[Reader-list] Understanding history for communal harmony

[Pawan Durani]

Kamakhya temple in Guwahati given as a jagir is a news to me . Can someone
please share more on this , if it is true.

Pawan

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Understanding medieval history for communal harmony
> CJ: Jayati Chakraborty
>
> Rulers' history is always a history of conflict. The conflicts between
> Hindu and Muslim rulers in medieval period cannot be seen as Hindu-Muslim
> religious conflict, as these were primarily power conflicts. It was an
> administrative necessity.
>
> HISTORY EDUCATION has failed to deliver communal harmony in India. This is
> because most of the history that we, as lay men, know is nothing but
> distortion. The most unfortunate aspect is that we try to understand history
> through religion. The entire history of the medieval era i.e. the Muslim
> period, which is crucial in understanding the question of Hindu Muslim
> unity, is basically rulers' history. And rulers' history is always a history
> of conflict.
>
> For instance, we take the example of the battles between Shivaji and
> Auangazeb, Akbar and Rana Pratap, Mahmud Ghazni's destruction of the Somnath
> temple, Aurangazeb's destruction of Hindu temples etc to forment communal
> disharmony. But we forget that these conflicts were conflicts to acquire
> power. Rana Pratap's senapati or commander-in –chief was a Muslim.
> Similarly, Akbar'a commander was a Rajput. It is true that Aurangazeb
> destroyed a number of Hindu temples but what we do not know is that many of
> the Hindu temples (the Kamakya temple at Guwahati) were given as Jagir. In
> medieval times the Parmar rulers of Gujarat destroyed many Jain temples.
> Before the plunder at Somnath, Mahmud of Ghazni conquered Multan and
> destroyed many masjids or Muslim places of worship as well.
>
> The Muslim rulers of India had no fixed law of succession. So war of
> succession was a common feature during this period. Aurangazeb killed all
> his brothers and even imprisoned his father in order to ascend to the throne
> of Delhi. While he re-imposed the Jizya tax on non-Muslims, recent
> researches have shown that the largest number of Hindu Mansabdars existed
> during Aurangazeb's reign.
>
> If we closely analyse the history of the sultanate period, we find that
> kings of this period always tried to restrict Ulema intervention in
> administrative matters. Balban, Allauddin Khilji, Muhammad bin Tughlaq
> clearly refused to take any advice from the Ulema (the Islamic scholars),
> regarding administration. In the 1980s, when Indira Gandhi sent troops to
> the Golden Temple, the commander was a Sikh, just to send the message that
> this move was not because of disrespect for any religion. It was an
> administrative necessity. Similarly, the conflicts between Hindu and Muslim
> rulers cannot be seen as Hindu-Muslim religious conflict, as these were
> primarily power conflicts.
>
> Textbooks, therefore, must stress more on the people's history that is the
> composite culture that developed in the medieval period. There are numerous
> instances of the Sufi and Bhakti saints like Sant Kabir, Guru Nanak who
> tried to build communal harmony.
>
> Amir Khusrau was a well-known poet and musician who had a deep love for the
> Brij language .It was he who introduced the sitar and the quawali. It may be
> noted here that most of the ragas in quawali have been taken from
> Hindusthani classical music. Dara Sikhoh was a great Sanskrit scholar who
> translated the Upanishad in Persian and titled it 'The Great Mystery'. In
> this book, he said, if after Koran, we imagine the concept of one God, it is
> the Upanishad.
>
> The manuscript is available at the Azamgarh library. One will be shocked to
> find that on the top right hand corner of the manuscript is written 'Sri
> Ganesh Namah' with a picture of Lord Ganesha. And the left hand corner
> contains an invocation to Allah. Such bonding needs to be stressed in the
> textbooks.
>
> Communal harmony is necessary for our survival. Once Mahesh Bhatt, the
> eminent film director asked a war veteran at Vietnam, 'What was philosophy
> with which you fight war?' He answered, 'One philosophy, save your brother.'
>
> This is true for Indians also. Either we all drown together or we do not.
> We always try to analyse others and we see other's faults. We do not analyse
> ourselves. True, Kasab, the terrorists accused in the Mumbai attack, was a
> Pakistani but the person who opened the door was a Hindusthani. Therefore,
> the ideology of secularism needs to be reiterated time and again. We have to
> assert the secular fabric of our nation. Without this we have no future.
>
> http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=155365
>
>
>
>
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