Sometime back I wrote a
review on H. G. Wells' Time Machine. Though it was a science fiction, it was filled with politics surrounding the then prevalent socialist and communist thoughts. It was quiet acceptable as the book is a fiction and the author had weaved his political ideologies in a subtle way. But I
reviewed a book by Dr. Kalam last year. I was so upset with that book, because it is nothing more than repackaged self-help and motivational placebo as a pop-science book. With this book, I feel more like how I felt with Dr. Kalam's book than with Wells' book. This book repackages communist propaganda and fiction as history.
Some Words Before The Review:
I have read the Tamil translation of the book. Since the book has been translated in to many languages, I am writing this review in English. As you can see from my
other posts, I myself being a democratic-socialist, read a lot of left-leaning books. I also suggest books written by Marx, Stalin and Lenin for young people so that they can understand that capitalism is not the only system available. But I am not a militant communist who holds whatever is said and written by founding fathers of communism are inerrant and unchangeable truths. I give rational analysis and questioning more importance than blind faith and ideological bias. I don't consider myself a person with good knowledge in history. But still I found many problems with this book. Let me share them here.
The Book:
The book spans 600+ page. Written by Rahul Sankrityayan and translated in to Tamil by Gana. Muthaiah. The edition I read was a hardcover one. It costs around Rs. 300. With some irrelevant pictures taken from the Internet and printed in black and white, the book has no relevant image like fossils, excavation sites, inscriptions, coins or even maps. I thought that the book will have some, but it didn't. The book is divided in to 20 short stories. The author claims that the book covers history of "Indo-Aryan" people from 6000 BC to 1943 (the time the book was completed). But first 3 stories are pure fiction that has no historical or anthropological basis. The next stories are pseudo-history or historical fictions until the last 4, which are outright Communist propaganda. The Tamil translation I read was bit outdated and had more Sanskritized words. But that's OK!
Problems With The Book:
1. The matriarchal society with some form of proto-communism, which existed in prehistoric times according to Marx and Engels, is exaggeration at best and outright fake at worst. Those theories were proven wrong long back. But the author of this book just takes these claims as facts and had written first few stories.
2. Almost all chapters have reference to breasts and some sexual narratives. The author seems to be good in writing screenplay for masala movies. Why struggle with history then? I don't mind about such references. But if you want to take history to masses through stories, then you should keep in mind that the stories may be read by a wider audience, which includes children.
3. The author repeatedly says that the incoming Aryans were tilted towards "good communism" and it was the native dark skinned people who gave them caste system, priesthood, monarchy etc. For example, the author says that buying and selling people in to slavery and hoarding wealth exploited from workers by rulers were all non-Aryan practices and only dark skinned people of India gave it to Aryans.
4. The destruction of pre-Aryan culture and civilization is blamed on the non-Aryans themselves. Like Mel Gibson attributed the fall of Native Americans on themselves instead of invading Europeans in his movie Apocalypto, the author portrays pre-Aryan civilization as a decaying civilization at its brink of total failure. Thankfully, the author has not written African history. Else salve trade would have been blamed on Black people.
5. Instead of analyzing the historical aspects of governments, society etc, the author bypasses many centuries just by writing extrapolated fictitious histories of some poets and philosophers. "When money was introduced?", "When and how private property came in to picture?" Such important questions are left unanswered with some few confusing passages.
6. Alexander's invasion, Mongol invasion, Islamic conquest, British colonialism etc are obscured in the backdrop of erotic love stories. Also great religious revivals, reforms etc are ignored. Only religion discussed to some extant is Buddhism. But Hinduism, Jainism, Islam and Shikism also contributed a lot to India in various ways. These are ignored.
7. There are many historical and factual errors in the book. The author mentions that Mongolians called Buddhism as Shamanism. Also there is a story in which a couple travels to Florence during late 16th century and explain the city as republic. But Florence's republic ended in 1533 itself! The books romanticizes village Panchayat system and claims that, in its original form, it was egalitarian and just. Another proto-communist myth!
8. The author becomes dogmatic and proclaims that world-wide revolution alone can change things and any other alternate path is invalid, in last few chapters. In this, he just bashes everyone from Gandhi to Ambedkar. Though I accept criticism is good and nobody is beyond criticism, this criticism is not a healthy one. Have you seen religious people who criticize menial things in other religions while keeping silent about shortcomings of their own religion? Similarly the author boldly finds fault with Gandhi and Ambedkar (which is fine). But the question is, how honest will the author do the same with Marx-Engels or Lenin or Stalin?
9. Too much communist propaganda in last few chapters could have been avoided. The author had written other books on socialism and politics. Then why mix that in a book that is supposed to be on history, that too the history of Indo-Aryan people? What does calling for armed revolution, envisioning a borderless communist state, praising communist countries etc have to do with Aryan history, which this book claims to narrate?
10. The author in preface claims that he has references for all the things mentioned in the book and that itself will amount for a book and hence he had not included it. If anyone who posses such reference for this book, I like to have a look at it. Hope it might had got "lost" (things that never exist always get lost!)
Well, we are dealing with Communists here. They are no better than religious bigots who never accept mistakes in their religion/ideology even in face of evidence. Communists rejected genetics only because it was from a religious man Gregor Mendel and instead adapted neo-Lamarckism and suffered crop failure and famine in USSR. They still believe in stateless Communism and other such Utopian dreams. They have equivalent of everything that Medieval Catholic Church did. Inquisition, torture, deportation, censorship, excommunication, accusing other opinions as heresy, anathema, slavery, forced labor, being anti-science, what else? Name a thing that Catholic church did in medieval times, you can get a parallel in 20th century communism. Can we expect an unbiased history from such people?
A book that is much similar to this (which claims to talk about history but fails miserably) is "Vanthargal Vendrargal" by Cartoonist Mathan. I have read that one, which was full of fiction, pseudo-history, apocryphal accounts and homophobia, but claiming to be a honest narrative on Moghul rule. But if you are really interested in a comprehensive and extensive work on history, get a copy of "
Glimpses of World History" by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The book not only covers Indian or Aryans or Moghul history. It covers the history of entire world. The book is mostly unbiased, factually correct and Nehru separates his ideological commentaries from actual narratives clearly.
So don't waste your money and time on this book unless you are a dogmatic and bigoted communist.
