The noted Indian scholar and historian, Dr Bishambhar Nath Pande, ranked
among the very few Indians and fewer still Hindu historians who tried to be
little careful when dealing with the Muslim rule in India that lasted for
almost 1000 years. Dr Pande passed away on 1 June 1998 and Impact
International of London (July 1998) wrote the following obituary [at the end
of the article], which we think sheds some light into some of the myths on
Indian history, such as on Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, created
by the British with the clear objective of divide and rule:
The Muslim rule in India lasted for almost 1000 years. How come then, asked
the British historian Sir Henry Elliot, that Hindus 'had not left any
account which could enable us to gauge the traumatic impact the Muslim
conquest and rule had on them'? Since there was none, Elliot went on to
produce his own eight-volume History of India from its own historians (1867).
His history claimed Hindus were slain for disputing with 'Muhammedans',
generally prohibited from worshipping and taking out religious processions,
their idols were mutilated, their temples destroyed, they were forced into
conversions and marriages, and were killed and massacred by drunk Muslim
tyrants. Thus Sir Henry, and scores of other Empire scholars, went on to
produce a synthetic Hindu versus Muslim history of India, and their lies
became history.
However, the noted Indian scholar and historian, Dr Bishambhar Nath Pande,
who passed away in New Delhi on 1 June, ranked among the very few Indians and
fewer still Hindu historians who tried to be a little careful when dealing
with such history. He knew that this history was 'originally compiled by
European writers' whose main objective was to produce a history that would
serve their policy of divide and rule.
Lord Curzon (Governor General of India 1895-99 and Viceroy
1899-1904, d.1925) was told by the Secretary of State for India, George
Francis Hamilton, that they 'should so plan the educational text books
that the differences between community and community are further
strengthened'.
Another Viceroy, Lord Dufferin (1884-88), was advised by the
Secretary of State in London that the 'division of religious feelings is
greatly to our advantage', and that he expected 'some good as a result of your
committee of inquiry on Indian education and on teaching material'.
'We have maintained our power in India by playing-off one part against the
other,' the Secretary of State for India reminded yet another Viceroy, Lord
Elgin (1862-63), 'and we must continue to do so. Do all you can,
therefore, to prevent all having a common feeling.'
In his famous Khuda Bakhsh Annual Lecture (1985) Dr Pande said:
'Thus under a definite policy the Indian history books text-books were so
falsified and distorted as to give an impression that the medieval [i.e.
Muslim] period of Indian history was full of atrocities committed by Muslim
rulers on their Hindu subjects and the Hindus had to suffer terrible
indignities under Muslim rule. And there were no common factors [between
Hindus and Muslims] in social, political and economic life.'
Therefore, Dr Pande was extra careful. Whenever he came across a 'fact'
that looked odd to him, he would try to check and verify rather than adopt it
uncritically.
He came across a history text-book taught in the Anglo-Bengali College,
Allahabad which claimed that 'three thousand Brahmins had committed suicide as
Tipu wanted to convert them forcibly into the fold of Islam'.
The author was a very famous scholar, Dr Har Prashad Shastri, head of
the department of Sanskrit at Calcutta University. (Tipu Sultan
(1750-99), who ruled over the South Indian state of Mysore (1782-99), is one
of the most heroic figures in Indian history. He died on the battlefield,
fighting the British.)
Was it true? Dr Pande wrote immediately to the author and asked him for the
source on which he had based this episode in his text-book. After several
reminders, Dr Shastri replied that he had taken this information from the Mysore
Gazetteer. So Dr Pande requested the Mysore University vice chancellor,
Sir Brijendra Nath Seal, to verify for him Dr Shastri's statement from the
Gazetteer. Sir Brijendra referred his letter to Prof Srikantia who
was then working on a new edition of the Gazetteer. Srikantia wrote to say
that the Gazetteer mentioned no such incident and, as a historian himself, he
was certain that nothing like this had taken place. Prof Srikantia added
that both the prime minister and the commander-in-chief of Tipu Sultan were
themselves Brahmins. He also enclosed a list of 136 Hindu temples which used
to receive annual grants from the Sultan's treasury.
It transpired that Shastri had lifted this story from Colonel Miles'
History of Mysore which Miles claimed he had taken from a Persian
manuscript in the personal library of Queen Victoria. When Dr Pande checked
further, he found that no such manuscript existed in Queen Victoria's library.
Yet Dr Shastri's book was being used as a high school history text-book in
seven Indian states, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh. So he sent his entire correspondence about the book to the
vice chancellor of Calcutta University, Sir Ashutosh Chaudhary. Sir
Ashutosh promptly ordered Shashtri's book out of the course. Yet years later,
in 1972, Dr Pande was surprised to discover the same suicide story was still
being taught as 'history' in junior high schools in Uttar Pradesh. The lie had
found currency as a fact of history.
The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (born 1618, reigned
1658-1707) is the most reviled of all Muslim rulers in India. He was supposed
to be a great destroyer of temples and oppressor of Hindus, and a
'fundamentalist' too! As chairman of the Allahabad Municipality (1948-53), Dr
Pande had to deal with a land dispute between two temple priests. One
of them had filed in evidence some farmans (royal orders) to prove
that Aurangzeb had, besides cash, gifted the land in question for the
maintenance of his temple. Might they not be fake, Dr Pande thought, in view
of Aurangzeb's fanatically anti-Hindu image? He showed them to his friend, Sir
Tej Bahadur Sapru, a distinguished lawyer as well a great scholar of Arabic
and Persian. He was also a Brahmin. Sapru examined the documents and declared
they were genuine farmans issued by Aurangzeb.
For Dr Pande this was a 'new image of Aurangzeb'; so he wrote to the
chief priests of the various important temples, all over the country,
requesting photocopies of any farman issued by Aurangzeb that they may have in
their possession. The response was overwhelming; he got farmans from several
principal Hindu and jain temples, even from Sikh Gurudwaras in northern India.
These farmans, issued between 1659 and 1685, related to grant of jagir (large
parcel of agricultural lands) to support regular maintenance of these places
of worship.
Dr Pande's research showed that Aurangzeb was as solicitous of the rights
and welfare of his non-Muslim subjects as he was of his Muslim subjects. Hindu
plaintiffs received full justice against their Muslims respondents and, if
guilty, Muslims were given punishment as necessary.
One of the greatest charges against Aurangzeb is of the demolition of Vishwanath
temple in Banaras (Varanasi). That was a fact, but Dr Pande
unravelled the reason for it. 'While Aurangzeb was passing near Varanasi on
his way to Bengal, the Hindu Rajas in his retinue requested that if the halt
was made for a day, their Ranis may go to Varanasi, have a dip in the Ganges
and pay their homage to Lord Vishwanath. Aurangzeb readily agreed.
'Army pickets were posted on the five mile route to Varanasi. The Ranis
made journey on the palkis [palanquins]. They took their dip in the Ganges and
went to the Vishwanath temple to pay their homage. After offering puja
[worship] all the Ranis returned except one, the Maharani of Kutch. A thorough
search was made of the temple precincts but the Rani was to be found nowhere.
'When Aurangzeb came to know of this, he was very much enraged. He sent his
senior officers to search for the Rani. Ultimately they found that statue of
Ganesh [the elephant-headed god which was fixed in the wall was a moveable
one. When the statue was moved, they saw a flight of stairs that led to the
basement. To their horror they found the missing Rani dishonoured and
crying deprived of all her ornaments. The basement was just beneath Lord
Vishwanath's seat.'
The Rajas demanded salutary action, and 'Aurangzeb ordered that as the
sacred precincts have been despoiled, Lord Vishwanath may be moved to some
other place, the temple be razed to the ground and the Mahant [head priest] be
arrested and punished'. (B N Pande, Islam and Indian Culture, Khuda Bakhsh
Oriental Public Library, Patna, 1987)
Dr Pande believed in the innate goodness of human nature. Despite all that
senseless hate and periodical outbreak of anti-Muslim violence after
independence, he remained an optimist. When one of the worst riots took place
in 1979 in Ahmadabad, in which more than 2,000 Muslims were killed and 6,000
houses burnt, Dr Pande travelled there to see whether there was 'any humanity
still alive'.
Yes, it was in one locality, Mewabhai Chaal, where he found that all the
houses had been burnt down. Did they all belong to Muslims? No. Only 35
belonged to Muslims; some 125 belonged to Hindus, he was told. So, it meant,
the arsonists came in two different waves; one destroying the Muslim houses
and the other the Hindu houses? No, it was only one wave, said Kalayan Singh.
That one, there, he pointed out to smoke billowing from what used to be his
house and his tyre-shop. He was a Hindu and he had lost property and business
worth 200,000 rupees.
The miscreants had asked him to point out the Muslim houses so they could
spare the Hindu houses. Kalyan Singh refused, and watched as the mob set fire
to all the houses - including his own. How could I betray my Muslim neighbours?
he asked Dr Pande rhetorically.
Dr Pande also went to the Muslim students hostel. One-third of its
residents were Hindus. "Come out all you Hindu students," yelled a
murderous mob gathered outside the hostel. No, we won't, shouted back the
Hindu students and locked the gate from inside. In the event, the entire
hostel was evacuated by the army and then left to the mob to loot and burn.
The Hindu students were told they could take with them their books and
research papers. Dr Pande met a young DSc scholar, named Desai, who had left
behind his more than three years' labour, a ready-for-typing dissertation, to
be burnt by the arsonists. Desai said he couldn't think of saving his thesis
while some of his Muslim friends were in similar position with their theses. A
noble soul! Dr Pande who had been looking for humanity found it there as well.
The inhumanity did not lie in the Indian nature, but the nature had fallen
victim to the evil heritage of colonial history. Few realised how 1000 years
of their history had been stolen from them. Many tended to buy the fake and
doctored version handed down to them as part of their colonial heritage. Some
even saw a little political advantage in this trade. Dr Pande heard a leading Hindu
Mahasabha politician and religious leader, Mahant Digvijaynath, telling
an election meeting that it is written in the Qur'an that killing a Hindu was
an act of goodness (thawab). Dr Pande called upon the Mahant (High Priest) and
told him that he had read the Qur'an a few times but didn't find such a
statement in it, and he had, therefore, brought with him several English, Urdu
and Hindi translations of the Qur'an; so would he kindly point to him where
exactly did the statement occur in the Qur'an?
Isn't it written there? said the Mahant. I haven't found it; if you have,
please tell me, replied Dr Pande. Then what does it say? It speaks about love
and brotherhood, about the oneness of mankind. What's jihad then? What is
jizyah? How then India got partitioned? The Mahant went on asking, and Dr
Pande kept on explaining, hoping the Mahant would correct himself. However,
the Mahant's ideas were fixed, in prejudice and in ignorance.
Dr Pande himself had been a senior member of the ruling Congress party
which he had joined at a very young age. He was a disciple of Gandhi, a friend
of Nehru; he had taken part in each and every non-cooperation movement against
the British and gone to jail eight times. The Congress was supposed to be an
all-Indian nationalist platform and yet Dr Pande's party was hardly free from
the bias and ignorance of a cleverly deconstructed history. The rise of
militant Hindutva tendency is only recent, but before it all became overt, the
Congress itself was doing the same, albeit a little covertly. All the horrific
anti-Muslim carnage took place during more than four decades of Congress rule.
The doors of the Babari Mosque were opened for Hindu worship during
the tenure of Nehru's grandson, Rajiv Gandhi. The Mosque itself was pulled
down during the regime of another Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao.
Dr Pande was, however, just one individual. That made his work all the more
important, not just from the Muslim but from the point of view of the entire
country. India's deconstructed history is like a time bomb; unless it is
defused, India cannot survive in one piece. Not for very long.
Bishambhar Nath Pande born on 23 December 1906 in the
Madhya Pradesh of Umreth; member UP Legislative Assembly (1952-53); member UP
Legislative Council (1972-74); twice member of the upper house, Rajya Sabha
(1976 and 1982); Governor of Orissa state (1983-88); recipient of the highest
national award Padma Shri (1976); author of several books, including The
Spirit of India and The Concise History of Congress; died in New Delhi, 1 June
1998.