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All the holes in history

books need to be plugged

istory is crucial as it offers les- only about Shaheed Bhagat Singh and a
sons to the society, community few others.
Similarly, hundreds of thousands of
The LasT and the country. It helps people Muslim men and women fought against
learn from their past mistakes
Word H and act accordingly for better the colonisers and sacrificed their lives for
India’s freedom since the very beginning.
future. But there is no way to check honesty
Abdul WAsey and objectivity in the recording process of The community started opposing them
past happenings. The reason is simple. His- almost a century before the First War of
tory is written under influence of the peo- Independence. The 1857 uprising against
ple in power at that point of time. In one British East India Company alone witnessed
way or the other, their approval is taken execution of about 225 Muslim women. The
before making a document public. Victors number of Muslim men who sacrificed
and rulers, in every age, have their own egos their lives in Delhi alone during 1857-58
and agendas. They make sure that the fu- was in tens of thousands. More or less, same
ture generations look at them with respect is the case with other marginalised com-
and pride, even at the cost of others’ image. munities. Their contribution was either
Those who do not find enough place in totally neglected or got mention in a pass-
the history books or are mentioned nega- ing reference.
tively in it try to rectify or push
their side of the story whenever History, as former
they get chance. There is no
harm in it as long as the inten- DU professor KM
tion is not to falsify historical evi-
dence to discredit political rivals, Shrimali puts it, is a
which has more or less become a discipline of reason
universal feature of the struggle
for power. A new trend, which is and cannot be written
dangerously gaining pace, is that with fabricated truths
forums, publications and social
media are being used to erase
the past contribution of particu- The need of the hour is that the com-
lar communities or organisa- munities that were neglected or their con-
tions in the making of a country tributions were wrongly recorded come
and demonising them whenever forward to put things in the right perspec-
and wherever is possible. tive. This requires that more learned people
In India’s perspective, the mention of dig deeper into the history and spread the
minority communities in progress and word through various platforms. That way,
development of the country before and the recently launched book Lahu Bolta Bhi
after its Independence has systematically Hai: Jange-Azadi-e-Hind Ke Muslim Kirdaar
been erased by different governments at by Shahnawaz Qadri is a step in the right
different point of times for different rea- direction. It profiles more than 1,750 Muslim
sons. History books, for example, hardly personalities and their contributions in the
mention the contribution of Sikhs, who country’s freedom struggle. It involved a lot
were last to lay arms and among foremost of foot work as most of the characters of the
to raise them against the Britishers, in the book were never listed. Others should also
freedom struggle. For example, how many step in as holes in the history books need to
of us know that out of the 1,300 martyred be plugged at the earliest.
in Jallianwala Bagh 799 were Guru Nanak’s
followers. The public, in general, knows letters@tehelka.com

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