"The only voice which was heard against this nation-wide exercise in suppressio veri suggestio falsi in the field of medieval Indian history, was that of the veteran historian, R.C. Majumdar. For him, this “national integration” based on a wilful blindness to recorded history of the havoc wrought by Islam in India, could lead only to national suicide. He tried his best to arrest the trend by presenting Islamic imperialism in medieval India as it was, and not as the politicians in league with Stalinist and Muslim historians were tailoring it to become. “Political necessities of the Indians during the last phase of British rule,” he wrote in 1960, “underlined the importance of alliance between the two communities, and this was sought to be smoothly brought about by glossing over the differences and creating an imaginary history of the past in order to depict the relations between the two in a much more favourable light than it actually was… But history is no respecter of persons or communities, and must always strive to tell the truth, so far as it can be deduced from reliable evidence. This great academic principle has a bearing upon actual life, for ignorance seldom proves to be a real bliss either to an individual or to a nation. In the particular case under consideration, ignorance of the actual relation between the Hindus and the Muslims throughout the course of history - an ignorance deliberately encouraged by some - may ultimately be found to have been the most important single factor which led to the partition of India. The real and effective means of solving a problem is to know and understand the facts that gave rise to it, and not to ignore them by hiding the head, ostrich-like, into sands of fiction.”"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
R.C. Majumdar, quoted in Sita Ram Goel, The Calcutta Quran Petition (1986), quoting R.C. Majumdar (ed), The History and Culture of the Indian People, Volume VI, The Delhi Sultanate, Bombay, 1960, p. xxix.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Historical_negationism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Historical negationism
41 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Historical negationism →
Related Quotes
"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed i…"
"The past, he reflected, had not merely been altered, it had been actually destroyed. For how could you establish even…"
"Negationism means the denial of historical crimes against humanity. It is not a reinterpretation of known facts, but …"
"I realize that my study of remains incomplete because it is limited to Jews and Christians. It should be supplemented…"
"“History and Language textbooks for schools all over India will soon be revised radically. In collaboration with vari…"
"While such reactions were foreseeable, I was nonetheless taken aback by their scale and by the use of certain languag…"
"The destruction wrought by the Muslim raids and invasions left the civilisation headless, wounded, truncated in its d…"
"But the negationists are not satisfied with seeing their own version of the facts being repeated in more and more boo…"
"India has its own full-fledged brand of negationism: a movement to deny the large-scale and long-term crimes against …"
"This caravan loaded with synthetic merchandise has, however, continued to move forward. Eight years later (1982), it …"