According to the American Historical Association, History as a subject is taught to help us understand about people and society to contribute to our moral understanding and to help us to know our identity. But what happens when we emphasize more on studying about plunderers like Aurangzeb, Babur Taimur etc and present great personalities, like Lord Ram and Arjuna as a mythical character?
Are these purposes still being solved?
Mahmud Ghazni
Nobody reads Bhagwat Gita, Mahabharat or Ramayan. People read history books, read about Aurangzeb, Babur etc – all were invaders. Mahmud Ghazni attacked Somnath temple in 1126. According to his historian Al-Biruni, more than 50000 Hindus were slain by the armies of Mahmud.
He also took away 2 crores diram of gold, silver and gems from Somnath temple. The historian, Al-Biruni records the effect of Mahmud Ghazni’s campaign in India. He says that Mahmud Ghazni utterly ruined the prosperity of the country and as a result, Hindu sciences have retired far away from those parts of the country conquered by us.
Muhamad Gori’s historian, Hassan Nizami, rejoices in his records, that during the attack at Assi in Varanasi 1000 temples were destroyed and mosques were built in their places. In ibn Asri kamilut tabarit it says that the killing of Hindus was immense none was spared and the carnage of men went on until the earth was very.
Pears parison in his book blood and the covenant that the women and children were sold as slaves throughout the Muslim world.
Aurangzeb
Aurangzeb was the third son of Saha Jahan and ascended the throne by killing his other brother and imprisoning his father in Agra Fort until his death. In his lifetime, he destroyed more than 10 thousand Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples.
According to the description of his historian Murrakat Tai Abul Hassan, Aurangzeb destroyed Keshav temple in Mathura, Govind temple in Vrindavan, killed Guru Tegh Bahadur, and destroyed all the Sikh gurudwaras; soldiers and assistants from Cuttack in Orissa to Medinipur in West Bengal were ordered to destroy every house with a Vedic deity that was built in last twelve years.
We read about Taimur and Chengiz Khan, what will we learn from them? How to loot and become a looter?
Why is history taught? So that we learn from our past.
The British have written the present day history of India, but the real history is there in the Ramayan, Mahabharat and Puranas.
If you go to the history section of the library, you will find a lot of books dedicated to studying the character of people like Aurangzeb, Babur, Taimur, Gori, Ghazni. But if you want to know about the character of the emperors who were persistent in following the principle of dharma, amidst of all calamities, you will not find a single book in the history section.
If you want to know about the great qualities and heroism of the great warrior Arjuna who helped in protecting the Vedic culture, you will not find a single book in the history section. These great people have been reduced to as a mythological figure, which is just used for entertainment through comics, cartoons, storybooks and TV serials.
If the purpose of history is that we learn from it, especially from the blunder that people did, so that we don’t repeat the same; if so is the purpose then what will we learn from the life of Aurangzeb? We need to learn from the life of Lord Ram.
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