Original title: How Indian history is being written today
“India, or Bharat, is a federation,” reads the opening paragraph of the Indian Constitution. Compared with the name “India” that the outside world has called the land of the South Asian subcontinent since the Persians, the word “Bharata” has a strong Hindu flavor. In a recent interview, Xie Gang, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Nehru University in India, said that he was not surprised by the proposed change of the country’s name because the Bharatiya Janata Party has always wanted to shift its focus to returning to tradition.
With this kind of background understanding, when you read “India Five Thousand Years” by Australian historian John Zubursky in 2022, you can form a tacit understanding with the author and understand his efforts to write Indian history.
John Zubuldsky was a New Delhi correspondent for The Australian, the South China Morning Post, and the Christian Science Monitor, and also served as a diplomat in New Delhi and Jakarta. He has lived in India for a long time and this is his fifth monograph on Indian history and culture.
One of the world’s oldest civilizations, India is a mixture of customs, races, castes, languages and beliefs. As Zubuldsky said, “It was challenging but necessary to condense 5,000 years of Indian history into this small book while trying to convey its subtleties.” He uses the mysterious Ganges, the desert fortresses of Rajasthan, the snow-capped Himalayas and the ruins of India’s legendary civilizations as backgrounds, from India’s earliest inhabitants and the Harappan civilization to the Maurya and Chola dynasties of Hinduism. , to the Muslim Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire, from British colonial rule to the struggle for autonomy and today’s hopes and challenges, depicting Buddha, Alexander the Great, Akbar, Clive, Hastings Five thousand years of myths, rebellions, wars, great empires, Fallen dynasties, invasions, colonization and independence condensed into a compelling story.
Zubuldsky begins with a chronology of major events, but in addition to the main historical thread, a major feature of the book is that it leads the reader to other interesting aspects of the past. For example, who were the first Indians, how religion shaped the country’s history, what role trade played, how the caste system worked, how foreign travelers viewed the country, and more. He also takes readers through the major events of post-independence India: the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, the turmoil in the Congress Party, the Emergency, the Mandal Commission, economic reforms, the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and the rise of Hindu nationalism.
The perception of this magical country by foreign travelers and conquerors is also the focus of Zubuldsky’s writing. Megasthenes, the ambassador sent by Alexander’s general Seleucid, mentioned the legendary mouthless people who survived only on the smell of roasted meat, fruits and flowers; he also mentioned a race with big ears, which they put on like Wrapped around me like a blanket. In the writings of Faxian, a Buddhist pilgrim in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the society under the rule of the Gupta Dynasty was peaceful and prosperous, with almost no crime; there were many charitable institutions in the city, and there were also medical clinics open to all patients free of charge; no passes were required within the empire. Descriptions of untouchables in the caste system also appear in Faxian’s works. Members of the lowest caste must announce their arrival by banging a log so as not to contaminate others. The eminent monk Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty also provided valuable information on the social picture during the reign of King Harsha, and made special mention of the alchemy of that time. The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta described the court and society of the Delhi Sultanate at its height.
In the words of Babur, the conqueror who established the Mughal Empire, the Indians “are not beautiful, and there is no social interaction between them. They are neither very talented nor smart; they are neither courteous nor courteous. , and have no generous mind. They have neither order nor plan in their crafts and work; they do not know how to use rulers and ink lines. In India, there is no good water, no good meat, no grapes, no melons, no good water, no good meat, no grapes, no melons. There is no ice or ice water for good fruits, and there is neither good food nor good bread in the market…” (Wang Zhilai translated “Memoirs of Babur”) In the eyes of the British colonists, India was a piece of land. A land inhabited by superstitious pagans. However, a proclamation issued by Queen Victoria in 1858 on how to govern India declared: “We will be strong when they prosper, and we will be safe when they are satisfied.” British officials were ordered not to interfere with Indian beliefs and rituals, and the Queen denied that Any desire “to impose our beliefs on any subject.” Currently, India, like other countries in the world, is facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities. How a country views its history and traditions reflects its expectations for the future. Zubuldsky is confident about India’s future. In his view, as long as India’s more than one billion citizens have the opportunity to realize their full potential, the country has a bright future, because “in the final analysis, India’s present and future are not in the hands of politicians or priests, but in the hands of the Indian people.” in hand”.
(Ma Bailiang, the author is an associate professor at the School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Ocean University)
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2023-09-17 00:21:00
