The Indians’: Historians tell the many histories of India with humanness and scholarly objectivity

 An exhibition organised by the Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi earlier in 2023, titled “Glory of Medieval India: Manifestation of the unexplored Indian dynasties, 8th-18th centuries”, was proof of a much-dreaded pudding. That the current ruling dispensation is aggressively saffronising history is no secret, but the brazen omission of all Muslim kingdoms and dynasties in the exhibition confirmed what many of us have known for some time.

Through the corridors of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), along the frenzied renaming and remaking of Mughal-era heritage structures and cities, via manipulation of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks, and by means of rendering the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) toothless, the BJP-led government is erasing Muslim contributions to India’s history and culture. Their reason was articulated by ICHR member secretary Umesh Ashok Kadam, who said that he didn’t consider Muslim dynasties Indian dynasties. “Those people (Muslims) came from the Middle East and didn’t have a direct connection with Indian culture.”

The ICHR has been tasked by the State to write a multi-volume revised history of India – no, Bharat – and one can reasonably guess the nature of its contents. While their stated intention of including neglected or forgotten histories deserves praise, their omissions-by-design stink of bigotry.

Challenging the Juggernaut

It is this juggernaut that The Indians: Histories of a Civilization attempts to challenge. A comprehensive volume, edited by noted linguist and cultural theorist Ganesh N Devy, journalist and author Tony Joseph, and professor of history and archaeology Ravi Korisettar, it brings together a vast range of essays on the history of India, with themes ranging from archaeology, anthropology, and linguistics, to religion, culture, and the arts.

The book is divided into seven parts: The Evolution of Humans and Their Life Conditions; Foundations, Emergence, and the Decline of Civilization; The Language Mix and Philosophies in Ancient India; Cultures, Sub-Nationalities, and Region; Colonialism; Towards Federalism – Social and Political Movements; and India since Independence. These sections include a whopping 101 essays, bookended by an introductory note by Devy and a detailed afterword by noted historian Vinay Lal.

This breathtaking width of topics is necessary to accommodate the intention of the book, that is, to map the “histories” of a civilisation. Note that the title is purposefully plural because the story of India is the story of each one of us; stories told in multiples, and indeed sometimes, in contradictions. Editor GN Devy, however, warns in the introduction, “The many-ended openness of history as a field of enquiry allows majoritarian politics and autocratic regimes to replace the narrative of history by irrational and untenable claims.” Recently, these claims have tended towards an undesirable homogenisation.

This book stands in stark contrast to the bull-headed insistence on “oneness” with campaigns promoting one nation, one election, one language, one religion, and whatnot. Those who insist on “unity” forget the important caveat of diversity which gives India its uniquely pluralistic legacy. The book aims to uphold the “scientific view of history” while countering the “ideologically-charged attempts to distort the history of South Asia” with “fantasy, hallucination, and wishful nostalgia.”

As many Indias as there are Indians

Standing up against the State’s massive resources has been no mean feat, especially for Devy, who produced this work “in extreme financial difficulties.” And yet, the pages of The Indians offer unparalleled wealth to students of history and seekers of pluralistic perspectives.

The first part of the book traces the evolution of the Indian subcontinent from the earliest times, drawing a picture of the region using data from palaeoclimatology and population genetics. Tony Joseph’s essay on migrations harks back to his pathbreaking book Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From, which almost entirely changed the narrative of our ancestry. In this essay, Joseph uses the metaphor of an “Indian Demographic Pizza” which I found equally charming and memorable.

This pizza, he says, comprises a base of Out of Africa migrants who form about 50%-65% of the population. Slathered on this base is a Harappan sauce comprising Indians from North and South India, who form the “cultural glue” of beliefs and practices found all over the country. And finally, there are later-day migrants who are the cheese and toppings of this pizza. Joseph’s theory is firmly supported by genetic evidence and is a great reminder to all those who like to stake a primacy claim on the land.

shri radhe..