The history wars

Published November 25, 2015
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

IT is not news that the ascent of Narendra Modi has marked a change in India’s outlook on its past. The elevation of Hindu identity as central to being Indian has been accomplished in a variety of ways, from prioritising narratives that connect the nation’s Hindu past to its current nation-state identity, to marginalising interpretations giving primacy to secularism. Writers, cultural critics, and anyone else challenging India’s moment of Hindu nationalist pride have all been bruised and battered. Some have even been killed.

It is no surprise, then, that the effort to rewrite Indian history, such that it fits better with a narrative of Hindu supremacy, has spread into India’s academia. At the end of September, a meeting was held at the University of Delhi’s Department of Sanskrit. Archaeologists and scholars from Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Delhi took part and had some interesting and novel interpretations to present to the world.

In his keynote address, head of the department, Ramesh Bhardwaj, said to the audience: “The time of the Vedas cannot be asserted before 6000BC and thus Vedic civilisation is proved more ancient than the Indus Valley civilisation.” Archaeological, literary and astronomical evidence, Bhardwaj and other scholars insisted, confirmed that the Vedas, which are the Hindu religious scriptures, are actually 4,500 years older than had been previously believed. These claims are contrary to what historians have believed for some time, which is that the time of the Vedas did not begin until the Harappan civilisation was in decline.

Politics, then, has won another victory over history in India. Making the Vedas suddenly older than, for instance, the Harappan civilisation (normally dated at 2500 to 1800BC) permits the Vedas and consequently Hindu civilisation to be described as the first indigenous civilisation of India. Since so much of Hindu nationalist rhetoric is poised crucially on the premise of claiming India as a true and original homeland for its Hindus, changing the date of the Vedas and hence claiming the earliest possible date for their arrival fits well in the Hindu nationalist scheme of things.


Will Hindus feel more ‘indigenous’ because a group of scholars is willing to make historical dating a political act?


The claim of being indigenous in turn permits exclusions in the present; Muslim and Christian arrivals obviously came much later and can hence be characterised as belated usurpers — later claimants whose rights to being Indian are, if not in question, less a matter of course. According to news reports of the meeting at the university, proponents of the new dating system also had some criticism to lob at Marxist historians, whose estimations would counter their new dating of the Vedas.

Given India’s increasingly authoritarian climate and the various and varied attacks on free speech, it is likely that the historians of Delhi University’s Sanskrit department will enjoy some favour with the Modi government. Favours of historical interpretation, after all, are invaluable to politicians everywhere and this one, given the vast number of years it adds to politically important pasts, is likely to be of particular use. Whether or not a post-Modi India returns to the original dating is a question for the future, as is the deeper question of whether an alteration of record leads to a coinciding alteration in identity. Beyond political claims, will Hindus feel more ‘indigenous’ than they already do in the land where they have lived for centuries, simply because a group of scholars is willing to turn historical dating into a political act?

That too is unknown, but the question of which portions of history become precious and which are left to stagnate and fester is equally important in Pakistan. Here, it is, of course, not the indigenous that is highly coveted, but the Islamic or post-Islamic. As a consequence, the pre-Islamic, for its lack of perceived pertinence to Pakistan’s present, is not a particular priority.

Around the same time that the Indians were undertaking their revisionist dating of the Vedas, some interesting discoveries were also made in Pakistan. An archaeological dig near Badin discovered artefacts and statues that may belong to an ancient Buddhist city that used to be the capital of lower Sindh, around the Thar region. A historian who was able to look at the objects said they appeared to belong to the ancient Dravidians.

Then, just last week, archaeologists who were digging in Buner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa found the remnants of an ancient city from the 6th century BC. According to reports, one of the most interesting finds from the six-month long dig is a fort-like structure in the mountains in Gandhao. The well-planned building was meticulously constructed and situated on top of an elevation, and is being referred to as the Gandhao Fort. Historians associated with the dig said that the settlement dated from a time during which the area was still under heavy Buddhist influence.

It is heartening to hear of the discoveries in Badin and Buner, but it is impossible not to wonder what will become of them. Just as the old dating of the Vedas does not fit in with the Modi government’s understanding of India, Pakistan’s rich pre-Islamic history, particularly the Hindu and Buddhist settlements, are of little political use. Pakistan’s disdain for its pre-Islamic origins is evident again and yet again in the lack of attention that is given to the historical sites that have already been discovered. Even more troubling is how little this history figures in the story of Pakistan that is told to future generations. Many, if not most, would be hard-pressed to define or relate any facts at all about what existed before.

Pakistan (and Pakistanis) turning away from their pre-Islamic history is anomalous when considered against other Muslim nation states. Egypt has not only excavated its pharaonic tombs but made them a central facet of its appeal and identity to the rest of the world. Similarly, the ruins of Petra in modern-day Jordan are well kept and again used to draw visitors to the country. Given India’s recent turn, it seems that the antipathy towards history that does not fit the requirements of the politics of the present is a very sub-continental, a very South Asian, a very Indian, and a very Pakistani thing.

The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.

rafia.zakaria@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2015

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