Author: Satish Misra
Publication: Indianrealist.Wordpress.com
Date: June 6, 2010
URL: http://indianrealist.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/lies-with-long-legs-prof-aich-exposes-pseudo-indologists/
Lies with long legs, by Prodosh Aich, Samskriti,
Pages: 404, Rs. 650
The book, 'Lies with long legs', is a well-researched
and sufficiently documented effort to bring to light a reality about ancient
India, which is contrary to prevalent and generally accepted world view of
a civilization.
In his painstakingly long academic journey
through mountains of source material available in Europe, Prof. Aich has succeeded
in establishing that entire understanding of India of the western world developed
by self claimed scholars is totally erroneous since the initial attempt to
comprehend ancient India through Vedas was itself faulty.
He has built his thesis on a simple fact
that if the basic parameters or fundamentals are wrong, then the conclusions
derived from them cannot obviously be correct.
In this backdrop, Prof. Aich has very rightfully
questioned the validity of the works of the famous western scholars who went
on to translate Vedic literature from Sanskrit language into Italian, English
and German. Majority of them did not even set their foot on the Indian soil
and those, who came to India, did not learn ancient language in any organized
manner but in an auto didactic fashion.
Translation from one language to another,
it is universally accepted, needs almost an equal command on both the languages.
But majority of the Western Sanskrit scholars did not learn or rather could
not learn Sanskrit. Since Sanskrit was not a spoken language, it was all the
more difficult for them to develop language skills required for translation.
Based on this fact, the author has undertaken
a research that leads to the prevalent and popular viewpoint that colonialist
Imperial England had prepared a concerted and well conceived design to establish
the superiority of white, blue eyed, blond -christian culture over all other
cultures which they opted to define as "primitive" and particularly
that of India.
The methodology, employed by Prof. Aich, is indeed unique and novel as he
avoids making his own comments on any single issue. Rather he prefers to use
the technique of juxtaposition to drive a point home. He prefers to leave
to readers to make their own judgement rather than imposing a certain thesis
which is the usual practice normally followed by scholars.
In his treatment of the subject, he has followed an interesting approach that
of framing a question and then providing answers by using the primary source
material.
Nonetheless, the book is a seminal contribution
to the world of knowledge as it is bound to start an academic debate in the
West also. It would go a long way to establish once for all that much-trumpeted
and self-championed discipline of Indology in the West has in fact been based
on wrong facts and false premises.
Not only this, reading the book, one cannot
but reach a conclusion that it must have been a design that none of the scholars
so far bothered to use the existing material, so abundantly available, which
could have helped to unravel the truth about the colonial powers and imperial
administration and bureaucracy. Scholars after scholars, even after the rolling
back of colonial empire, have continued to overlook the material that would
have gone a long way to remove well laid myths and negative understanding
about Indian society, polity and culture.
Moreover, it would raise questions on popularly
accepted theories on India such as Aryans came to this part of the world from
the North or they emigrated here and then pushed back the original inhabitants
from north to south of India. The book also puts a serious question mark on
the anthropological understanding of the ancient Indian society according
to which, Indian society is sought to be explained on the basis of skin colour.
In what may be termed as a pioneering attempt
at interpreting the efforts of western scholars to decipher and portray ancient
India, the author has asked in the book since when words and concepts like
white, black, blond, not blond, blue eyed and other racial features have come
to be used by social scientists to differ between "us" "them".
Prof. Aich has gone deep into methods adopted
by different well-known and world famous Indologists for collecting materials
for their renowned works, research papers and other books. Beginning from
the process of acquiring their knowledge of Sanskrit, the author has also
made rightful inquires to their source material.
In an eye opening revelation, the author has
successfully established that a Jesuit father Roberto de Nobili, in his missionary
zeal, went to the extent of claiming that he was able to find out the lost
Yajurveda which in fact was got written by him to establish that there was
indeed a relationship between Christianity and ancient Indian practices that
were being preserved and followed by Brahmins. Roberto de Nobili, in order
to win the confidence of the local Brahmin community, even calls himself as
Brahmin from Rome.
The author has put almost every Indologist
under his investigating microscope to find out the veracity of their claims
of knowing Sanskrit. In this process, he has succeeded in exposing majority
of Indologists who have been regarded and accepted in the academic world as
the sole sources of information over India and ancient Indian society, culture
and way of life.
Comparing their descriptions and findings
with Greek writings of Megasthenes and others, the author throws enough light
on the methods and intentions of 18 and 19th century Indologists who, in his
opinion, did irreparable damage to people of India.
Many of the English, German or French Indologists, made tall claims about
their knowledge of Sanskrit and Prof. Aich has exposed them by tracing back
their entire process of acquiring the competence of language.
For example, detailed exposition on Sir William
Jones make startling revelations that he could befool not only his superiors
but the entire academic community by claiming that he knew 32 languages, including
Sanskrit.
Sir Williams, who came to India as one of
the judges and went on to set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which was
closed rather barred for Asians, on January 15, 1784, came to be celebrated
as the Father of Indology in the United Kingdom.
By following Sir Williams educational career
and his different stages of life, the author has made bare the self proclaimed
Father of Indology leaving readers in no doubt whatsoever that the Sir William's
fame may have entailed, it was actually based on exaggerated claims, braggadocio
and self projections.
The same Sir Williams has produced so much of literature, disseminating so
much of false information about India that an entirely wrong image of this
ancient society was painted in the popular mind.
Similarly, German Indologist Friedrich Maximilian
Mueller, popularly known in India as Max Mueller, has been exposed as a person
who despite never visiting India, came to be known as the most authoritative
expert of Sanskrit.
The author has scored a major victory by establishing
that it was indeed an English conspiracy, which was hatched by none other
than Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay who wanted to control Indian minds by
ensuring that they should know, comprehend and understand India through books
written in English. Indian sources of knowledge about India should never be
indigenous but should be through English translations.
Max Mueller became an instrument of Lord Macaulay
in his plan to control the Indian mind for all times to come. Macaulay is
convinced that the majority of the local population has to be brought to a
point where they start believing that the English alien rule is better for
them.
Macaulay had written in 1835 in absolutely
clear terms: "We are not content to leave the natives to the influence
of their own heredity prejudices. (…) it is possible to make natives
of this country thoroughly good English scholars… We must at present
do out best to form a class, who may be interpreters between us and the millions
we govern; a class of persons Indians in blood and colour, but English in
tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class, we may leave
it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects
with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render
then by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of
the population."
The book has established beyond any doubt
that Macaulay and the rest of English colonialists of his time employed every
means bad or good, dirty or clean to ensure that Indians were subjugated not
only physically but were dominated mentally and spiritually as well.
By undertaking a thorough study of colonisation
of India in the backdrop of the emerging racism, the author has also sown
seeds of further academic exercises. He has established that till the 16th
century social studies including historical studies did not use racial terminology.
Racial terminology was used to create a conscious divide between the ruled
and the ruling classes by terming them as "us" and "them".
So much so that a new discipline called as "Ethnography" came to
be established at the European academic institutions.
"Us" and "them", alien
and local, Aryans and non-Aryans, Indo-European or Indo-German, were employed
by hired scholars or rather court writers to create an impression or an illusion
that the Europeans were racially superior to all others.
Even physical descriptions like skin colour,
types of lips, noses and eyes and other features were consciously used to
drive a wedge between peoples. Irrespective of status of culture existing
in any particular society, the colonial administration declared that a particular
society was primitive.
"Why did British occupants narrate a
(hi)story from far off Bengal, which was eagerly taken up by many Europeans
to embroider and elaborate that tale in many fanciful facets? It was just
a harmless story of a conquest. No. All these stories were designed as the
"historical justification" for looting, building strongholds, colonising
foreign lands with the purpose of sustained exploitation. And they were presented
as an inherent law of evolutionary development of mankind. The conquerors,
the deliberate killers, the occupants, the exploiters from Christian Europe
were hailed for having brought culture and civilisation into the "colonies".
They were just following the same pattern of those nomads on grazing grounds,
the "Aryans" from the Central Asiatic steppes, who came in some
"pre historic" period and brought civilisation into India. The Christians
"ruffians" were just treading on the footprints of the "Aryans".
What could have been wrong with that?" the author poses an interesting
observation..
The book, by using unflinching and convincing
source material, has gone on to prove that a concerted and conscious effort
was made to establish the superiority of the white-blond-blue eyed- Christian
culture over all other cultures, societies and people.
"It is remarkable too that Marco Polo
narrated so much in great details but nothing about human "races".
This term, "Razza" in Italian, "raza" in Spanish, "raca"
in Portuguese, "race" in English, "Rasse" in German was
invented by the Franconians in the 14th century to justify their rule over
the Gauls in France. After the expulsions of Jews from Spain towards the end
of 15th century, the term was increasingly used in the contemporary meaning
of racism.
Observations such as above open new vistas
and horizons for further academic pursuit so that many myths about so called
primitive societies deliberately perpetrated by the colonial powers could
be removed and cleared.
At the same time, it would also sow seeds
for conflict management and conflict resolution as a balanced view about traditional
and ancient culture and societies is bound to assert itself.
Written in simple yet effective style, the
book is guaranteed to make a seminal if not revolutionary contribution to
the understanding and comprehension of the human race as one global citizen.
The book overall has succeeded in showing
mirror to the western academic system and has exposed the western scholars
who are never tired of claiming their objectivity and impartiality.
