Timur (1336-1405), of Turco-Mongol descent, attacked India (1399 CE) and went back but not before leaving a trail of destruction. He writes in his Tuzk-i-Timuri: ‘My great object in invading Hindustan had been to wage a religious war against the infidel Hindus [so that] the army of Islam might gain something by plundering the wealth and valuables of the Hindus.’ Starting with Kator on the border of Kashmir, he successively attacked Bhatnir, Sarsuti, and Loni in Haryana to reach Delhi and fight with the Tughlaq army.
His Tuzk-i-Timuri records cutting off heads of thousands of infidels; looting of treasures, properties, and grains; setting fire to houses and buildings; taking men and the wives and children of slain warriors as prisoners, and plundering villages across Haryana while moving towards Delhi. Before the battle with the Tughlaq army, on the advice of Amirs, he ordered the killing of 100,000 Hindu prisoners captured till that point as leaving them alone would be dangerous. His chronicle proclaims proudly that even a man of learning Maulana Nasiruddin Umar who ‘had never even killed a sparrow’ killed fifteen idolaters under Timur’s orders. The chronicle describes the loot and plunder of Delhi spread over three days as nearly 15,000 Turks went on a rampage. The spoil was so great that each man secured from fifty to a hundred prisoners- men, women, and children. The other booty was immense in rubies, diamonds, garnets, pearls, gold, silver, gems, and jewels. They however spared the Muslims to a large extent.
Yet, our celebrities snook a thumb at the sentiment of the entire majority and proudly name their child Timur. It is similar to a non-Jew naming a newborn as Hitler while living in a Jewish colony. It is an extraordinary privilege that some people (especially celebrities and politicians) can use any narrative to divide the Hindus or insult the majority sentiment by cordially meeting the enemies of the country or depict our sacred symbols with a harshness amounting to almost hatred in their artistic outputs (movies, paintings, or literature). Amazingly, any reaction becomes an occasion to play the ‘victim card’ or hide under the banner of ‘Freedom of Expression’ which cannot of course exist for the Hindu community without invoking the rise of ‘Hindu fundamentalism’. It is unfortunate that Hindus have to remain silent at all the potshots taken against them in a grand application of secularism.
A peculiar idea of secularism in our academic-political policies set our intellectual discourses after independence. This secularism almost meant appeasing the minorities at the expense of the majority. One of the important exercises of such secularism was to whitewash the Islamic history of its brutalities glaringly depicted in the chronicles of the Islamic rulers themselves. Our textbooks went against a huge body of contemporary descriptions of the invaders by chroniclers and historians which exist intact in our libraries. The apologists do speak of exaggerations; they may have existed but even believing a tenth of the chronicles is enough to create shock. However, a large body of evidence largely corroborates the brutal nature of the invasions. Again, in a dramatic secularisation of history, the Hindu contributions to Indian historical narratives became footnotes even as Islamic positives soared high into the skies. Our textbooks highlighted the ‘molehills of munificence’ (construction of a few temples here and there) of the Islamic rulers and suppressed the ‘mountains of malevolence,’ as Sita Ram Goel says.
What was terrible about this project was the urge and need to identify contemporary Indian Muslims with the Islamic invaders of the past. To please or protect, our thinkers in all relevant fields inappropriately associated the present-day Muslims to the past Islamic invaders when it was quite unnecessary. Our thinkers could not set a narrative of detaching the present Muslims from the crimes of the Islamic invaders. In this far better method, there would have been no need to falsify our history and at the same time carrying the country forward with better harmony. The lies and whitewashings of the past caused immense damage to both Indian Hindus and Muslims unfortunately. The Aligarh school of historians became a part of this important exercise with their undue influence of our politicians. Having a Muslim as an education minister for almost a decade after independence would have certainly helped. Falsifying and distorting the history of the Islamic invaders has damaged both Muslims and Hindus; the fissures have only deepened across decades.
Dr Balagangadhara’s thesis shows that India has a distinct culture that roots in traditions. The hallmark of traditions is indifference to differences. This has been the Indian solution to diversity and multi-culturalism across centuries. When foreigners invaded India, we could still absorb the alien religions who came with the ideology of My One True God and Your False Many Gods. India’s practical solution was to traditionalise the religions so that they lost focus on proselytization and made some genuine attempts at cultural syncretism. This adoption and adaptation to Indian culture allowed the different religions to merge into society and yet keep their belief systems intact. And this adaptation is what the Islamic clergy or the Christian evangelists fight against.
Our thinkers went in reverse gear as they tried to convert our traditions into religions causing severe problems. As Hindu traditions become more of a religion, it becomes intolerant. Hindu fundamentalism is the outcome of this process which ultimately damages the philosophy of the nation. A philosophy, which in fact, is the solution to the pluralism and multi-culturalism of the world, now packed into smaller geographical areas. An indifference transcends mutual respect but does not make the latter redundant. The artists, liberals, non-Hindus, atheists, and others should realize that respect to Hindus popular sentiments regarding their ancient symbols, their troubled history as victims, or objects of veneration (like the cow) is also equally important, if not more, to maintain harmony.
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