THE NOXIOUS NARRATIVE

THE NOXIOUS NARRATIVE

It is not true to say that an objective study of history that reveals the stupendous role played by Gandhi as a mass leader in the freedom movement is a sign of colonised mentality capitulating to a purposefully written wrong narrative of the freedom struggle.

To highlight the role played by the armed revolutionaries in bringing India independence, one need not be so constricted in intellectual conception as to downplay Gandhi in much the same manner as the latter and his followers in the political dispensation of free India downplayed the armed struggle itself. There has to be factual accuracy in historical assessment which does not allow personal preferences to ride over objective understanding. One may have one's personal likes and dislikes about certain historical personalities but that cannot be the deciding factor in the historical assessment of such seminal figures.

Facts cannot be ignored, neither cherry-picked to one's advantage. Nor must a settled preconception or prior political agenda drive the painting of history in one's preferred way. It is well known that the victor in war ever chronicles the events of war, its course and causes, and determines the consequences in post-war retribution meted out to the vanquished, one of which is to paint him the villain and darken his side of the story to suit victorious vendetta and extract long-term strategic advantage. This is true of the whole world.

But in a country that prides in its credo of the victory of truth [ 'Satyameva jayatey' ], there has to be absolute adherence to truth in so far as historical narrative, analysis and assessment is concerned. Herein we have a duty to undo the damages of the past by not replicating in reverse mode the former biased historical representation of the freedom movement but by including multiple narratives of it that will give the reader a comprehensive and panoramic view of the entire saga of the freedom struggle.

Thus, to raise the revolutionaries to the pedestal where they duly belong, this roguish running down of Gandhi and Nehru must stop. Those who indulge in it merely expose the faultlines of their character, the inadequacies of their intellect and the paucity of their knowledge of the real events that had rocked us as a nation and precipitated us into a dismembered dominion status followed by constitutional declaration of independence.

Academic standards in India must be raised. Only then can people come to have proper perception of all that now is a perplexing picture imperfect. To this end intellectuals must consistently make efforts even if they are thus branded as 'secular, liberal and leftist antinationals', to begin with. But if they are themselves not playing politics and as historians are honest to their trade, time will raise their profile above such popular suspicion and redeem their reputation as rightful chroniclers of the past.

May truth prevail over falsity of every sort, past and present !

Vande Mataram !

Written by Sugata Bose