IN THEIR BID TO COMBAT MARXIST HISTORIOGRAPHY IN INDIA

IN THEIR BID TO COMBAT MARXIST HISTORIOGRAPHY IN INDIA 

There are many emerging Hindutva writers who call the leftists and the secularists names. But these Hindutva writers are much shallower scholars than their perceived ideological enemies. Hence, all the rattle will not add up to much. J. Sai Deepak, though, is an exception to this. His study is thorough like his predecessors in Sita Ram Goel and Ram Swarup, and his elder contemporary, Koenraad Elst. A few others for sure are there whose names I have failed to mention here but this seems to me to be the dominant discourse, at least going by lectures and discussions we hear online. What a renascent Hindu literary culture needs is to attract the brightest young minds into its fold so that solid scholarship can sustain its ideological discourse. Otherwise, criticising Marxist historiography will not displace it. Marxist scholars are far more thorough in their research and have a developed system of historical analysis which may not be matched by raucous calling of names. If there is to be a Hindutva way of presenting and analysing historical facts, it has to be methodical, accurate, rational and free of the cobwebs of superstition and fanciful thinking. Mere ideology maketh not historical study. Rational rigour and solid research must qualify such study so that it is able to withstand the pressure of international intellectual scrutiny. The 'Voice of India' publications are good but far more of such publications need to flood the market and a steady stream of young intellectuals with a nationalistic mindset, like Sir Jadunath Sarkar and R.C.Majumdar had, need to emerge and take charge of the historical discourse in emerging India. 'The enemy is armed to the teeth,' to quote Netaji, and Hindutva historians must arm themselves likewise to be able to effectively combat and defeat them in their bid at least to catch the national imagination to begin with.

Written by Sugata Bose