Exhuming the past is fraught with perils

THe Sangh Parivar’s entrenched belief in India suffering a thousand years of slavery is now articulated by the BJP-led government at home and abroad. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar mentioned it at the United Nations when, in his address to the General Assembly in 2022, he said, “Indians are rejuvenating a society pillaged by centuries of foreign rule and colonialism.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the nation on Independence Day in 2023, spoke of how a small invasion led to the national enslavement of a thousand years. The problem with this thought process is that it carries the danger of opening social fissures today, unintended but with dangerous consequences, nevertheless. An example of a potentially fissiparous phenomenon was witnessed in Haryana last month.

This newspaper reported that on January 14, the anniversary of the Third Battle of Panipat, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited Kala Amb, the Panipat monument dedicated to the Peshwa generals, including Maratha commander Sadashivrao Bhau, and their soldiers who fell unsuccessfully fighting Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Abdali in Kala Amb in 1761.

The Kala Amb monument has been given ‘Nationally Protected Status’ by the Archaeological Survey of India. It now has an impressive garden and contains the venerated spot where Sadashivrao made his last stand. Interestingly, the monument also has a column that has marble plaques with text in English and Urdu. The monument attracts members of the Ror-Maratha community of Haryana, especially on January 14, but it seems that it does not really resonate with other people of the state. It is perhaps because of this reason that, as this newspaper also noted, no dignitary of the Haryana Government was present during Fadnavis' visit.

Accompanied by other Maharashtra politicians, including some who are Ministers of State in the Union Government, Fadnavis said, “The historical land of Panipat gives the message of bravery and unity. From here, the Marathas got the formula to live in unity, and after this, they established Hind Swaraj.” He further went on to add significant words, “If any other king had come forward to help the Marathas, Abdali would have been defeated.”

Peshwai-supportive historians have always complained that local rulers let them down, enabling Abdali to defeat the Sadashivrao-led army. However, this is not what the Haryana Government claims. Writing about Kala Amb, its Tourism Department website states, “The Marathas came to North India with a belief of changing Indian polity forever. Like Ibrahim Lodhi, the Marathas were guilty of antagonising all potential friends and allies as well.” Thus, the Haryana Government’s version is directly opposite to what Fadnavis lamented and what Peshwai historians believe. While the state government compares the conduct of Peshwa-led army generals to Lodhi, who was defeated by Babur in 1526, the Maharashtrian memory of the months prior to the 1761 battle is entirely different. The ruling BJP cannot claim that the Tourism Department formulation reflects the views of the earlier Congress government as the saffron party has been in power in Haryana since 2014.

If, as the Sangh Parivar and the BJP government hold, India suffered a thousand years of slavery, it logically follows that those who opposed it were heroes. Thus, Shivaji is being projected as a hero who successfully resisted Mughal power and his statues are being erected beyond Maharashtra. There is no doubt that Shivaji is an authentic Indian hero because he resisted imperial arrogance and established a polity where he sought to give justice to all.

Similarly, Maharana Pratap’s memory is honoured as the one who suffered the greatest hardships but never gave in to the Mughals. The memory of many others who fought and sacrificed against imperial injustice is also now being recalled. While, at one level, there can be no objection to this, the question is: What should be the approach towards those who did not resist the Afghans and the Mughals or even collaborated with them? The Kala Amb example vividly illustrates the predicament. Exhuming the past is fraught with dangers, especially now when social groups are getting so testy about their identity and when new identities are being forged as those of the Ror-Marathas.

Over the past few decades, some scholars have asserted that after Sadashivrao’s defeat, about 500 soldiers of the Peshwa army hid in the forests around Panipat and they stayed on in the area. Many among the Ror-Marathas, who are a

seven lakh-strong community, believe they are descendants of these soldiers. They celebrate the valour of the Peshwa army in fighting Ahmed Shah Abdali’s forces and have also formed groups to organise events commemorating the Third Battle of Panipat. There are other organisations in Haryana who honour the valour of those who opposed foreign invaders, but their focus seems to be more general in nature. It may be mentioned that till recently, it was held that a number of members of Sadashivrao’s army fled to the Kumaon hills and some families settled there believe in their Maharashtrian descent.

It would be futile to seek to impress on the Sangh Parivar ideologues the social dangers of exhuming the past; that it may, instead of consolidating Hindus bring to the surface questions that are best left buried. Our present times are so ideologically contentious and the focus is so much on the communal divide that other gaps, which have the potential of widening into chasms, are ignored. Yet, group identities are being sharpened. It would be unwise to add a dimension of who opposed the thousand years of slavery and who compromised with it as an ingredient of these identities.

Finally, the social and political contradictions of Maharashtra should not be allowed to cast a shadow on other states and regions.