Kevalaodhi Buddhist And Jaina History Of Deccan Vol 2

Author(s): Aloka Parasher Sen, B Subrahmanyam, E Siva Nagi Reddy
Publisher: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan

Page 150

352
Kevala-Bodhi--Buddhist and Jaina History of the Deccan
bomb factories'-a situation which entails upon historians the responsibility to historical facts and a commitment to disallow politico-ideological abuse of history. The President went on to warn that history cannot be used as a quarry from which to dig up grievances for contemporary redress. In this connection he reminded the historians of Otto von Bismarck's remark that “The politician has not to avenge what has happened but to ensure that it does not happen again".
It is my understanding that several factors have led to this confusing and even frightening situation about history and its use in the present. First, as a part of the processes of globalization and modernization, print and electronic media have opened the country to the influx of new ideas and material items from the West. If University Vice-Chancellors and Cabinet Ministers sometimes fall an easy prey to items like jeans, one could easily understand the fascination which ordinary people develop towards attractive material items and practices from the West. This inadvertently or otherwise leads to attenuation of interest in one's own customs and traditions. Add to these modernizing influences the fact that an urban office-goer in India is too tied up with his daily routine to be able to retain full interest in his heritage. The past is tending to become, to use the words do David Lowenthal,' "a Foreign Country".
A more serious and disturbing factor is the use of the past for partisan purposes. Particularly after the Babri Mosque incident at Ayodhya in 1992 these partisan trends have raised their head in a big way, leading to claims and counter-claims over cultural and scared places spread across the country. What is worse, these claims have led to, and continue to do so, street violence and even disruption of proceedings in the Parliament and State Assemblies. It is still more shocking that many academics and intellectuals have allowed themselves to be branded as belonging to one or the other group. Even certain prestigious institutions, funded by the Government, have been accused of supporting research tending to promote sectarian interests. The most recent happening is the decision taken by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, to delete or alter certain passages in the printed school textbooks in the history on the ground of objections raised by certain religious and political groups.
A third related factor involves the use of the past by politicians for securing power by employing images drawn from the past. Political parties have been named after historical personalities and regional languages and cultures, thereby making it appear that personalities from the past or languages/cultures belong to particular groups. It is well known how the display of large cutouts of N. T. Rama Rao, depicting him in his cinema roles as Vişnu, Kristna, etc., influenced the voters to give his Telugu Desam party a thumping majority in the elections to the State Assembly in Andhra Pradesh.
A fourth factor affecting our cultural heritage concerns modern impacts on the landscape, which contains ancient sites belonging to various periods. Reclamation of forest lands for agricultural purposes to accommodate the needs of a fast growing population, starting of small and big industrial units and irrigation works, initiation of various village development schemes like laying of roads, and mechanization of farming are posing a grave threat to the preservation of archaeological monuments and sites. Practically every day a significant portion of cultural heritage ranging from ceramics and stone tools to art objects is being irretrievably lost.
The above-mentioned developments have introduced a large amount of anxiety both about the preservation of our cultural heritage and about its misuse in the present. How does one come to grips with this situation? A time has come for scholars and students of the past to descend from their ivory towers and relate themselves more closely to the society at large. Archaeologists and historians in India