'Islamic conquest of India bloodiest tale of human history, popular narrative silent about it': Vikram Sampath

Author and columnist Vikram Sampath. (Courtesy: X | @vikramsampath)

Author and historian Vikram Sampath has said that India needs to shun the "terrible" trend in its historiography to deny or brush under the carper uncomfortable truths just because of the perception that it would upset the prevailing social harmony.

"We have had a very long and troubled history. Will Durant (American historian and philosopher) had said that the Islamic conquest of India is the bloodiest tale of human history. But does our popular narrative or our history textbooks talk about the kind of civilizational wound that this has caused?" Sampath said in conversation with CNN News 18 at the Rising Bharat Summit in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Sampath further said that Indians falsely labour under a misapprehension that talking about these truths of history is going to upset today's social cohesion. "(That) communities will get upset. Why would communities get upset if you talk about a Ghazni, Ghori, Aurangzeb or Tipu Sultan?" he asked.

The Muslims of today are not responsible for what all these barbarians did, Sampath said, adding, "The converse also needs to be true that communities today should not be hyphenated with these barbarians. They should not look up to them as their role models, go to their tombs and read Psalms to them."

When countered that India is a democracy and individuals are allowed to idolize whoever they want for any reason, Sampath shot back, saying: "Tomorrow someone may want to idolize General Reginald Dyer (the British military officer responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre)!"

Sampath then drew parallels between General Dyer and Tipu Sultan and claimed that the erstwhile ruler, on the eve of Deepavali, invited around 700 men, women and children of a particular community called Mandyam Iyengars for a feast, locked the temple doors and left elephants to trample them all to death.

"Now, this was very similar to what General Dyer did at Jalianwala Bagh. Dare we have a General Dyer Jayanti how we have a Tipu Jayanti in a state where I come from in Karnataka where Section 144 had to be imposed, where more than four people cannot congregate and celebrate this? What sort of a celebration is this and for whom?" Sampath questioned.

The author-historian then said that the weaponization of history at the hands of political parties, rather than leaving it to people in the academic front to have different opinions "is what muddies the water".

"And the fact that we haven't told the truth as it is. If something has happened, you can't sugarcoat it because it is politically inconvenient for you today or you have vote-bank politics to pander to," Sampath added.