By Sushil Kutty
Class 8 is when students look forward to Class 9. But today’s Class 8 is another lot. They will be told the Mughals were cruel, a bunch of uncivilized uncouth marauders who made mountains out of skulls of Hindus they defeated in surprise raids they made from the steppes of central Asia. Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Shahjahan, Jahangir, Aurangzeb…by the time the lineage descended to Bahadurshah Zafar, the Mughals had been softened to near non-entities.
The last died unsung, unwept in far-off Rangoon. Today, there is no Mughal left to be spoken about. There is a Saif Ali Khan of Pataudi but not a Mughal except a dilapidated family in a Kolkata ‘jhuggi’. Oh, how “How Green Was My Valley” applied so much to the Great Mughals that it could very well have been written for them.
Should we mourn the Mughals or should we gloat at their abject lot? There’s the feeling, the Mughals got what they deserved. Yet, the Mughals were hailed and feted, in the story telling and in history textbooks, leaving people fascinated, their exploits filmed and broadcast to millions upon millions who soaked up the romanticized epic come alive on the silver screen.
And the most filmed Mughal, the one called ‘Akbar the Great’, whose given name doesn’t ring a bell but whose title, says the latest rendition of Mughal history meant for Class 8 students, makes a din like the sinister ‘Silence of the Lambs’!
‘Akbar the Great’ has actually been demonized in an NCERT history textbook, told to his “face” that he stands accused of ordering the massacre of 30,000 Hindus, subjects of a subjugated kingdom. This after 70-plus years of free India being told that ‘Akbar the Great’ was the greatest of Mughals of all-time.
The history of Akbar is so well written for Indians that it reads like a fairy tale of love, romance, valour, conquest, altruism, progress, development, unforgettable friendships, religious tolerance and what have you not. Akbar conquered history, Indian history, and he did it with all of India’s approval!
Indians of certain ages, irrespective of differences in religion and status, recall the history of India they studied in school and they had a proud corner for Akbar and tens of thousands of them passed out of school convinced Akbar deserved his place in history and the goodness and greatness of Akbar rubbed off on the other Mughals, too.
That was “before”, now there is an “after” and the NCERT’s new Class 8 history textbook states emphatically that Akbar was a blend of “brutality” and “tolerance”; that Babur was a “ruthless conqueror” and Aurangzeb a “military ruler” who imposed the ‘Jiziya’ on Hindus.
The book’s title: ‘Exploring Society: India and Beyond’. It was released earlier this week and introduces the Mughals to Class 8 students in CBSE schools. Best advice: It is best not to watch Mughal-e-Azam before the history teacher introduces you to ‘Exploring Society: India and Beyond’. You see, unlearning is tough and reading and ‘Exploring Society: India and Beyond’ will call for a lot of unlearning!
The Congress has vowed to re-rewrite “Mughal history” all over again, when it returns to power. Way to Go! But it is hard to believe that Akbar actually got a headcount of the Hindus massacred on his orders. Also, why did Rajput women have to perform ‘Jauhar’ if Akbar the Great was a picture of mercy with the milk of kindness in every pore of his body? Also, did he force Rajputs at the point of the sword to capitulate and give their daughters and sisters into marriage with Mughals?
What about Jodhabai, was it a love marriage; did Akbar send roses and marigold to the Rajput princess, proposing to her and asking for hand in marriage? And this was the same person who had ordered the slayings of 30,000 innocent civilians. ‘Akbar the Great’ comes out as an abject coward in ‘Exploring Society: India and Beyond’.
Earlier NCERT history books caricatured a different Mughal, the ones who made the Pakistani proud. Usually, history is written (dictated) by the conqueror or by their ideological clones. But this is tantamount to “Mughals framed”, accused of piling atrocities on the conquered citizenry out of sheer cruelty and pettiness.
The Mughals have been told what they’re: A bunch of killers, bloodletting for the pleasure of watching the pile of skulls grow. Most of all, reducing the so-called ‘Akbar the Great’ to a tough who gloried in the company of “intellectual gems”, who tolerated his court out of sheer fright. The Class 8 NCERT history textbook starts off with the section ‘Note on Some Darker Periods in History’, talking of sensitive and violent events, war and bloodshed.
Students are, tellingly, told to understand “the historical origin of cruel violence, abusive misrule or misplaced ambitions of power” dispassionately and states, “No one should be held responsible today for events of the past” when it’s clear as day that the book held the Mughals responsible for the “events of the past”, including Akbar for the “massacre of 30,000 after the siege of Chittorgarh”.
Babur is “brutal and ruthless conqueror, slaughtering entire populations of cities” and Aurangzeb “destroyed temples and gurudwaras”. The new Class 8 history textbook now in CBSE schools India-wide, is about the Mughals and the “many instances of religious intolerance”.
The book refers to ‘jiziya’, a tax imposed on non-Muslim subjects to grant them protection and exemption from military service, and points out that the tax was a kind of public humiliation of Hindus and coercion to convert subjects to Islam.
The book leaves no page unturned to bring out the details of Mughal rule warts and all. The Modi government says the book doesn’t demonise Mughal rulers and says the “next generation” should learn from Mughal history and “accept the truth”. There is a chapter on “heroic resistance to the Mughals” by the Jat, the Bhil, Gond, Santhal and Koch tribals. All in all, a fascinating rewrite with a taste of what more could be on the assembly line! (IPA Service)
