Apply Scientific Stress Test To History

Mail Today, Sunday, June 14, 2009

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COMMENT

There is nothing new in PC’s J-K comment WE must confess to a sense of bafflement at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s remarks that the army will play a reduced role in Jammu & Kashmir. The minister has been cited as saying that the responsibilities of the army will be limited to counter-insurgency and that too “in areas away from towns and along borders.” Leave aside, for the moment, the wisdom of thinking that the army’s role can be reduced. What we are puzzled by is the fact that the army already plays that role in the Valley. Either Mr Chidambaram was not wellbriefed, or he said what he did for effect, that is, to put on a friendly face to the people of the strife-torn state. Barring the very onset of insurgency in January 1990, the Army has not played any kind of a role in any Kashmiri city. Despite its lack of training, the Border Security Force was sent in to do that task and it did so with considerable bravery and some brutality. In 2005, as part of the recommendations of the Group of Ministers report on defence management, the BSF was asked to return to its role of guarding India’s frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Central Reserve Police Force was sent and took over the counter-terrorism and security duties in Srinagar in 2005 itself. Beginning March 2007, and within six months, the CRPF had taken over these duties from the BSF. The army continued to do, what it had done till then — handle the counter-infiltration duties on the Line of Control and its immediate hinterland, as well as the tough counter-terrorist operations in the mountainous and forested areas of north Kashmir and the Pir Panjal.

Do something THE continuing spate of Maoist attacks on the police is as clear an indicator as we can get that the time has come to deliver an effective response to the armed insurgency which has at various times been described as India’s biggest security headache. While it is true that the Maoists exploit lack of development and poor governance to spread their political message in the backward areas of the country, it is also patently obvious that they have chosen completely unacceptable means of delivering that message. So far this year they have killed more than 180 police personnel and despite this, the various Maoist-affected states have done little to help the central paramilitary forces establish bases from which they can effectively take on the challenge. Besides doing little to assist the police to confront the Maoists, our politicians send confusing messages to them. In his June 9 response to the President’s Address to Parliament, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke of the need for “zero tolerance” for terrorism, but in the same breath noted that “we have to convince our misguided youth that the gun is no way of solving any problems.” The PM may be right in emphasising that the problem has two facets — military and political — but we have no evidence to show that the union and state governments have begun to address any one of them with any degree of seriousness. In the meantime, our hapless policemen are being killed every day.

Accountability? IT is remarkable that it took the Maharashtra government some seven months to replace Mr Hasan Gafoor as the Police Commissioner of Mumbai. Many systems and institutions failed when terrorists struck Mumbai last November and politicians like then Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and then state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh paid the price. But not a single bureaucratic head rolled. The failure of the Police Commissioner to provide any kind of leadership was evident through the traumatic 60 hours of the terrorist attack. That it took a number of leaks to the media to persuade the government to transfer him tells us a great deal about accountability in our system. Actually you can learn even more from the story of Mr Johny Joseph, the Chief Secretary of the state who was in-charge of the entire crisis management system. He was nowhere to be seen in this crisis period. But last month he was actually rewarded by a six month extension by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Apply scientific stress test to the study of history

I

N JANUARY 2009, US network PBS telecast a documentary titled The Story of India. Hosted by Michael Wood, this sixpart series narrated a compressed history of India from pre-historic times till Independence. The first episode — Beginnings — discussed one of the most controversial topics in Indian history: the origin of the Aryans.

ARYA PRAHARAJ

In this episode Mr Wood did three things. Standing at Khyber Pass, looking down at the valley of Kabul river, he quoted the translation of a verse from Baudhayana Srautasutra which reads, “some went east..but some stayed at home in the west”. This verse, Wood opined, suggests an Aryan migration from Afghanistan into India. Second, he went to Turkmenistan to meet Viktor Sarianidi, the legendary Russian archaeologist, who besides unearthing Bactrian gold in northern the Dravidian and Indoof history oscillates Afghanistan, found horses, European speakers. between saffron and red. wheeled vehicles and Another study compared In such an atmosphere, mud-brick fire altars in the genes of Brahmins and when the government is a Gonur Tepe, Turktribals and found autochthpartner in identity politics, menistan. According to Dr nous origins for Brahmins promoting one version of Sarianidi, the Aryans and the caste system. Also, history and silencing otharrived there around 2000 there was no evidence for a ers, the chips are not BC and left in 1800 BC massive migration in the allowed to fall where it towards Afghanistan. 1500-1200 BC period. should. When a historian, Third, Mr Wood menIf so where did the Aryans who identifies himself with tioned a 1786 discovery by originate? In the accompaa label — Orientalist, Marxthe polyglot Sir William nying book, Mr Wood menist or Nationalist — conJones on the similarities tions that many Indian trols the debate, history is between Sanskrit and varischolars and polemicists a prisoner of dogma. Such ous European languages believe that Aryans were labelled historians silence which indicated that the indigenous to India. Gavin unpopular ideas, keep ancestors of the Aryans Flood, of the University of inconvenient facts in the were part of a language Stirling, Scotland, is neidark and display intellecgroup which spread from ther an Indian nor a tual cowardice. the area between Caspian polemicist. In his book In this acerbic debate, Sea and the Aral mountains Introduction to Hinduism, anyone who opposes the 4000 years ago. As per this he mentions the Aryan Aryan migration theory is theory, these Sanskrit migration theory, but also branded a Hindu nationalspeaking newcomers subjuthe alternate: the cultural ist out to eliminate other gated the natives — Dravidtransformation thesis. minorities from India. But ians and tribals — and According to this view, the Edwin Bryant, in his book, established themselves at Aryan culture was an The Quest for the Origins of the top of the caste indigenous development in Vedic Culture, notes that hierarchy. the Indus valley, uninfluthere are a number of Westenced by invaders or ern scholars too who don't migrants. Thus Hinduism believe in the external orievolved with the Aryan culgins of Aryans. Among the Sounds logical, but Mr ture interacting with nonIndian scholars who he met Wood's claims are controAryan and tribal cultures. during his research, “one vertible. According to B B This cultural transformaprominent Indigenous Lal, who was the Director tion thesis works well with Aryanist turned out to be General of the Archaeothe Out of India theory an atheist and very irreverlogical Survey of India, the according to which India is ent Marxist.” correct translation of the Indo-European homeBaudhayana Srautasutra land from where some says that while some groups migrated to Central Aryan tribes went east the and West Asia and Europe. others went west from The media can play an Fuelling the debate over some intermediary point. activist role here. In 1993, a Aryans and their origins This intermediary point decision by Mexico's educaare various schools — the for Dr Lal is not the valley tion minister not to publish Orientalist, the Nationalist of the Kabul river, but that new history books as they and the Marxist — with difof the Indus. did not conform to the ferent positions. This Dr Lal also analysed Dr “preferred version” resulted seems perfect since the Sarianidi's evidence — firein considerable outrage. bias of each of these worship, soma rituals, ashThe Mexican media purschools will get corrected vamedha — and in the sued the story and critically by opinions from other case of fire worship he evaluated the textbooks schools. Unfortunately in proved that the direction the same way the Indian Indian historiography, of movement was from media panned Murli some schools are more India to Central Asia. He Manohar Joshi's revisions. also showed that there equal than the others. Parents too can be was no soma in Gonur Blessed by the Indian govactivists. In California, Tepe, and the skeleton of ernment and aided by a list upset by the representathe horse was unrelated to of approved scholars, only tion of Hinduism in school asvamedha. certain versions of history textbooks, Indian-AmeriNow genetic studies too get into school textbooks. cans filed a lawsuit against are challenging the Aryan One state government — the Board of Education migration theory, the sucWest Bengal — even goes demanding edits. One of cessor of the discredited so far as to publicly declare the disputes was about the Aryan invasion theory. what is shuddho and what Aryan theory and during Some studies have is ashuddo. Thus dependthe hearing, a California revealed that Southern ing on the clerisy running curriculum commissioner, castes and tribes are simiStan Metzenberg, came the Indian Council of Hislar to each other and their out in support of the DNA torical Studies, the colour gene pool is related to the castes of North India. It was not possible to conby typing MTO <space> your full firm any difference name<space> your opinion and between the caste and sending it to 52424 tribal pools and find any clean delineation between

by Jayakrishnan Nair

Theories

Activism

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evidence. Politicians too can be activists. In Kerala, there was a controversy last year over textbooks which highlighted communist struggles over the freedom struggle and ignored noncommunist social leaders. When it was suspected that the Communists were trying to teach atheism, Hindus, Muslims and Christians united in opposition. The Opposition staged walkouts. Finally the curriculum committee agreed to modify the text. Such activism, from the media, from parents, from opposition politicians, is missing when it comes to balancing the distortions in existing textbooks. Lawsuits, protests, activism — these can be effective tools, but there is also a need to popularise the discourse. Stephen Ambrose, David McCullough are masters of the popular history genre in the West. Barring a few honourable exceptions, in the Indian context this genre consists of writing more biographies of Nehru and Gandhi. There is a need to add more voices to this discourse — to explain how the invasion theory evolved to migration theory to Aryan trickle down theory — because this Aryan-Dravidian race theory still has serious social and political implications in India.

Objectivity In 1915, Justice Mahadeo Govind Ranade lamented that the Aryan Brahmins were too few in number to make any influence on the aboriginal races in the South. Opponents claimed that aboriginals were robbed by the Aryan invaders of their culture. Periyar E V Ramaswami Naicker, went one step further: he despised Hinduism, asked Tamils to liberate themselves from the Aryan yoke and claimed Ravana was the Dravidian hero, not Rama. Recently, Dravidar Kazhagam leader K Veeramani called for people to reject “Aryan” leaders. The politicians who promote a ideology of caste hatred should not be able to get away with their fundamentalist agenda. We need to evolve from Stalinised history and saffronised history to objective history—on Aryan theory, on Hindu-Muslim relations, on Independence struggle — by weeding out absurd ‘nationalist’ claims and distortions written for religious appeasement. Theories on the origins of Indian civilisation must correlate with archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence. The standard for acceptance of theories and hypotheses must not be government approval, religious sanction or secular ideological compliance, but rather ability to withstand the scientific stress test in a level playing field. The writer, an engineer based in the United States, blogs on history, current affairs and books at varnam.org/blogs