New Delhi [India], May 27: In his legendary Chicago address on 11 September 1893, Swami Vivekananda told, “Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now.” Even more than a century later, his words carry the same weight. Communalism is one of the greatest threats that the world is facing now, and our country, India, has been one of the worst victims. During independence, we had to forfeit about a third of our lands to communal goons, and after so many years, we find that the problem has only magnified. What may be the reason(s)?
Communalism based on religion, region, language or any other issues can reign supreme when there is a lack of patriotism or commitment towards the nation. And we Indians are unfortunately one of the worst people when it comes to demonstrating a sense of national duty. For example even educated people litter their surroundings and spit here and there (probably expecting some uneducated people to clean their shit). Even people from poorer nations fare better than us in this aspect. The shabby treatment of the real heroes of our nation by successive Governments has worsened the situation, and the common people have lost any sense of pride for being an Indian.
The most prominent example of this is the near-complete removal of the role of armed revolutionary activities in Indian independence from the official history curriculum. While this was an audacious attempt to convey the message that our independence had been won through non-violent movements only, the message that the students get is that our forefathers were epitomes of meekness, cowardice and slavish mentality. So is it any wonder that such negativism develops within them as they age?
In order to make some rectifications, Abhishek Chakrabarti has come up with the book, “THE OTHER SIDE OF HISTORY: The Unsung annals behind India’s independence”. It is a near complete account of the role of armed revolutionary activities in India’s freedom struggle, and consists of exactly those things which have been ignored by the mainstream historians. The book contains tons of information backed by solid references, that too in a concise form. The profound courage, valour and selfless sacrifice of the revolutionaries attained through strict codes of conduct based on the highest degree of patriotism and loyalty towards the Motherland has been stressed upon in this work. It seeks to reinforce those ideals which our braveheart forefathers had practised during their service towards the nation within the minds of the present generation.
As a nation we have faced and are still facing a lot of challenges since independence. We have no dearth of external enemies who desire to destroy us at all times. But worse are the internal foes who try to wreck us apart from within. And these are the ones who wander freely in the society spreading their poisonous ideas, and given the chance they become very vocal in supporting separatists and insurgents and vouching for the disintegration of our nation. It is not possible to destroy them by force for obvious reasons, and if they remain active then there will be no respite from the types of events that culminated in the partition of our land prior to independence and the massive humanitarian crisis that followed it. And our mainstream politicians are no saints; they are of the same built like the power hungry corrupt morons who benefitted from transfer of power in 1947, and it is no secret that they engage in appeasement of specific groups in order to consolidate their vote bank showing cold indifference to national security. To douche the fire of communalism we need to sprinkle the holy water of nationalism to the greatest possible extent, and one of the ways to do so is to dissipate the tales depicting the highest degree of commitment towards our Motherland that was demonstrated by the armed revolutionaries who thought only of independence from foreign rule relinquishing all sorts of personal interests.
Our braveheart ancestors showed exemplary courage and bravery in order to take the bull (i.e. the British Empire, the mightiest power in the contemporary world) by its horns despite lacking the strength of numbers, funds, arms and whatever can be thought of. They had no greed for any power or personal fame, and their sole intention was to enable their progeny to stand on the soil of a free land. To waste time and resources in mindless communalism would be a very poor way to repay them for their enormous sacrifices. Our foes may be very powerful, their ability to spread discord and enmity may be enormous, but we can fight them by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. It should be kept in mind that each and every successful nation is built on the foundations of patriotism and they revere the persons who had been their pioneers. This must be emulated in India too, and this is the whole point of this work. If the readers benefit from this book the efforts of the author will definitely bear fruit in long term.
N.B. The author has provided his email id in the book so that the readers may share their thoughts and offer any suggestions for improvement of this work.
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