‘Hatred towards Indian Muslim rulers is not based on real history but on some toxic cocktail of half truths, cherry picked tid-bits and straight up lies,’ asserts American Scholar Dr. Truschke.
By Special Correspondent
Washington DC : Eminent historians of repute have vehemently repudiated the myths fuelling Islamophobia in India while addressing a webinar on “Examining Muslims in Indian History.” They also strongly debunked the myth spread by fascist forces that religious conversion in was backed by state during Muslim rule in the sub-continent.
Prof. Harbans Mukhia and Dr. Audrey Truschke, and a prominent political scientist Dr. Shamsul Islam, came together during the webinar who emphasized the shared heritage of all South Asians and to reject myths that are fuelling Islamophobia in India. The webinar was organized on January 26, India’s Republic Day by Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC).
In his speech, Prof. Mukhia categorically asserted there was no historical evidence to suggest that the mediaeval Indian Muslim state was engaged in large scale conversion of Hindus to Islam.
Prof. Mukhia is a former professor of mediaeval history at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi who spoke on the subject of “how Muslim was the mediaeval Indian state?” He said, “There is no evidence as there is no data because these conversions took place over centuries, over three or four or five centuries. Very slowly, gradually and at the hands of many many agencies and many motivations. It was not as if the state was out to convert people and they converted.”
He also rejected the portrayal of Aurangzeb as a fanatic. He based his assessment on the accounts of historians like Sujan Rai Bhandari, Bhem Sen, none of whom describe Aurangzeb as a bigot. “They speak of him as a good ruler, bad ruler, efficient ruler, inefficient ruler, but they don’t portray him as an Islamic zealot.”
Prof. Mukhia recounted that the first recorded communal riots took place in 1714, seven years after Aurangzeb died. “Communal riots as we understand them today did not happen in all of mediaeval India. In the whole of the 18th century, five riots took place. So that is the record of the relations between the common Hindus and common Muslims,” he added.
On the subject of Babri Mosque, Prof. Mukhia asserted that there was no evidence whatsoever of the existence of a Ram temple, or any other temple that was demolished by Babur. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that a popular belief began to grow, linking the Babri Mosque site with the birthplace of Ram.
Dr. Audrey Truschke picked up on the theme of Babri mosque, and characterized Indo-Muslim history as the heritage of all South Asians and not just that of Muslims. “When a violent mob pulled down the Babri masjid, brick by brick, in 1992, this was not just a loss for Indian Muslims. This was an act that destroyed a part of the heritage of all Indians and all South Asians,” she said.
She bemoaned the narrative that is designed to spur hatred towards Indian Muslim rulers. “This hatred is not based on real history. This is based on some toxic cocktail of half truths, cherry picked tid-bits and straight up lies,” asserted Dr. Truschke.
Dr. Truschke argued that no one can really understand modern India without understanding the Indo-Muslim history. Without it we would be at a loss to explain tens of thousands of Persian manuscripts of Ramayana and Mahabharata that are today across archives in South Asia and far beyond.
“PM Narendra Modi has stood in front of that Mughal monument (Red Fort) to address the Indian nation using Persian words which are now part of Hindi precisely because of Indo-Muslim rule. Without Indian Muslim history we cannot understand the words of a man who espouses such ignorance about his own heritage. And it is Modi’s heritage, whether he likes it or not,” added Dr. Truschke.
Dr. Shamsul Islam, a former associate professor at Delhi University, also expounded on the subject of the Babri mosque, and wondered how Goswami Tulsi Das who wrote Ram Charit Manas 40 years after the building of Babri mosque in Ayodhya, does not mention that a Ram temple was destroyed or some mosque had come up at the birth place of Ram.
Dr. Islam who spoke on the role of Muslims in India’s freedom struggle, named all major events during the freedom movement, starting from the First War of Independence in 1857, recounting the names of almost equal number of Muslims who fought shoulder to shoulder with their fellow Hindu revolutionaries against the British. He made a point of discussing Ayodhya in Faizabad in order to highlight what was happening there during the freedom struggle of 1857.
“In 1857, Maulana Ameer Ali, a scholar, and a pandit Ramcharan Das of Hanuman Garhi, organized a resistance army. They were caught due to the treachery of a British insider in the community, and they were hanged from a tamarind tree in Faizabad where now stands the Faizabad jail,” he said, adding that every part of India witnessed thousands of such examples.
Dr. Islam highlighted that Hindutva proponents lie when they claim all Muslims supported Muslim League. Only 8% Muslims had a right to vote. One had to be a revenue payer and degree holder to vote. He went on to add details of Muslim opposition to the idea of Pakistan and the Partition. He was frank in equating Hindutva with Brahminism, calling it the biggest threat against the integrity of India.
Were other speakers with alternate points of view invited to address this webinar? What did they have to say?
Will alternate points of views based on something real, something substantive, something solid or will they be based on hearsay, factoids and unprovable concoctions?
The truth-seeker must look at India’s history from proper sources. The Hindutva forces are trying to divide India and destroy its greatest strength – diversity and pluralism under a secular democracy.
A truth seeker, any genuine truth seeker ( and that includes you), must first and foremost seek to acquire ALL the relevant facts, weigh against INHERENT prejudices, and than analyze the FACTS with the help of those who are not only knowledgeable but blessed with good will. Am I getting through? The IAMC is singularly penury-stricken in this respect.
How will you know FACTS in the first place? In this age of fake news, misinformation and disinformation, FACTOIDS are being presented as FACTS. History is a typical example of that. So, as an alleged Truth Seeker you have additional responsibilities above and beyond what you’ve defined Truth Seeking as.
1. Make sure you’re not confusing FACTOIDS for Facts
2. Have a Robust Understanding of what facts are in the first place, how they became facts and how they’ve reached you ie mode of transmission of information and facts
3. Make sure that alleged “Knowledgeable People with Good Will ” Don’t have prejudices, ulterior motives and false preconceptions. They should be scholarly in outlook not some ideologues.
4. Open to accepting the truth no matter where it comes from, even if it comes from someone you dislike.
Exactly my point; thanks for reaffirming my post. Hope you are taking your own medicine. In other words, “Right back atchya.”
Bunch of liars. G. B. Mehendale has published all the evidences of Islamic oppression of common mediaeval Hindu masses by the Muslim rulers
There is solid evidence duly recovered and preserved in the museum which is being built along with the Ram temple in Ayodhya about te existence of the temple. ASI did archaelogical excavations and found huge items and existence of the temple. I have personally heard from a senior leader who was present at the babri mosque site that they found a gigantic bell which is normally found in the temples in the dome of the babri mosque. Professor Mukhia, Dr Truschke and Shamsul inslam are either ignorant or not speaking the truth. As to the assertion that all conversions to islam happened without any state support is pulling wool over the eyes. Conversions do involve coercion either on religious, economic , political and sociological factors and such large scale conversion would not have happened without these factors being present. There are many historical accounts where people captured were spared their life after they agreed to convert to another religion.