DesiPundit

(Image by Anoop HA)

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. On seeing a critical edition of Mahābhārata, Dr. Arvind Sharma notes that this Western trend is an artificial concept in the Hindu context and the misguided pursuit of Western methodology has created something which never existed.
2. Anoop has great pictures and a travelogue of Keshava temple of Somnathpur which was constructed in 1268 A.D. by Somnath, a high ranking officer under the Hoysala king Narasimha III and Nanjundeshwara temple of Nanjangud.
3. Maddy has the amazing tale of John (Joao) Da Cruz, a boy from Calicut in 16th century who achieved the following: Became Zamorin’s envoy to Lisbon, became a horse trader in Travancore, got St. Xavier to convert pearl collecting Paravas of Tuthukudi and finally accelerated the decline of Zamorin’s power.
4. On a trip to Kolar, the place where everyone used to go for gold, Anitha finds history.
5. Commenting on the decision by the Reserve Bank of India to launch a Sovereign Wealth Fund, Kiran gives an economic history of the European trade to India in the 16th and 17th centuries.
6. During the cold war era, Communists and various affiliated organizations used school text books and other literature to indoctrinate people. Nandakumar writes about hagiographies and various falsehoods taught as history. He also shows that various governments have blatantly pursued this path and blaming just one side for bias is not accurate.
7. Breaking News Online has a list on what they think are 25 “most” significant events in India (post-Independence).

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be published on June 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

During the cold war era, India did not want to align with both the superpowers and hence became the leader of the non-aligned movement and sided with the Russians. In Kerala, it was the time of Communist indoctrination - through Russian books translated into Malayalam and worshipful articles by Communist writers. Nandakumar writes about various stories used for indoctrination.

Even in ‘Sarkari’ textbooks of a generation ago, Marx had a larger than life presence (again, in Kerala). A couple of pages of our History textbook in class 10 was devoted to a dense summary of the Doctrines of Marx and we had to learn phrases such as ‘Dialectical formula’, ‘Dialectical materialism, ‘Mind’ being an ‘Emanation from Matter’ and how surplus production and profit leads to a consolidation of the Capital. Hardly any other philosopher/economic theorist/political scientist of any nationaliy/inclination was even mentioned anywhere else in that book.

Western scholars have ignored Purāṇas as a source of Indian history because they carry fanciful accounts, and instead relied on non-Indian sources. Arvind Sharma says it is time to reassess this notion that Hindus did not have a sense of history.

However, if the accounts of the Greeks about India were translated into Sanskrit, they will read just like a Purāṇa. We are glad Faxian visited India, but despite the reputation of Chinese as a nation steeped in historiography, he does not even mention the name of the king through whose empire he passed. Xuanzang is richer in historical detail but his account, like that of Faxian, is full of accounts of Buddhist miracles, just as the Purāṇas are full of Hindu miracles.

During the NDA regime, accusations of rewriting history books to suit ideology  constantly made and people who pointed out that Marxist historians have been doing the same were labeled instantly. R. Nandakumar finds that “manipulative rewriting of history for ideological reasons” is not new and explains his experience with doctored histories.

A most telling instance of such selective historiography was a biography of Dr. Ambedkar which we studied in 10th class. After decades of trying to make ‘Savarnas’ see reason, Ambedkar gives up (”but despite all his efforts, Hindus (sic) did not want to change, their minds had been totally corrupted by caste”) and declares his decision to leave Hinduism.
As far as I know, Ambedkar decided against joining Islam or Christianity *not* because of their (very dubious) ‘foreign’ status but because of the less than exemplary Human Rights record of practitioners of these faiths (White Christians were arguably the worst practitioners of slavery and imperialism; and Arab Muslims were among the biggest slave traders). Our textbook probably did not *dare* to quote Ambedkar fully.

Varnam compares the changes in ancient traditions like guru dakshina:

During ancient times, guru dakshina used to be a tricky business; gurus could ask for anything and the shishyas, without questioning, had to provide. [...] Now you see certain New Age spiritual groups which sell spirituality with a predefined price list for various courses. There is a fee for basic meditation course, a larger amount for advanced meditation and half your salary for a residential course. Essentially it is like registering for a tennis or salsa dancing class - you pay a certain amount and you get packaged spirituality.

It is ironic that you must pay a price to gain spirituality. Teachers, who give real knowledge, are paid peanuts. But spirituality is in vogue now, and so it comes with a price tag.

The RBI is mulling the creation of a Sovereign Wealth Fund to invest its stash of excess reserves. Kiran launches into an interesting history narrative to explain why this is not a bad idea. Whether you agree with the conclusion or not, you will love the History lesson!

While Bartholomeo Diaz and Vasco Da Gama were finding the Eastward trade route to India, Spain dispatched one Christopher Columbus on a misguided Westward journey to India. Now the “India” or “Indies” that Columbus found quickly became the exclusive domain of Spain, where they found that they could simply dig up precious metals like gold and silver. They decided that it was good to keep your gold and silver in the country than to use it. And trade with India virtually meant that gold would leave your country and end up in India.

Maddy has the amazing tale of John (Joao) Da Cruz, a boy from Calicut in 16th century who achieved the following: Became Zamorin’s envoy to Lisbon, became a horse trader in Travancore, got St. Xavier to convert pearl collecting Paravas of Tuthukudi and finally accelerated the decline of Zamorin’s power.

The mass conversion got noticed in Europe and Jules Verne wrote about the pearl collectors in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

So who are these fishermen? They are the Bharatar or the Paravas. Parava pearl (incidentally pearl fishing was done only for 20-30 days in March, every year) fishermen inhabited the sandy coast from Kanyakumari to Rameswaram in South India, concentrating around Thoothukudi - Tuticorin. Early in the 16th century, they were virtually reduced to slavery by Muslim rulers who took over the pearl fishing rights, and the Hindu rulers who did not quite support their cause, till finally the Portuguese came to their salvation. They were the first to embrace Christianity in the 16th century, and the path to their conversion by St Xavier was laid by a horse trader John (Joao) Da Cruz

The moral: Don’t scorn Malayalis, for the damage they can inflict is tremendous.

The Indian History Carnival, published on the 15th of every month, is a collection of posts related to Indian history and archaeology.

1. Manjunatha looks at genetic data and concludes: “This is the precise reason I believe the Dravidian languages are part of South India since the beginning.”
2. The Governments of Haryana and Rajasthan have decided to revive the Ghaggar river system. Suvrat Kher clarifies the geological understanding regarding the river Ghaggar /Saraswati.
3. Sigrid Harris writes about the rise and fall of Buddhism in India, “It flourished for centuries, but eventually, the corruption of the Sangha, the rivalries between sects, and the lack of protection from the ruling class weakened Buddhism and made it unable to compete with the reformed Hinduism. The anti-Buddhist campaigns led by the Muslims caused its final downfall, and Buddhism eventually entirely disappeared from India between 1000 and 1200 C.E.
4. BD says, “this theory that Brahmins and/or Hinduism eradicated Buddhism does not quite hold” and offers this advice: “I realize that the Buddhists and Dalits are trying to build up their own identity, but relying on wrongful views or misinterpretation of history will lead to two things. One is people chuckling at you and second is a weak identity.”
5. In our last edition, Stephanie laughed at the outrageous reports of Herodotus, especially the gold digging ants of India. Arvind Sharma asks: how is the account of gold-digging ants to be reconciled with the claims of Greek rationalism?
6. HelloJi has a detailed post about the Nizam of Hyderabad, who is Fifth on Forbes ‘All Time Wealthiest’ list.
7. According to TMMK leader M.H. Jawahirulla Aurangzeb destroyed the temple at Varanasi because the Maharani of Kutch was disrobed and insulted there. B. Shantanu finds that this is a fabrication.
8. Yossarin reminds us that Ambedkar took a strong stand against having the word “socialism” ingrained in the preamble and wonders if the intellectual pygmies who are appropriating Ambedkar’s legacy have any idea of his liberal views.
9. Maddy writes about the role of V. K. Krishna Menon in the war with China.

If you find any posts related to Indian history published in the past one month, please send it to jk AT varnam DOT org or use this form. The next carnival will be up on May 15th.

See Also: Previous Carnivals

An aging postcard reminds Anil of his childhood trips through the Deccan Plateau.

Every once in a while I would lean out the window of the KSRTC bus and latch on to a length of sugarcane heaped in the tractor trailor heading in the opposite direction on their way to sugar factories, holding fast as the tractor made past, freeing the length of succulence from the heap. Then I would draw the sugarcane in through the window and chew on it the length of the journey.

The stories and names pile up. The Nobel Prize associations have been remarkably remiss and often awarded prizes to one scientist for the work of another. A notable case, which inflames feminists to this day, is that given for the discovery of pulsars to Anthony Hewish. The discovery and subsequent analysis had mostly been done by his graduate student Jocelyn Bell.

Fëanor at Jost a Mon writes on the several incidences of skullduggery in science which unfortunately continues to this date.