Narendra Modi's history gaffes stem from the RSS tradition of manufacturing facts to suit their ideology

by Guest Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:07 pm

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?288539

In what was perhaps the first systematic statement of the Sangh ideology—M.S. Golwalkar’s 1939 book, We or Our Nationhood Defined—the second sarsanghchalak (supreme chief) of the RSS traced the origins of the Aryan race to India. However, many years earlier—at the end of 1898—Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a revered figure among the Sangh faithful even if he was from the Congress, had said that the Aryans came from the North Pole. Asked if someone of the stature of Tilak could have been wrong, Golwalkar, with his flowing beard and saintly air, is said to have pondered for a while, and then replied that no, Tilak would not have been wrong, as the North Pole was once in India, somewhere between Bihar and Orissa. Over several centuries, it apparently zig-zagged its way to the north!

In one stroke, the great RSS ideologue murdered both history and geography. As a product of the Sangh schools and shakhas, Narendra Modi’s stunted knowledge of matters historical is actually in his own history! If the great Guru Golwalkar could bring the North Pole to Bharat, why can’t Modi say Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was born in Gujarat, mixing him up with Kutch revolutionary Shyamji Krishna Verma? Or that Alexander conquered the whole world but was defeated in Patna or that Taxila, “learning hub of ancient times,” is in Bihar when it is actually in Pakistan? Or even that Jawaharlal Nehru did not attend the funeral of Sardar Patel?...

The intellectual expanse of the parivar can to some extent be revealed by what happened during the NDA reign when Murli Manohar Joshi was handpicked by the RSS to man the HRD ministry. A key advisor to Joshi was Dina Nath Batra, then general secretary of the RSS front, Vidya Bharti. In an interview to this correspondent in 2001, Batra openly bragged of suggesting several changes in the NCERT text books, some of which were carried out. One that he wanted reveals the nature of the man: “Jesus Christ was a najayaz (illegitimate) child of Mary but in Europe they don’t teach that. Instead they call her Mother Mary and say she is a virgin. Why should we do that?” There was also a proposal to promote “value education” that was nothing more than moral sciences taught in RSS schools, comprising tales from Hindu mythology and folklore with a moral lesson at the end. Unknown historians were promoted and told to look into “the Aryan invasion theory” and study the Saraswati civilisation. The idea was to claim that ancient Bharat was the cradle of all civilisation but since the Indus valley is now in Pakistan, we would have our own Saraswati civilisation.

In short, a lot of cherished speculation and outright bunkum came to be passed off as history. Modi comes from a flock of the faithful, where concocting history is key to the belief system, along with repeating myths and prejudices ad nauseam. Till now, he has just shot his mouth off. But were he ever to be in a position to change history books, it is possible that both the north and south poles could turn out to be in the land of Bharat. The world would revolve around us.