Systematic Distortion of Kshatriya History
1. Why distort History of Kshatriyas?
Prominent Political thinker George Orwell remarked that “The most effective way to destroy a people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
Distortion of History is a sociopolitical issue that the readers must have definitely heard or read about at some point or the other on television, newspapers, home, office etc.
Predominantly two methods are employed for distorting history —
- First, propagating one’s own personal hypothesis, theory or prejudiced opinion as fact without proof in an undemocratic manner.
- Second, Peddling Well-charted propaganda with concoctions and lies while concealing the facts.
Distortion of Kshatriya history is the same as the distortion of the history of North and Central India. This can be classified as a sort of intellectual corruption or social terrorism where due to vested interests of some social groups, military and cultural history of India is being distorted, sabotaged and politicized.
Now let us discuss why Kshatriya history is being distorted, what are the objectives of these anti-social elements?
- First, to Spread prejudice and caste hatred against Kshatriyas within the larger society.
- Second, To disinherit the Kshatriyas from their own Ethnic identity by perpetuating flimsy sociological theories & at the same to mobilize various castes against the Kshatriyas through Kshatriya-ization.
- Third, mobilize the Government and Civil Society against Kshatriyas so that the democratic rights and human rights of the Kshatriya masses can be sabotaged.
- Fourth, to launch a psychological attack against the Kshatriya youth with the objective of breaking their self-confidence, so that they cannot mobilize as an organized social or political entity to resist injustices imposed on them.
Let me illustrate who is behind all this and how they are doing it with some examples…
2. Distorting Identities of Rajput Figures to Create Caste Conflicts
Dilip Mandal who is a senior columnist for The Print often refers to the famous hockey player Major Dhyan Chand as Koeri or Kushwaha, although Dhyan Chand clearly self-identified as a Rajput in his autobiography and his own Rajput family resides in Jhansi and Gwalior.
Nevertheless, Mandal’s deliberate mischief was successful in creating a caste wedge between Kshatriyas and Koeris.
Similarly, for many years RSS has been actively promoting Rana Punja, a Solanki Rajput general of Maharana Pratap, as a Bhil. Rana Poonja, was a Solanki Sardar of Panarwa (near Udaipur), whose Rajput descendants have often lodged complaints against this deliberate distortion of his identity. However, propaganda by RSS has created unnecessary rifts between Bhils and Kshatriyas. Similarly, by promoting Rajput queen Durgavati Chandel as Gond in Madhya Pradesh, RSS has been meticulously scripting a political conflict to pit Gonds against Rajputs.
RSS has been promoting Rajput ruler Mihirbhoj Pratihāra as a Gujjar, because of which an entire community is pretending to be something which they never were.
Sometime back in 2022, BJP MP from Baghpat, Satyapal, that Tomar Rajput King Anangpal was actually a Jat and the Tomar Rajputs stole him from Jats.
3. Demeaning Kshatriyas to create Public prejudices
All this is a well-planned political conspiracy to spread misinformation and sow hatred against the common Kshatriyas in the public psyche, which is being unabashedly endorsed by some corrupt historians and media outlets ….
For example, take the case of several articles by Marathi Brahmin writer Girish Sahane published by the scroll, where he addresses Kshatriyas with demeaning epithets like “Defeat – specialists”.
Sahane’s casteist article garnered support from eminent historian Harbans Mukhia.
Harbans Mukhiya, in his article published in BBC in 2018, categorically wrote that there was no contribution of Rajputs in the struggle against the British empire.While if we quote the contemporary authors of Mutiny, we find that the Rajputs were the masterminds of the 1857 mutiny in North India.
In 1858 British officer Colonel George B Malleson wrote in his book ‘THE MUTINY OF THE BENGAL ARMY’ that “This revolution, which at first appeared to be a mere military revolt, rapidly changed its character and became a national revolt.The Rajput villages of Bihar, in the districts of Banaras, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur, throughout the Doab comprising the divisions of Allahabad, Kanpur, Meerut and Agra, shook off our rule in the provinces of Rohilkhand and Awadh and declared war against us”
Similarly, AR Young wrote”The revolution in Shahabad took the form of a national revolt; the entire Rajput population of the district stood up in support of the local Rajput landlords.” W Sleeman wrote “I have seen many resistances in different countries across the world, but I have never seen the way zamindars of Awadh fought the British rule. If such an eminent and celebrated historian contradicts such strong evidences with derogatory statements , then there is little doubt that his intentions are explicitly malignant.
In the same article, Professor writes that The Rajputs have absolutely NO contribution in making modern India.
Rajput kings of Western India, Central India & Himalayas commissioned hospitals, rail transport , dams, high court, military forces , Rajput zamindars of UP and Bihar donated millions of acres of land in Bhoodan etc. which were inherited by modern India from them. The OBC reservation which was implemented by the former Prime Minister VP Singh Gaharwar gave representation to thousands of backward castes.
The contributions of common Kshatriyas in sports like that of Dhyanchand, in the Army like that of General Sagat Singh, in agriculture as farmers, in education like Dr Hari Singh Gaur and Dr Lalji Singh Chandel, in administration like that by Dr Kumar Suresh Singh simply do not exist in the view Professor Saheb, which is a strange irony.
Prof. Mukhiya, denying the cultural, philosophical, military contribution of the Rajputs, writes that “If we evaluate any role of the Rajputs in history, it was only to make the Mughal rule permanent.” From Akbar’s time till the end, Rajputs played an important role in providing stability to the rule of Mughals”.
From JAISALMER established by Bhatis in Rajasthan to MOTIHARI established by Motisingh Karnat, from JAMMU of Jamwal Rajputs to JABALPUR established by Kalchuri Rajputs, Rajputs established many towns and cities which the Professor Mukhiya blatantly denies. Mukhiya also denies the existence of Rajput contributions in architecture in the form of Khajuraho, Chausath Yogini, Badrinath, or Jantar Mantar. Mukhiya also refuses to acknowledge the contribution of Goga Pir, Ramdev Pir, Nath sect. He also omits Yashodharman Parmar, Mihirbhoj Pratihāra , Durgavati Chandel, Dulla Bhati, Banda Bahadur Manhas, Zorawar Kahluria, General Sagat Singh.
4. Psychological Attack on Kshatriya Youth & Students
To establish the Kshatriya society as inferior to other societies, this lobby creates false narratives by limiting our existence to the marital relations and mansabdari of some Rajput/Kshatriya kings with Mughals, but does not divulge that during that period, what were the other elite castes doing in the Mughal administration? They also hide the fact that during the rule of Aurangzeb, most of the mansabdaris belonged to the brave Marathas and not to Rajputs. They also cover up the fact that when and how Jat, Gujar, Ahir became Chaudharies, Raos and Maliks. This lobby not only conceals the matrimonial relations of the Marathas and the Deccan Sultanate but also the matrimonial relations of the Jats and the Mughals.
Clearly, they not only deny the contribution of Kshatriyas, but also cherry-pick our history and single-out our society to perpetuate prejudices against us within the larger society.
Indecent remarks about Revered Rajput figures by this lobby of historians can be read across the social media and the mainstream media. Please ponder if any historian could make such objectionable statements on Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Shivaji, Jijabai, Lachit Borphukan, Surajmal?
Is not this intentional Systematic Denigration of Kshatriyas, a planned attempt to humiliate the modern Rajput people and demoralize them?
5. From Denigration to Appropriation: A Conspiracy
Nowadays the same class also propagates that there was no Rajput caste before the 12th century and propagates sophistry that Rajput and Kshatriya are different. Not only this but they propagate Rajputs to be a mixture of other castes.
It is this very lobby of historians that has emboldened elements like RSS and Dilip Mandal to play politics over Rajput history.
This lobby which includes Harbans Mukhiya along with Tanuja Kothiyal of Ambedkar University, Ruchika Sharma of Indraprastha College of History and Manimugdha Sharma among others, has been normalizing propaganda by writing baseless books, popularizing false interpretations through films and media. They even systematically use various Literature fests like that of Jaipur and Lucknow to feed the demonization agenda against Kshatriyas.
Their basic objective is not only to foment hatred in the entire society towards the Kshatriya society, but also to provoke other Agrarian communities on the pretext of Rajputification. All this is being done so that the Kshatriya community is not only gradually decimated politically and socially in this democracy, but caste violence and riots are instigated against them.
After having witnessed the consequences of this vile conspiracy in the form of lathicharge on the Kshatriya youth in Kaithal and repeated Gujjar riots in Gwalior, if we choose to remain silent while our past is distorted inch by inch, can we expect the future of our youth and children to be safe?