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HOLIDAY FICTION SPECIAL
REWRITING INDIAN HISTORY
By
Shailaja Neelakantan/NEW DELHI
Issue cover-dated July 3, 2003
In Times of Siege
By Githa Hariharan. Viking. $22
Githa Hariharan's new novel, In Times of Siege, is a disturbing
fictional portrait of the ideological polarization and sectarian
conflict that in recent years have permeated every facet of
life in India. This is the story of Shiv Murthy, a college history
teacher whose life is thrown into chaos when a lesson he writes
runs afoul of the Itihas Suraksha Manch (Forum for the Protection
of History). The novel is a strong commentary on recent disgraces
perpetrated in the writing of Indian textbooks.
In September last year, India's highest court cleared the way
for changing the country's core history curriculum to suit the
fundamentalist ideology of the ruling Hindu right-wing Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP). The textbooks have been rewritten to cast
India's history as mainly a struggle between "native"
Hindus and Muslim "invaders." The new texts seek to
justify the repressive Hindu caste system and even omit to mention
the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi in 1948. (The assassin
was a Hindu fanatic who belonged to a group that was the progenitor
of the BJP.)
In Hariharan's novel, the protagonist becomes the focus of
fundamentalist ire over his description of a 12th-century poet
and social reformer, Basava, who believed that Hinduism's rigid
and oppressive caste system needed radical reforming. The fundamentalists
object to the humanizing of Basava, whom they consider a saint.
And the mere suggestion that Hinduism needs reforming has the
Manch frothing at the mouth. They want the lesson retracted
and an apology from Shiv.
The fictional Shiv's experience is similar to that of a real-life
playwright, H.S. Shivaprakash, whose play on Basava was condemned
by self-appointed protectors of history some years ago. The
novel draws from India's present, however, in which the BJP
government controls financing and appointments at institutions
engaged in historical research and textbook writing.
The effort to polarize Hindus and Muslims through "history"
has already had consequences. In 1992, the "historical"
claim that the 400-year-old Babri mosque was built on the site
of the birthplace of the Hindu god Ram spurred Hindu militants
to destroy the mosque, sparking nationwide religious riots and
planting the seed for the Godhra massacre in Gujarat in March
last year. The novel's Manch is a clear analogue of the Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), which, as the ideological
backbone of the BJP, sees history as a tool in its campaign
to construct a Hindu nation.
Hariharan's protagonist is a quiet man who prefers to stay
away from controversy. "Shiv's own campaigns are minor
rebellions; secretive mutinies," the author writes. But
events take on a momentum of their own as left-wing university
students, including Shiv's ward, organize protest rallies and
demonstrations. The Manch retaliates violently, destroying Shiv's
office. "I never thought my little lesson on Basava would
grow to such epic proportions," says Shiv to his ward,
Meena. Now convinced the controversy won't just go away, he
resolves to take a stand. He tells his boss that he won't apologize
to the Manch.
Hariharan captures Shiv's besieged existence with just the
right amount of angst, confusion, polemic and humour. "Shiv
sees his lesson sent to the corner in disgrace . . . there is
a warning sign that quarantines it from the other booklets,
a sign like the ones on those ominously shaped vehicles carrying
dangerous chemicals. Caution! Highly Inflammable Medieval History.
Only known antidotes: 500 mg of blissful ignorance or 250 mg
of unadulterated lies."
Hariharan, whose first novel won the Commonwealth Prize in
1993, has written another persuasive work that tells of the
perils of sectarianism and silence in the face of oppression.
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