Relooking at our view of history

Ive been reading Jawaharlal Nehru's Glimpses of World History and its such a fantastic book that it aches to put it down, knowing ill lose the pace and moment of history till the next time i have the opportunity ot pick it up, which is nearly always around a week later. His way of looking at history is almost novel for us Indian readers of school history textbooks, which give us details and details of measurements of temples and monuments, but summarise conquests, conflicts and cultural amalgamation in a few lines, because he puts everything in its context.

In the form of letters to his daughter Indira, then a teenager, Nehru traces history from every aspect of the cultural life of every known peoples of every time from ancient Egypt, China, and India till his present day, ie. the 1930s. (And i want to scream at myself that i wont be able to articulate teh very strong feeling about this book that courses through me, and I now doubt will get flak for my views, Im sure), but i just wish that every bigot who posts at this blog and others, every single person who views the world so simplistically as to summarily blame any other group or way of life for his particular or general problems, would read this book and honestly contemplate on its message. That change, as stated in the Gita, is inevitable, that stagnation must occur before the need and creation of new growth is seen, through which the dead and dying is weeded out and destroyed, that our condition, or the condition of the world today, is almost karmic in nature. There really is a reason for everything that happens, and while we may not be the reason for an action, the action may affect us and therefore change the course of our destiny.

For instance, Indian textbooks and people tend to automatically blame Islam for all our problems, for all the violence in India throughout history etc etc. It is a fallacy to blame the principles of a religion, when we ourselves have seen, in our own era, that converts to a religion tend to be far more zealous than those who were born into it. Al Qaeda itself is hiring more foreigners to do its dirty work. Where a religion may not be a worthy goal for people, the prospect fo wealth, honour, prestige or fame certainly is. And do you not think that it would have been harder for Mahmoud of Ghazni and Mahmud of Ghouri to invade had there been unity among the kingdoms of India? People invade because they can, people gossip and accuse and bitch because they can, people hurt because they can. Its all very well to blame the invader, to blame the Muslims, the British, the West whatever for all our problems, when we dont see the rot inside ourselves, that allows outsiders to chew into us. It's so easy, in retrospect, in history or in life, to forget the good that has been done for us, and to remain dissatisfied with the bad. Its all very well to sit and blame karma, because we're too lazy to get off our asses and do something about it. It's all very easy to rewrite our history books, say the caste system didnt exist, make some new theories that justify our existence and culture, glorify the evils of sati and mistreatment of widows and lower castes, and say we prefer them to the courruption of the invaders. (and let me tell you, half the population doesnt want what some of you want).

The mistake mankind has made, is to not have the confidence to successfully defend, and in turn to compensate for its shortcomings by repeated and unnecessary offense. It turns outwards constantly, all the while retreating inward, closing in, degenerating. Confucius says there should be no ritual without feeling, and no feeling without ritual. We preserved our practices purely out of defence, out of fear, without love, and without meaning. And this fear makes us unable to accept anything new or different, however beneficial it may be.

So it doesnt allow us to see that the context of many of these practices is gone. With the coming of education and financial independence, women no longer have to be dependent on men. With the coming of electricity, life doesnt have to always function by the movement of the sun. But by the coming of western business practices, at the same time, its not practical to wear suits in 35 degree weather. So its imperative that we pick what to preserve and discard whats unnecessary. Of course there are bound to be conflicts due to differences of opinion, but the beauty lies in the multiple variations in decisions that can be made at the individual, family and clan level, which determines change at the societal level.

Rather than denying what exists, why not examine how it came to be, without making any excuses for ourselves, and accusations at others, and work on improving our lot? And maybe its easy to say, but if you have a problem with the concept of communalism and segregation, stop it in your own home. Stop politicians from using vote banks. Recognise hypocrisy, double standards, convenience, prejudice, discrimination for what it is, in your heart and outside, and make a change. Its that simple.

Every country and culture has been shaped by its location, demographic, climate, food, imagination in terms of religion and manifestation of its belief, and people. Every culture has values of honour, pride, faith and integrity, in the context of its own situation. Likewise, certain sins are more forgivable than others, depending on the culture. The different communities we have been exposed to growing up in India, - the Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Jews, Tibetans, have all shaped us. Let us give them all credit where it is due, absorb the best of all worlds into our collective psyches and move on.

After all, parivartan sansaar ka niyam hai.

What we're fighting for is after all, a drop in the water of time. But this time is now, and it will be history. So why not make it so unforgettable and beautiful that there can simply be no contest in what any historian, however ethnocentric, can write about us???