Unmistakably, the Indian civilization is the oldest and sole surviving civilization of the world that has passed the test of time. The history of Indian civilization contains more episodes of glory than any literary space can ever accommodate. The magnanimity of the Indian civilization can be understood by the observations of Mark Twain, the father of American literature, “Kashi is the oldest living city on the planet…Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”
However, the irony of the matter is that, we in India need a white man’s validation to even highlight the grandeur of our historical past. The fascination of the western validation can be said to be the rationale behind the dismantled state of Indian history in the present times. The historians of the post Independence era found it more lucrative to glorify the foreign influences than the true champions of the motherland.
False Flag by Bollywood
The literary and academic platforms are not alone in besmirching the Indian culture. Historical figures have been sullied by movies and other cinematographic works as well. Movies have a wider audience reach and the propaganda against the cultural heritage can conveniently find expression. The Bollywood industry as a whole has been quite unsympathetic to the national icons of the past. Deliberate maligning of the history under the guise of creative liberty has become a norm. More so, the film industry intentionally creates controversy around historical figures so as to achieve cheap publicity.
Movies centered on historic figures in the likes of Bajirao Mastani, Samrat Prithviraj, Ashoka, etc., have not only belittled the Indian culture but also used the names of iconic historical figures for film promotion. In the name of depicting historical events, the producers bag huge profits by triggering patriotic emotions of the audience. They in return sell their propaganda to paint the Indian culture in bad light to receive critical acclamation of the western media. That is to say, the false flag operations and the jingoism in the name of pictorial depiction of history should not be misrepresented by the ‘negative-forces in Bollywood’.
On the contrary, the diverse and more nationalist voices need to capitalize on the silver screen ecosystem to present the true history of India. That is to say, the film industry needs a paradigm shift and more cinematographic works like Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, Tanhaji, Sardar Udham, etc., and the like should be produced. More and more producers should be encouraged by the patriotic forces to come up with well researched works on historical and cultural events. The boycott of movies that misrepresent and malign the Indian culture is not a bad trend to achieve a holistic overhaul of the cinema world.
Indian history in forlorn
The academic and literary landscape too needs more authentic and well researched publication and documentation of history. The literary space has been over-occupied with communist literatures that are no more than propaganda material. The classic example being the case of a ‘cartel of intellectuals’ whose hypocrisy got exposed ages after they were acclaimed as authority on history when they accepted their failure to comprehend the traditional Sanskrit language. The height of their hypocrisy can be gauged from the fact that the intellectuals writing on ancient history can’t even read and comprehend the primary literary sources available on the subject matter.
The centre of the sorry state of affairs can be highlighted by the recent statement of the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah. He opined, “I hear many times that our history has been misrepresented… it has been distorted. There is a possibility that what has been written was right, but who can stop us now from rewriting our history with pride? We will have to amend this and put our history in front of the world with pride.” He emphasized that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is inclined towards promoting the truths pertaining to Indian history. He urged the students of history to undergo rigorous research and bring out the truth on historical events.
Also Read: After Tanhaji, these are the few legends of Hindu history that Ajay Devgn must portray on screen
Indian history beyond Propaganda
History tells us the story of the past. However, history is not always based on facts and events. The basic fault lies in writing history. As the saying goes, history belongs to the victor. History too can be subjected to various distortions at the behest of the victor or the vested interest of the writer. Moreover, for societies like that of India, which has been inflicted with various foreign invasions, history has been not only been rewritten but also categorically erased.
Further, there is a very thin line between history and propaganda. History is written by historians. But when the historians write with a preconceived notion, the line with propaganda gets blurred. More so, when historians write with the intention to win over validation of a class of people in power, history of the real heroes gets compromised. The only way out of this menace is to enroll more people to document and publish books and other literary works bringing out the real history of India. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, as proposed movies like Sam Bahadur, Swatantra Veer Savarkar, etc., are going to hit the box office with more diverse voice on real history.
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