"Elliot and Dowson state that religious bigotry was characteristic of the Indian past. They do confess that in presenting the translations from Persian and Arabic sources, their intention is to highlight the oppressive rule of Muslim kings. They state that the intolerance of the Mohammedans led to idols being mutilated, temples destroyed, forced conversions, confiscations, murders and massacres, not to mention the sensuality and drunkenness of tyrants. Such descriptions were intended to convince the Hindu subjects that British rule was far superior and to their advantage. This was not an isolated attitude and is reflected in many British writings on Indian history. Religious bigotry was frequently read into the texts translated in the nineteenth century, which coloured the reading of the Turko-Persian texts. For example, where Utbi says, ‘He (Mahmud) made it obligatory on himself to undertake every year an expedition to Hind,’ the translation of this passage in Elliot and Dowson’s work reads, ‘the Sultan vowed to undertake a holy war to Hind every year’."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Educators from IndiaNon-fiction authors from IndiaHistorians from IndiaWomen academics from IndiaWomen authors from India
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History, Penguin Group, 2008, pp. 207-8.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Romila_Thapar
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Romila Thapar
48 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Romila Thapar →
Related Quotes
"Strangely, Indians travelling outside the subcontinent do not seem to have left itineraries of where they went or des…"
"Dayananda Sarasvati, seeking to return to the social and religious life of the Vedas, used the Vedic corpus as the bl…"
"The Hindutva version of the theory became a mechanism for excluding some sections of Indian society, specifically Ind…"
"The fundamental sanity in Indian civilization has been due to an absence of Satan."
"Not surprisingly, nationalism was replaced by a form of militant Hinduism, and the communal atmosphere in Indian poli…"
"[In India’s case] what one can foresee, perhaps, for the end of the next century [i.e. the twenty-first], is a series…"
"All history is contemporary history; you can't get away from the politics around you."
"Capitalism is often believed to thrive among Semitic religions such as Christianity and Islam. The argument would the…"
"The parallel can be seen for example in the recent resurgence of the worship of Rama, where the control of this relig…"
"The discovery of Harappan sites on the Indian side of the border between India and Pakistan is viewed as compensating…"