The Language of History

Title: The Language of History – Sanskrit Narratives of Muslims Pasts

Author: Audrey Truschke

Publisher: Penguin Random House, 2021 (First)

ISBN: 9780670093229

Pages: 354

 

Audrey Truschke became known in Indian academic circles with her book on Aurangzeb, glorifying the last effective Mughal emperor notorious for his bigotry and fanatic zeal. He is still the ideal ruler for jihadists, but the cultured lot is more attracted to refined monarchs like Akbar. Naturally, the book was subjected to searing criticism which the author couldn’t refute effectively. This led her to dig deeper into Indian history in search of ideas that would corroborate her preconceived notions. The Muslim conquest of India lasted for more than five centuries in which Indian culture and customs suffered terribly. However, there have been consistent attempts from left-oriented historians to sweep everything under the carpet. It is only by discussing the totally one-sided atrocities of the past that a roadmap to a future of reconciliation can be evolved. In this book, Truschke examines Sanskrit histories of Muslim rule in the period 1190 – 1721 CE. This ought to be acknowledged as crucial to the study of what the author calls ‘Indo-Persian’ history. Audrey Truschke is an American historian of South Asia and an associate professor at Rutgers University.

 

India was unified into a democratic republic using the concepts of nationalism emerged out of western Europe, but the existence of numerous groups distinct on religion, language and race makes it a unique example. In any other place, these groups would have been identified as nationalities and would be split geographically. Take the case of cold-war Yugoslavia. It had just 8 per cent of India’s land area and a meagre 2 per cent of India’s population. Still, it was divided into five successor states when the yoke of communism was removed because the contending nationalities could not conceive of a platform that could hold them all. So, in order to remain as a single entity, the population has to be brought together using powerful cultural motives on the national scale. Scholars like Truschke attempt to punch holes in the unifying narrative because it does not conform to the theories they have learnt in college. She terms the nationalistic vision of India’s past as a ‘bastardized vision’ (p. xxi) only because she does not subscribe to it! Her choice of source material is also not widely recognized as authentic. Most of the texts are treated as stories, legends and non-histories by modern scholars. She counters this with the argument that modern western ways of defining history need reevaluation!

 

Truschke attempts to pull out the poison fangs of conquerors and portrays them as doves that got stuck in an alien land. The author pictures them as ‘participants in Persianate culture’ which was grounded in a prestige language and model of political power rather than religion. This may rightly sound like nonsensical to any thinking person, but you have to swallow your commonsense if you want to complete this book and to follow the author’s logic. Each page of the book is drenched with the single-point agenda of making paradise out of an unbearable hell that India was in those ages. To buttress the argument, the author claims that early Sanskrit inscriptions treated Muslims variably as military foes, allies and subsidiary rulers but generally portrayed them as no different from other Indian political actors. They handled them as a new part of the medieval Indian landscape that merited inclusion but no special comment.

 

Sanskrit language used some built in words to denote Muslims such as yavana (Greek), mleccha (impure), turushka (Turk) or tajika. Around the sultanate era, two new terms indicating kingship was borrowed from Persian – hammira (amir) and suratrana (sultan). Contrary to the author’s wish to establish a harmonious relationship between medieval Muslim invaders and their Indian defenders, even the first book analysed by the author, – Jayanaka’s Prithvirajavijaya written around mid-1190s – the Sanskrit historian develops a striking contrast between the Ghurids as destructive marauders and Prithviraj as Vishnu incarnate. He refers to Ghurids as demons, vile and barbarian. To save face, Truschke accuses the medieval Indian authors of opposing the Muslim conquest because it interfered with ritual caste purity. This is a naked attempt to co-opt modern caste equations to explain away an event that took place eight centuries before. Biased scholars like this author weave fantastic theories with hardly any fact to support them. Gahadvala inscriptions talk about a turushkadanda (Muslim tax). It is not at all clear whether this tax was to be paid by Muslims or one instituted to fight the Muslim invasions. But this has not restrained some scholars from proclaiming that they have found the ‘Indian equivalent of jizya’.

 

A curious fact is that the inhabitants of India had still not become aware of their identity as a distinct religion called Hinduism at the beginning of the sultanate era. The word Hindu appears as a religious marker only in the fourteenth century. At the same time, the invaders were driven by their clear religious duty to conquer and convert the subject peoples. An example cited in the book illustrates this point. The 1264 CE Veraval Inscription (near Somanath temple) depicts Sanskrit and Arabic texts regarding a religious donation. The Sanskrit part praises Allah as Viswanatha (lord of the universe), omnipresent, omniscient, formless and both visible and invisible. It also incorporates a number of Islamic cultural and religious ideas. However, the Arabic inscription wishes for Somanatha to become an Islamic city! Also, Nur ud-din Firuz, the patron, is acclaimed as the ‘protector of Islam and Muslims’ only. This exemplifies bigotry of the highest order on the part of the invaders rather than a spirit of assimilation.

 

Truschke’s book brings to light the wide acceptance of Sanskrit literature in all parts of India in the premodern period. Intellectuals everywhere aspired to handle the language effortlessly. Representative examples from the south, centre and north of the country are selected in this book. Jain authors of Gujarat invoked a degenerative theory of time (kaliyug) to explain violent aspects of Muslim rule as if to take solace in a harsh environment. In the case of fourteenth-century rajataranginis of Kashmir, there is confusion among scholars whether they are history or poetry. Kalhana, Jonaraja and Shrivara of Kashmir contributed to this genre. All these presented their works as kavya (poetry), but narrated past details. King Zain al-Abidin is likened to be an avatar of Vishnu and his Shah Miri dynasty allocated the lineage of Pandavas. Gangadevi’s Madhuravijaya is the only work penned by a woman. Here, Truschke claims that Madurai’s religious differences are less important than Gangadevi’s north Indian origin (p. 61). A twentieth century xenophobic movement of Tamil Nadu is projected here to the fourteenth century and she tries to accentuate the north-south divide.

 

Most works handled here are hagiographies extolling the virtue of patrons, which sometimes spill over to their chief courtiers also. Siddhichandra, a Jain monk, praises Abul Fazl – in the court of Akbar – as embodying the entirety of Sanskrit learning. A few years earlier, Devavimala, another Jain monk, had depicted Fazl as voicing Islamic theology and nothing else. These poets usually pulled out all stops to elevate their protectors to the hilt. They even compare the rule of Akbar and Jehangir with ramarajya (p.133). But, Jehangir was not always magnanimous to return the favour. Once he asked Siddhichandra to marry in spite of his ascetic vows and he refused. He was expelled from the court but was lucky to escape with his life. Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was killed on Jehangir’s orders because he declined to convert to Islam as the emperor insisted.

 

Audrey Truschke is a sworn opponent of what most Indians feel proud of, both in Indian history and the national tradition. She wonders if ‘Indian civilization’ (with the quotes) existed in the premodern times as if whatever India has at present was bestowed on her by the colonial British masters. The author has miserably failed to find the connecting thread that joins the narratives in its essence. Instead, she is more concerned with projecting twenty-first century intellectual values on to twelfth century scholars and acts surprised and pained by their lack of conformity. As is plainly evident in her ‘Aurangzeb’ book, the author seeks mitigating factors to explain away the brutal and fanatic outrages committed on the Indian people. The usual trope is to raise the plunder fallacy, seen in the claim that ‘Muslims raided Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples aiming to extract wealth’ (p.1). Temple destruction is euphemized as ‘the Ghurids ‘reused’ temple materials in some of their mosque building projects’ (p.25).

 

This book, however, busts two popular myths. One is that there is no history in Sanskrit and the other is that there is nothing on Islam in India’s classical language. It also exhibits Sanskrit’s universal appeal in premodern India as the medium of literature and the lingua franca of the learned elite. We see comprehensive geographical coverage of Sanskrit, as in the case of narratives from Tamil Nadu in the south to Kashmir in the north. Jain and Buddhist scholars share equal interest in handling the language. Even women scholars take part in the initiative. In this way, the author inadvertently attests to the cultural unity of India. At the same time, the work is extremely uninspiring and plain boring on occasions. She cries foul of male dominance in current Indology without any specifics. Probably this may be due to some institution denying her a much coveted research grant? This prompts her to claim that Islamophobia is a pernicious problem in her academy (p.199).

 

This lifeless book is not recommended for general readers.

 

Rating: 2 Star

Quiet

Title: Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Author: Susan Cain
Publisher: Penguin Viking, 2012 (First)
ISBN: 9780670916764
Pages: 333

One out of every two or three people is an introvert, who feels unsettled in company, tries to avoid public view and prefers to settle down calmly in the peace of a favourite niche. Their social life is difficult as they lack the ability to connect to a large group of people effortlessly. In the modern society which prefers extroverts to handle its economic prospects, this temperamental peculiarity puts a good number of people, probably almost half of them, at a disadvantage which they don’t deserve. This book takes up the question of introversion, analyses the pathways in which this condition is manifested and more importantly, how to handle them if one happens to be your spouse, child, friend or colleague. Susan Cain is an American writer and lecturer who was also a former lawyer and negotiations consultant.

We live with a value system that places extroversion as the ideal for a successful life. This makes introverts experience stress in their studies and careers. Cain argues that this value system is inherently flawed. If introverts lack social skills, they are more than compensated by the ability to tune in to their inner worlds and the treasures to be found there. There are introverted people who act like extroverts and still be successful professionally. These closet introverts pass undetected in public spaces until some life event such as winning a lottery or inheriting a large sum of money jolts them into taking stock of their true natures. Introverts are scientifically identified as possessing a very distinct personality only a century ago. Jung defined introverts as those who are drawn to the inner world of thought and feeling and extroverts to the external life of people and activities. Introverts focus on the meaning they make of the events swishing around them while extroverts plunge into the events themselves. Introverts charge their batteries by being alone and extroverts do this when they socialize.

Cain discusses about the physiological traits in human brain that makes introverts special. There is an area called amygdala in the brain which is its emotional switchboard receiving information from the senses and then signaling the rest of the brain and nervous system how to respond. It detects new and threatening things in the environment. This area is more sensitive and easily triggered in introverts which force them to be apprehensive to new things and experiences. Infants born with an especially excitable amygdala would wiggle and howl when shown unfamiliar objects. They grow up to be children who are more likely to feel vigilant when meeting new people. Likewise, there is a neural basis for extroversion also. The nucleus accumbens, the brain’s pleasure centre, is a part of the limbic system which we share with the most primitive mammals. It is emotional and instinctive that prompts the animal to seek and maximize pleasure at any cost. The activity in this area is regulated by the neocortex – or new brain – evolved many thousands of years after the limbic system. This part is responsible for thinking, planning and language, the very faculties that make us human. It is the seat of rationality that moderates the impulses of the limbic system. In extroverts, the old brain predominates a tad too much than introverts. However, nurturing has a major role in shaping up personality, but the book gives a clear hint that genetic factors remain more decisive than environmental ones.

Contrary to popular expectations, the author asserts that there is no field of social activity that is out of bounds for introverts. They may not enjoy what they are doing, but the efficacy of the performance would be indistinguishable from that of extroverts. Such a person donning the mantle of an extrovert needs to withdraw occasionally to some restorative niche to re-energize. On the leadership question, she finds instances where introverts are ideally suited, such as teams where creative subordinates work under them. In this case, the leader gets more from the team as he would be a good listener and lacks interest in dominating social situations. Introverts are more likely to hear and implement suggestions from his team members.

Cain also looks at the issue of racial predilection among introverts. Asian Americans tend to be more introverted, mainly due to cultural bias. Here, the examples are only from China, Korea and Japan which is extrapolated to Asia as a whole. Individuals in Asia are taught to see themselves as part of a greater whole. They often subordinate their desires to the group’s interests, accepting their place in the hierarchy. This is too sweeping a generalization as to carry any conviction. It seems that the author goes by folk wisdom rather than serious scientific research. In the same vein, westerners value boldness and verbal skills – traits that promote individuality – while Asians prize quiet, humility and sensitivity that foster group cohesion. Cain categorically affirms that this does not mean that one is superior to the other, but that a profound difference in cultural values has a powerful impact on the personality styles favoured by each culture. Or in other words, the book concludes that introverts and extroverts are equally likely to be agreeable and that introverts are in no way antisocial.

The book introduces a good number of personality tests which are new to most readers. These tests measure up peculiar aspects of a person’s inherent nature. It also dispels some commonly believed myths such as venting anger soothes. The author denies this and claims that instead, it fuels it (p.233). This is a postulate of the catharsis hypothesis which is claimed to be a myth. The book is leant too heavily on the sociological domain and not even glances on the microbiological side of the same story. As a result, the genetic sources of introversion are not given any consideration. This is a serious drawback on an otherwise well readable book.

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star

Jammu & Kashmir – Dilemma of Accession

Title: Jammu & Kashmir – Dilemma of Accession: A Historical Analysis and Lesson

Author: Radha Ranjan

Publisher: Voice of India, 2017 (First)

ISBN: 9789385485107

Pages: 140

 

The state of Jammu and Kashmir is now in a divided condition between the two hostile nations of India and Pakistan. Kashmir joined India in 1947 and remains an integral part of the multi-religious, multi-ethnic federation of India. Pakistan’s claim on Kashmir is solely based on religion. Since the state (taken as a whole) contains 70 per cent Muslims, Pakistan feels that it should join her, which is an Islamic state where the harsh Sharia law is being strictly enforced. They ignore the wishes of Kashmir’s 30 per cent non-Muslims who will be doomed to certain extinction in the theocratic state of Pakistan that aims for the conversion of its religious minorities as state policy. Keeping these things in mind, if we go back to 1947, we see a lot of events occurring in quick succession which sealed the destiny of Kashmir. This book is based on a written account by Ramchandra Kak, the prime minister of Kashmir during the turbulent times of Indian independence. Radha Ranjan is a political thinker and the author of many books that analyse politics from a rightist perspective. The book includes a foreword by Krishen Kak, the grandson of Ramchandra Kak and an afterword by Lila Bhan, the elder Kak’s daughter.

 

This book is based on the insider account of Ramchandra Kak, the prime minister of Hari Singh, ruler of Kashmir. He was in office from 30 Jun 1945 to 11 Aug 1947 and was unceremoniously shunted out of the top post with just four days remaining for Indian independence. The existence of the account written in 1956 was unknown for most of the time. In the year 2016, the author received a photocopy of the note by post. She was intrigued by the 22-page document whose original was kept in the India Office Library at London. She managed to obtain another copy from Kak’s family which was a re-typed version of the original narrative with corrections made by Kak on the margin. Later, a genuine copy was obtained from London that proved its authenticity.

 

The author provides the background for the intransigent attitude of Congress against the ruling house of Kashmir. In the 1938 Haripura session, Congress reiterated its objective of standing for the same political, social and economic freedom in the native states as in the case of British provinces. There were individual movements in various states for responsible government. Shaikh Abdullah was the leader of one of the Kashmir movements but Jawaharlal Nehru boosted his image considerably by declaring open support. Gandhi and Nehru took to disrespectful and antagonistic approach in their dealings with the Maharaja of Kashmir. Shaikh Abdullah embarked on a hostile campaign to Quit Kashmir in 1946 against the ruler. Mobs of thousands strong used to surround houses of respectable citizens who opposed Abdullah and terrorized the inmates throwing stones and shouting filthy abuses. The maharaja had no other option than to put him behind bars on sedition charges.

 

The book then goes on to explain in detail the relationship’s sudden plunge to a low level after Abdullah’s arrest. Nehru wanted to visit him in jail, but the state forbade his coming. Nehru arrived in Kashmir flouting prohibitory orders and Kak’s police arrested him too. Utmost respect was shown to him and all facilities were provided in the Dak Bungalow where he was housed in detention. New telephone lines were laid for Nehru’s use. When he wanted to get back urgently to Delhi for negotiations with the Cabinet Mission, J&K government made arrangements for his travel to Rawalpindi by road and then to Delhi on a special plane chartered by the maharaja. Congress was determined to interfere in the affairs of Kashmir which was quite unlike its attitude to other princely states. The party appointed a committee with Jairamdas Daulatram and Sri Prakasa as members to hold an enquiry with regard to Shaikh Abdullah’s agitation, arrest, trial and conviction. Obviously, the J&K government refused to accept the authority of this frivolous committee. Moreover, Hari Singh was totally influenced by a local seer, Swami Sant Dev. He also believed that after the departure of the British from India, he would through the potency of the Swami’s supernatural power, be able to extend his territory and rule over a much larger dominion.

 

Radha Ranjan makes a seething attack on Indian national leaders who maintained a casual or indifferent sentiment against Kashmir. She claims that Gandhi assumed a very tall moral stance which forced a situation on the political players where he couldn’t be publicly exposed or challenged as the Congress would’ve been rendered leaderless and rudderless without him. His three agitations – civil disobedience, Salt Satyagraha and Quit India were only tokenisms and sloganeering in response to Tilak’s return from Mandalay, execution of Bhagat Singh and the meteoric rise of Bose and his INA respectively. These protests often turned violent and ordinary people paid with their lives and liberty, but they did not take a toll of Gandhi. Patel, Rajaji, K M Munshi and Rajendra Prasad also kept silent on the Kashmir issue (p.80). V P Menon too gets a dressing down as he writes that ‘during August [1947], I had no time to think of Kashmir’.

 

As usual with most of the matters under his consideration, it was Nehru who messed things around in Kashmir. He was very friendly to Shaikh Abdullah and wanted the state to be entrusted to him. This was in spite of fierce opposition to Abdullah from Chaudhary Ghulam Abbas, who was more popular in Kashmir. The king was removed from power and Abdullah was put in charge of Kashmir in contrast to other states where the ruler king nominally continued as the head of government till the reorganization of states happened nearly a decade later. Here, Nehru misread Abdullah’s intentions. The author claims that he was aiming for an independent state whose continued existence was guaranteed by the Indian armed forces and whose solvency was secured by the Indian treasury. He planned nothing to give in return. Nehru gave Kashmir a special status which put it on a par with a virtually free state having its own constitution and flag. Abdullah clamoured for still more freebies until Nehru ran out of patience and arrested him in 1953. He remained in prison for 11 years.

 

Revocation of Kashmir’s special status in 2019 was a bold action with tremendous impact. This book was published before this event, but contains advice on the legal options through which the special status could be scrapped. Kak notices that the Instrument of Accession was the only binding document regarding Kashmir’s merger with India. Plebiscite, separate constituent assembly, separate state constitution and Article 370do not find any mention in this document. Indian parliament in one voice can reject all sops and concessions made to Shaikh Abdullah by Gandhi and Nehru (p.79). These words spelt out in 2017 were prophetic indeed in nature! The valley contains a population of which 95 per cent are Muslims. However, if the Jews could get back Israel after 2000 years of exile, why should it be considered extraordinary if India wanted to retain Kashmir which is already in its possession?

 

After reading the book, the readers are likely to get a little disappointed. Practically nothing new is divulged by the former prime minister than is already known to the public. Since the memoirs were written almost nine years after partition, the advantage of hindsight is also available to him to embellish the narrative. The book contains a lot of quotes from V P Menon’s ‘Integration of Indian States’ which is interleaved with Kak’s description. This is confusing to the ordinary readers. Kak’s family employs considerable patronage to the book in the form of a foreword and afterword.

 

The book is recommended.

Rating: 3 Star