History would have been only a hobby for few if it were not used as a signal for the future. If it were not a powerful tool, no one would have tampered with it, it would have remained factual, probably boring, and would have read like a calendar. It is none of those.
How would Kamal Rashid Khan and Rakhi Sawant would be remembered hundred years later? May be, they won’t. May be, with the same mocking indifference that we have toward them today. Why? Because, no one gains by tmapering with their legacy.
Recently, Jawahar Lal Nehru has been at the receiving end of online slander. Some would say facts are tumbling out. That he was born in a brothel. That he was a womanizer just like Gandhi was. That he ratted on Subhash Bose. That he died of sexually transmitted disease. That he killed Gandhi.
Many people love saying the most horrible things about Gandhi. They have reasons to, I guess. They must have read something I have not, they must have suffered because of him the way I have not. They are proud in their abuse; I am confused by the amount of hatred.
And, then I realise what we believe is a deeply political act. History should not be but is a political tool. Only we bring down the idols of the past, we can give a new course to future.
Ganga can’t flow from the Vindhyas but that’s what many are attempting. To change the origin story and thereby change the course of the nation for all times to come.
Just be careful what you believe in. Read, question, don’t believe in anything if you can’t, but don’t be a prop in someone else’s stage design.
