Preface

The first half century of India’s existence as a free nation is characterized by two significant failures: first, a failure to define the concept of India as a nation; second, a failure to evolve national institutions in education and intellectual life. In other words, a comprehensive failure to define a vision of nationalism rooted in the country’s history and culture. The result is that anti-national forces have had a field day, seriously undermining national security. Since these fifty years have been dominated by the Congress Party — by the Nehru-Gandhi family in particular — the party and the dynasty cannot escape responsibility for these momentous failures.

I have written this little book to meet a specific need. There is a great deal of interest among young people about the history of India, which many correctly believe to have been distorted by interests hostile to the nation. I receive repeated requests from organizations all over the country to speak on these topics. It is impossible for me to honor even a small fraction of them. But there is no denying the need for these lectures and seminars. At this time there is a shortage of people who can speak and write on these subjects. I hope this little book will encourage young people to develop their own study groups to meet the need that I cannot personally meet. The final section on additional readings should help in this regard.

To return to the main theme of this book, most nations distort their history to enhance achievements and build their national spirit. But in India, the situation in the first fifty years since independence has been the reverse of this. Indian history has been distorted to favor ideas and groups hostile to national interests. The result is that students are brought up to be apologetic and even ashamed of their history and tradition, despite having one of the greatest heritages in the world, if not the greatest. This is not an accident. During the colonial era, it was natural that the British should have established institutions and an education system that promoted their own interests. But for fifty years after independence, the same values and institutions were perpetuated by successors of the British.

These successors to colonial rulers identify themselves with alien values and their former rulers to such an extent that they are implacably hostile to anything Indian, especially Hindu. Advances in knowledge brought about by archaeology and other sciences did not make them give up discredited versions rooted in the colonial past. The result is a version of history that is not only unworthy of a great nation but also mostly false. This small volume is meant partly as a corrective. I have tried also to identify the causes and suggested some remedies.

My goal in writing this little volume is therefore twofold. First, I want to expose and highlight the magnitude of the failures and distortions and identify their causes. Second, I want young people to go to the sources given in the readings to develop their own independent study groups and conduct seminars. This will go towards building an intellectual infrastructure rooted in Indian history and culture in contrast to copies of defunct colonial values that dominates the intellectual scene today.

N.S. Rajaram April 2000