MY MOTHERLAND ... 24
The enlightenment of the people in historical terms must be fact-based and not founded in either fantasy or fiction. Let truth prevail. But in so doing, let not historical misinformation rule the roost by way of continuance of official policy thus far followed which diminishes the historical significance of great Hindu dynasties like that of Vijaynagar and the Ahom which barely find trace reference or no reference at all in history books studied till the secondary level. The grand chivalry and martial valour of the Hindu kings, especially that of the warrior princes of Rajputana, hardly receive due space in the history that is taught therein. This tilted teaching of history to our children hardly educates them in the heritage and grandeur of our civilisation as would quicken patriotic feelings and a like chivalry and heroism among them. On the contrary, a constant harping of tales of submission of the Hindu kings to Mohammedan invaders and then the European colonisers confuses their concept of nationhood and nationalism which in glowing terms has always prevailed in India.
The result of all this is for all to see. Our children are taught that the Aryans were Central Asian invaders or even migrants into India four millenia ago when there is not the slightest reference in the Vedas to such foreign influx or invasion of a like order. Yet, the tale, fabricated by the colonising Europeans to subvert our civilisation and, so, subdue us, persists. Moreover, it is claimed that the Aryans were a race that invaded India when the very word, 'Arya', in Sanskrit has no racial connotation whatsoever and means 'the elder one', 'the venerable one', 'the one of virtue and honour'. Hence, the entire system which the Europeans have built of the Aryan migration from Central Asia to India and their settlement there, resulting in their civilising the uncivilised indigenous races, falls flat.
Swami Vivekananda was indignant of this Aryan Invasion Theory and repudiated it in no uncertain terms. He emphatically affirmed that the Arya was a native Indian, a son of the soil who through sheer intellect and expansion of the heart had risen to pristine heights of philosophical insight and utterance thereof which find but feeble reference in the vast Vedas owing to the bulk of it having never been recorded and the rest of it, almost en masse, having been destroyed by the ravages of time. And, yet, what remains is a far vaster and deeper storehouse of spiritual knowledge than is the combined body of spiritual texts written in history by the rest of humanity. And all of it, I reiterate, contains not a shred of evidence by way of direct reference or oblique reference from which the Aryan invasion of or immigration into India may be proved categorically or by way of inference.
Vivekananda, of supreme spiritual vision, has given us the charge of rediscovering our historical past and rerecording it in our national way that may inspire future generations of Indians to rise higher, to soar grander than their illustrious predecessors of sublime attainments. It is up to us now to investigate and discover our roots and record our findings for the world to know what a grand civilisation has been hoary India for 'scores of shining of shining centuries', to pilfer a phrase from the arsenal of the Vivekananda Works, and for humanity to comprehend the corruption that was European colonialism which stooped so low as to distort the entire history of the greatest civilisation the world has ever seen, that of the Hindus of remotest antiquity and continuing through the tide of times.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Maharshi Yajnavalkya
The enlightenment of the people in historical terms must be fact-based and not founded in either fantasy or fiction. Let truth prevail. But in so doing, let not historical misinformation rule the roost by way of continuance of official policy thus far followed which diminishes the historical significance of great Hindu dynasties like that of Vijaynagar and the Ahom which barely find trace reference or no reference at all in history books studied till the secondary level. The grand chivalry and martial valour of the Hindu kings, especially that of the warrior princes of Rajputana, hardly receive due space in the history that is taught therein. This tilted teaching of history to our children hardly educates them in the heritage and grandeur of our civilisation as would quicken patriotic feelings and a like chivalry and heroism among them. On the contrary, a constant harping of tales of submission of the Hindu kings to Mohammedan invaders and then the European colonisers confuses their concept of nationhood and nationalism which in glowing terms has always prevailed in India.
The result of all this is for all to see. Our children are taught that the Aryans were Central Asian invaders or even migrants into India four millenia ago when there is not the slightest reference in the Vedas to such foreign influx or invasion of a like order. Yet, the tale, fabricated by the colonising Europeans to subvert our civilisation and, so, subdue us, persists. Moreover, it is claimed that the Aryans were a race that invaded India when the very word, 'Arya', in Sanskrit has no racial connotation whatsoever and means 'the elder one', 'the venerable one', 'the one of virtue and honour'. Hence, the entire system which the Europeans have built of the Aryan migration from Central Asia to India and their settlement there, resulting in their civilising the uncivilised indigenous races, falls flat.
Swami Vivekananda was indignant of this Aryan Invasion Theory and repudiated it in no uncertain terms. He emphatically affirmed that the Arya was a native Indian, a son of the soil who through sheer intellect and expansion of the heart had risen to pristine heights of philosophical insight and utterance thereof which find but feeble reference in the vast Vedas owing to the bulk of it having never been recorded and the rest of it, almost en masse, having been destroyed by the ravages of time. And, yet, what remains is a far vaster and deeper storehouse of spiritual knowledge than is the combined body of spiritual texts written in history by the rest of humanity. And all of it, I reiterate, contains not a shred of evidence by way of direct reference or oblique reference from which the Aryan invasion of or immigration into India may be proved categorically or by way of inference.
Vivekananda, of supreme spiritual vision, has given us the charge of rediscovering our historical past and rerecording it in our national way that may inspire future generations of Indians to rise higher, to soar grander than their illustrious predecessors of sublime attainments. It is up to us now to investigate and discover our roots and record our findings for the world to know what a grand civilisation has been hoary India for 'scores of shining of shining centuries', to pilfer a phrase from the arsenal of the Vivekananda Works, and for humanity to comprehend the corruption that was European colonialism which stooped so low as to distort the entire history of the greatest civilisation the world has ever seen, that of the Hindus of remotest antiquity and continuing through the tide of times.
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo : Maharshi Yajnavalkya
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