12,000 years of Indian culture, formation of 16-experts committee, research of Indian culture…. etc.

12,000 years of Indian culture, the formation of  16-experts committee, research of Indian culture…. etc.

 

Why Indian historians have been politicized?: In India, the politicians do not care for anything, as they change parties, alliances, ideologies and any other thing. Though, Indian historians, most the dominant Marxist-Mohammedan categories have a political agenda to negotiate with their political parties, as for them, religion and politics have been inseparable[1]. During the last 70 years historical conferences and the associated political parties, one could easily note how they have been associated and mutually interested in the business of each other directly or indirectly. Indian people have been living organism and they cannot be treated as vested groups, animal herds etc., to determine that such and such things happen, if they do something or made to do so. In 135 crores living state, none can become such conditioned, hypothesized state and stereo-typed species to be subjected to ideological experiments. As every human being has thinking capability and power, none can be controlled with propaganda and thought processes. Therefore, when culture, tradition, heritage and civilization are mentioned or talked about, some or certain ideologized groups may not like, but, try to dub as their opponents. Here, only, they become opponents to other neutral or not-interested 120 crores, and get exposed slowly.

12,000 years of Indian culture: Wittingly or unwittingly the central government has kicked up a row by constituting an experts’ committee to study the Indian Culture for the past 12,000 years[2], thus, the PTI news was carried on by the media with different headlines. The Committee set up by the ministry of culture has 16 members and all are from north India[3]. The member from Canada is perhaps ignored. The circular was released on 14-09-2020 with dated letter and uploaded in the website also. The media went on reporting, “It has led to a furore in the South, which believes that the Dravidian history is the oldest and Dravidians are the original inhabitants of what we call India, today”[4]. The Ministry of Culture which handles the department of archaeology has issued a notification with the names of experts tasked to study India’s ancient past on 16-09-2020 Wednesday[5]. It says the aim is to study the origin and evolution of Indian culture[6]. Noted historians and archaeologists from the north, KN Dixit, RS Bisht, BR Mani, Santosh Shukla, RK Pandey, Makkan Lal, GN Srivastava, Mukundam Sharma, PN Shastri, RC Sharma, KK Mishra, Balram Shukla, Azad Kaushik and MR Sharma are on the committee[7].

 

The 16-members expert committee: The members of the committee are as follows[8]:

1. Shri K.N. Dikshit, Chairman, Indian Archaeological Society, New Delhi and former Joint Director General, Archaeological Survey of India;
2. Dr. R.S. Bisht, former Joint Director General, Archaeological Survey of India;
3. Dr B.R. Mani, former Director General, National Museum, New Delhi and former Additional Director General, Archaeological Survey of India;
4. Prof. Santosh Shukla, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi;
5. Dr. Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Vice Chancellor, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi;
6. Prof. Makkhan Lal, Director, Delhi Institute of Heritage Management,, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi;
7. Dr. G.N. Srivastava, former Additional Director General, GSI;
8. Justice Dr. Mukundkam Sharma, Chancellor, Lal Bahadur Shastri Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Delhi and former Judge of Supreme Court of India;
9. Prof. P.N. Shastri, Vice Chancellor, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi;
10. Prof. R.C. Sharma, Head, Department of Linguistics, University of Delhi;
11. Prof. K.K. Mishra, Dean, Anthropology, University of Hyderabad and former Director, Anthropological Survey of India;
12. Dr. Balram Shukla, Department of Sanskrit, University of Delhi;
13. Prof. Azad Kaushik, Scientist and International Thinker, Canada;
14. Pt. M.R. Sharma, Chairman, “Sangmarg” World Brahmin Federation, India, New Delhi;
15. Representative from Ministry of Culture; and
16. Representative from Archaeological Survey of India.

Therefore, it is evident that the research is approached in a multi-disciplined manner as historian, archaeologist or numismatist alone cannot deal with the issues involved.

Opposing in the name of Aryan, Dravidian, Dalit and so on: Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has launched a campaign against this committee, calling it an insult to Dravidians, who have not been appointed to the committee[9]. In a series of tweets and statements, he has described it as an Aryan committee constituted by the BJP-led central government to ensure that India’s history is north Indian history[10]. Speaking to News18 he said, “I have serious doubts about the objective and purpose of this committee. It is full of those who are appearing to have prejudices over culture, history and heritage, besides being fully occupied by the North Indians.”………”It does not have even one member from Karnataka or Tamil Nadu, two oldest states and cultures in India. We are Dravidians and no Dravidian from the South is on the committee. It raises serious doubts about the motives of the Centre. Sadly, it does not have even one female member,” he said. It is wonder why he suddenly started talking in terms of Aryans and Dravidians. Congress MP from Tamil Nadu, Manickam Tagore, has also expressed concerns over the committee calling it an insult to South and East. “It seems they are studying a history which would be okayed by the RSS. How can we study India’s ancient history without any representation from the South and East? These two are much older regions. What BJP is doing is dividing India further in the name of studying our ancient culture,” Tagore said. The Tamil Nadu Congress MP further said that he would raise the issue in the ongoing Parliament session to ensure that experts from South and East are also included in the committee. He demanded that all 30 States and 22 official languages should have at least one member each on the committee.

How the concept “12,000 years of Indian culture” was evolved?: Announcing the committee to study Indian culture back to 12,000 years in 2016, then culture minister Mahesh Sharma had said its mandate was to “trace Indian culture from way back and compare it with other cultures across the world[11]. It has got nothing to do with Hinduism or Islam. It is about our civilisation”. Earlier given the same mandate in 2016, the panel had failed to submit a report within its one-year deadline, and is now hoping to achieve the task in light of the findings of the Rakhigarhi, Haryana, excavations. Mani, who had led the digging at the Ayodhya disputed site, told The Indian Express, “The mandate (of the committee) is to quell misconceptions created by Western scholars about Indian culture through archaeological, astronomical and literary evidences. For instance, the theory of Aryan invasion stands debunked in the light of the 2019 Rakhigarhi DNA report (under Vasant Shinde of Pune’s Deccan College), which points to the continuity of Indian culture since 4,500 years.” The former head of the National Museum said the report will mostly focus on archaeological findings of the past 15-20 years “since that is considered as scientific evidence”…“Even though there was no hard evidence yet to say Indian culture was 12,000 years old, archaeological excavations at Mehrgarh (now in Pakistan) put the age of the Indian civilisation at 10,000 years,” Mani said[12]. Dikshit, who chairs the new panel, like the earlier one, said they had held a couple of meetings on the matter last time. Shastry said, “In 2016, I had presented literary evidence from the Vedas and Puranas to talk about the historicity of Indian civilisation. Rest is for the archaeologists to corroborate.”

Such committee was there in 2016 itself: A 14-member committee was set up in November 2016 tasked with the job to trace Indian culture and compare it with other cultures across the world[13]. The committee on ‘holistic study of origin and evolution of Indian culture since 12,000 years before present and its interface with other cultures of the world’ was formed in November 2016 and had a tenure of one year. It wrapped up its proceedings in November 2017. The committee consisted of bureaucrats, archaeologists and academics[14]. That means, in 2018 and 2019 also such committees were there with members. Thus, in 2020, the committee has been reformed, reconstituted with new members. Incidentally, in 2016 or 2017, these leaders did not bother about it. Therefore, opposing something for some ideology or hidden political agenda cannot serve academics. Generally, the elite, emeritus and Marxist-Mohammedan historians would oppose, but, this time, the politicians did first and they may come later.

Why the fight over Aryans and Dravidians, north versus south etc.,: Indian history has not been written in Indian perspective, in the sense, it need not be “nationalistic,” as some dub and try to interpret differently, but, the historical facts have to be presented to Indians in the right perspective. The subject History has to be updated with the new archaeological, numismatic and other evidences. Though, the racist, racialist and linguistic-racist interpretations have been rejected, still, they are revived and exploited for political purposes. Since the RJM-BM issue has been resolved, the BM-historians may not have issues. Or slowly, they may jump in to make it as an issue. The “atom” (that cannot be divided) became misnomer, but the noun has been retained, but it broken into different sub-atomic particles viz, electron, proton, neutron, and others. The noun “nurse” (the woman who kills) has been retained, but the medical field has been advanced. Thus, in science and technology, many hypotheses, theories why even gadgets and machines have been thrown away as obsolete, useless, outdated, archaic and so on, but in Indian history, Indians are made to harp upon in this way. Though, they cry, claim and call for “scientific and secular history,” they have their own methodology to mythologize and communalize. In other words, the Marxist-Mohammedan leftist historians must have updated Indian history in all aspects, but they did not do or colud not do or do not want to do.  Therefore, if they or any other ideological groups(s) want to perpetuate such condition, the youth of today could easily identify who has been telling lies in Indian history and they throw away. History people cannot be made as a sort of marketing commodity, as they have been doing so, naturally, people might go for “other ones” for change, compulsion or understanding facts.

© K. V. Ramakrishna Rao

19-09-2020

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[1] The Communist categories many times work together under different banners – women wing, workers’s wing, activists of human rights, children rights, animal rights and so on. They also support LGBTQ, divorce, living together, jalli-kattu and other issues also.

[2]  Economic Times, Shouldn’t minorities, Dalits talk about Indian culture: Kanimozhi asks Centre, By Vasudha Venugopal, ET BureauLast Updated: Sep 16, 2020, 08:05 AM IST.

[3] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/shouldnt-minorities-dalits-talk-about-indian-culture-kanimozhi-asks-centre/articleshow/78134014.cms

[4] Deccan Herald, Centre’s panel to study ancient Indian culture kicks off row, Sagar Kulkarni, DHNS, New Delhi, SEP 17 2020, 21:57 ISTUPDATED: SEP 17 2020, 21:57 IST.

[5] https://www.deccanherald.com/national/national-politics/centres-panel-to-study-ancient-indian-culture-kicks-off-row-889042.html

[6] The Hindu, Formed 16-member committee to study ancient Indian culture: Union Minister Prahlad Patel, PTI, NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 16:34 IST; UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 16:38 IST

[7]  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/formed-16-member-committee-to-study-ancient-indian-culture-union-minister-prahlad-patel/article32600102.ece

[8] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1654152

[9] News18India, Centre’s Committee to Study Ancient History Sans Dravidians and Women Kicks Up Row, LAST UPDATED: SEPTEMBER 17, 2020, 10:51 AM IST

[10] https://www.news18.com/news/india/centres-committee-to-study-ancient-history-sans-dravidians-and-women-kicks-up-row-2883777.html

[11] Indian Express, Pre-12,000 years: Govt re-ups panel to study ‘Indian culture’, Written by Divya A | New Delhi | Updated: September 17, 2020 7:38:53 am.

[12] https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pre-12000-years-govt-re-ups-panel-to-study-indian-culture-6599116/

[13] Hindustan Times, Try to find correlation between ancient Indian history and epics: Govt committee, Press Trust of India, New Delhi, Updated: Mar 07, 2018 18:26 IST

[14] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/try-to-find-correlation-between-ancient-indian-history-and-epics-govt-committee/story-ywGQN0pYIizFfmswiVMa8N.html.