
The divide between victor and vanquished is not along the religious
lines
as asserted by Mr. Sudarshan. Most of the armies of Hindu as well as
Muslim kings were mixed armies.
With the coming
of British the seeds of communal politics were sown and now the elite
of the communities in order to pursue the game of numbers began the
acts of conversions. During the first decade of twentieth century missionaries
from all the religions began to flock the villages in droves,
seeking to convert Dalits and tribal. Many a shudras converted to Sikhism.
Shuddhi movement started by Swami Dayanand Saraswati aimed to reconvert
those who had ëleftí the fold of Hinduism. Contrary to the
popularly propagated notion that Hindus donít proselytize, the
techniques of conversion to Hinduism were developed by Arya Samaj and
these were called Shuddhi. The proselytizing techniques have been further
developed by VHP, washing feet and giving holy bath. To denote that
those who have embraced other religions have become impure and now they
are being
brought back by a method of purification. Similarly Tablighi missionaries
were trained to convert people to Islam These Tablighi activists preached
the basics of Islam and warned the villagers of the threat of Arya Hindus.
The Shuddhi and Tanzim (Tabliqui) movements were the major political
conversions.
The current tirade
against the Christian missionaries is motivated more by political than
by the religious reasons. The Christian missionary work amongst Adivasis
has been attracting the adivasis in a sustained manner. With the ascendance
of Hindutva the attempt is being made to hinduise the adivasis. It serves
multiple purposes. To begin with the empowerment of Adivasis which is
a threat to the Hindu elite is halted by attacks on Christian missionaries.
Secondly a new support base is created for the Sangh parivar a la the
Shuddhi movement of the early twentieth century. Interestingly the ësafety
clauseí used here is that these adivasi have strayed away from
there religion, Hinduism, so the Gharvapasi is a natural response to
bring them back home, to their old masters, the Hindu elite. The projection
that Muslim invaders humiliated Hindu Kings serves a very powerful purpose
of creating hatred for the Muslims of today as a mechanism of revenge
of the past Here the loyalty to ëourí kings is also established
and subtly probably a acceptance of social hierarchies prevalent in
Kingdoms is also made to be accepted as ënormalí. One can
surmise that conversions are due to multiple factors, internal dissatisfaction
being the major one. In addition the political onesí have joined
in from
early twentieth century. Here the deceit of those claiming Gharvapsi
is not a conversion is remarkable, as it is as much a conversion as
any other to any
other religion.
Thus through his
newly developed Toilet theory of conversion Mr. Sudarhsn kills many
a birds with the single stone. The internal problem of Brahminical values
is passed on externally to the Muslim kings,