LIBERATING INDIAN MIND -23
PROMISES FULFILLED
“Do you feel really sad about the book you were talking? what is the name? Oh! yes, Themes of History.”
“In fact I feel thankfully rewarded. You know, in 1969 I had written a poem. It was not a poem to my liking. It was published in the one and only collection of my poems, occupying the first place. It was overbold for a poem and a bit prosaic as well. It was an article of my faith, resolve, a declaration of my program, full of vows and promises.”
“You had cited a few lines once. I remember.”
“I don’t remember any of my poem except that and I never forgot or deviated from the promises made. I demolished the entire edifice of Indo-European, the wicked part of our history invented to support it on that unfounded thesis. I demolished the racial concept of history and the belief that all the languages and dialects of India descended from Sanskrit as early as 1973 in my book ‘Fundamental Unity of Aryan and Dravidian Languages’ in Hindi (Aarya Dravida Bhaashaon kii Moolabhoot Ekta, Lipi, New Delhi) and expected an enthusiastic recognition of my original but sustainable thesis based on crucial and clinching evidence on each point. Oh, no! There was either a dead silence or a misplaced appreciation because of the superficial level of understanding of our scholars who sing their elegies on absence of serious work in any other field in Hindi.”
“You forgot to mention Ram Vilas ji, who had published his work 12 years earlier and was rewarded by his appointment as director of K.M. Munshi Institute, Agra. You just followed him and were indebted to him. That could have be the reason of subdued recognition of your book.”
“I do not want to open that debate. I did not go through his book Language and Society (Bhaashaa aur Sammaja, 1961) as the book was not available in the libraries accessible to me, and the title, known to me, did not promise a discussion of comparative linguistics and other related problems as he was known as a communist and at best, I thought, it could deal with sociolinguistics, otherwise I could have benefitted from it in some respects. Bur our approach was different, content was different, conclusions similar on some points. If you think the chair to be a form of recognition, it was partly the Suman effect in political circles, not a recognition by linguists. I was talking of the promise made in my poem. I want to revive your memory and underline not the beauty of poem or diction but of the firmness of the RESOLVE.”
“I must admit, I missed the point.”
“I relate it point by point:
1. I had envisioned our present colonial frame of mind as mesmeric appearance which I claimed to dispel through another wondrous world erected by own sheer toil sans resources. (I edemolish the magical makebelief and erect a new one with the soil in my nails).
2. I have stopped indulging in verbal jugglery derisively and am going to use my words with cutting edge that no one can neglect. (I have stopped spitting words like lepers, I am going to unleash some formidable words that would bite you and keep you barking all your life.)
3. You appear to be dead, but have actually fainted and closed your eyes . I shall invite you not to rise but save your from the poisonous air with supply of oxygen. (I shall not call, Lazarus come to life, I shall command Lazarus open your I eyes. I can change gunpowder smell in to oxygen).
4. I recall I had failed my duty on many other occasions but now I am going to participate in a new war (I remember, I slipped away from many fronts, but today I undertake to fight and win a war.)”
“Now I realize how bitterly you feel the pain of being ignored.”
“You are irremediable idiot. How can you realize anything. I was telling despite the neglect shown by Hindi speaking intellectuals, I worked indefatigably on other aspects. But I changed the earlier scheme. I published Harappa Sabhyata aur Vaidik (1987).”
“Yes, you worked hard on it, but it failed to attract due attention.” he said ruefully.
“Who told you? I received such a violent recognition that is unparalleled in history. It threw all the historians with elevated positions and muscle-twisting might naked and shaking and they could not recover from the shock ever after. This was a recognition by men who counted and men who can not be counted as they conspired in ignominy. The book had reprints and revisions against their using all resources available to divert the attention of those who happened to come in their contact. They threatened and punished the students who raised doubts on their version of history citing evidence from that book. Find out one book against which such formidable forces had to loose their fire-power.”
“Why then you kept working on its English version?”
“Just to ensure that the thesis changed the international perception and it changed right at the stage it was with the publisher who in his glee showed to some foreign scholars the copy and when they sang the same song with permissible variation, he published that as well. And lo! there was a near consensus on a singular aspect that there was nothing like Aryan invasion of India in any form, which these textbook crazy scholars unheard to the point of going funny.”
“They were guided and supported by a powerful American scholar, you told once.”
“He had tremendous resources but little knowledge exceeding awareness, and he fared badly and ultimately spent up his fuel to know further success.”
“Then why are you so sore about this book, The Themes of History.”
“I am not sore I told you earlier as well. I find it amusing. The powers that could shape history to suit them kept looking for a safe hiding corner. Do you think it is small satisfaction for me. It is a certificate from the dying enemy that I have fulfilled my promises. That is what it amounts to.
“My verdict on them has nothing to do with my personal sentiments. But the students need a sense of history. That is being denied by them to avert their personal discomfiture. This attempt to create cultural vacuum is ominous.
“My verdict on them has nothing to do with my personal sentiments. But the students need a sense of history. That is being denied by them to avert their personal discomfiture. This attempt to create cultural vacuum is ominous.