Ridiculously tolerant Twitterati wants to #RemoveMughalsFromBooks

Trinaa Prasad | Updated on: 14 February 2017, 5:51 IST

Remove Mughals from school books, is the latest demand from the warboys of Twitter. The perpetually offended seek the instant removal of Mughal history from our school books because of the impact it had on life, and the religious choices of Hindus in the country back then. Our history books have always maintained that temples were looted, and people were coerced into converting to Islam. Some did so to avoid the Jazia tax, others to escape the rigidity of the caste system and the stigma that was attached to it.

The demand of reworking the history books didn't just come out of the blue. After HRD Minister Smriti Irani came into office, activist, author, and a retired teacher of one of the schools run by the RSS, Dinanath Batra wrote to her, asking for a revision in the way history books were written in India.

via GIPHY

According to a report in NDTV, in 2014 Batra met Irani for the same: "I met Smriti Irani and asked her to change the syllabus. These books are the work of Marx and Macaulay's sons (sic). The books are not rooted to the culture of the land. Why are there just two lines on Maharana Pratap and two pages on Akbar? Historians have made heroes of somebody like Aurangzeb."

Batra is the reason why most of us will never get a hand on a copy of historian Wendy Doniger's 'The Hindus: An Alternative History'. Because Batra's lawsuit forced Penguin to take the book off the Indian market.

But let's forget Batra for a minute here. The problem with this demand of blotting out a big chunk of Indian history before the glorious 200-year British rule, is - what else would you fill the years between 1556 to 1707 with?

How are we planning to explain the existence of the Taj Mahal, the Red Fort, Humanyun's Tomb, Qutub Minar, most of Fatehpur Sikri, Babri Masjid et al? What bubblewrap do we intend to use to cover up the advent of the Mughals, their rule, their architecture, and their general contribution to culture, society and religion?

On the positive side, the logic for #RemoveMughalsFromBooks is so wafer-thin, even Chetan Bhagat who till a few days ago was grappling with the concept of what historians do, cannot even with it.

The ones who don't like the Mughals one teeny bit.

Tegh Bahadurji listng to trbld Pandits who were being forcd to convert to Islam by Mughals! #RemoveMughalsFromBooks pic.twitter.com/sYDxhbduGq
- Friends of RSS (@friendsofrss) March 2, 2016

Dstruction of temple @ Mathura, as rcrded in contmprary Mughal chrnicle of Aurangzeb's tym. #RemoveMughalsFromBooks pic.twitter.com/iLhV9UkAqy
- RSS (@RSS_Org) March 2, 2016

Dirty politics of INC -5 cls CBSE books teaching kids tat Godhra massacre ws done by Hindus#RemoveMughalsFromBooks pic.twitter.com/zdzOoyR2X0
- Mahesh Vikram Hegde (@mvmeet) March 1, 2016

A good decision if Bharat want to revive Himself then Bharat have to kill mughals and English, at any cost. #RemoveMughalsFromBooks
- Arun Pandey RSS (@Arunpandeya1) March 1, 2016

#RemoveMughalsFromBooks In Jehangir's time, Sufis pushd for starting Cow Slaughtr, as a means of humiliatng Hindus. pic.twitter.com/rGVgmT9jaI
- Narendra Modi Fan (@Narendramodi_G) March 1, 2016

Please #RemoveMughalsFromBooks We Hindus already lost our 40,000 temples but never go on the way of terrorism because We Hindu are Tolerant.
- Kinshu Kumar (@thekinshu) March 1, 2016

I never learned about the history of Bappa raval, Prithvi raj Chuhan and Vikaramditya etc. #RemoveMughalsFromBooks
- Pradhan Sevak (@Pradhan_sevak) March 1, 2016

The ones who want to understand why history must be censored:

#RemoveMughalsFromBooks today. What's next? Pull down the Red Fort and Taj Mahal? Our heritage has to be preserved, not destroyed.
- Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) March 2, 2016

#RemoveMughalsFromBooks is nonsensical. Every regime in India before we became democratic was autocratic. It's still our heritage.
- Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) March 2, 2016

Am stunned people are trending #RemoveMughalsFromBooks. They are part of our heritage. Just like Parliament House and India Gate.
- Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) March 2, 2016

"Shivaji was a brave fighter. In 1659 he fought a war against...Mu..ermm..against Mutants. Yeah, mutants are real"#RemoveMughalsfromBooks
- M (@dhaansu_handle) March 2, 2016

If Sanghis want to #RemoveMughalsFromBooks we must also remove Ahmedabad & Surat from Gujarat, as both were established/developed by Mughals
- Suryanarayan Ganesh (@gsurya) March 2, 2016

#RemoveMughalsFromBooks. Next up, #RemoveDalitsFromBooks. Oh wait, there aren't any in the first place.
- Puram (@puram_politics) March 2, 2016

So, the British came and won the country from no one? #RemoveMughalsFromBooks
- Sandeep Roy (@sandeeproy1) March 2, 2016

Mughals gave us art, literature, food and the Taj Mahal. The BJP will give us riots and a statue of Sardar Patel. So #RemoveMughalsFromBooks
- lindsay pereira (@lindsaypereira) March 2, 2016

Where will the historical monuments go?? Will bhakts try to remove them too, which were made by mugals?? #RemoveMughalsFromBooks
- dhiraj tiwari (@djmadguy) March 2, 2016

Denial and repressing memory are the immature defense mechanisms of a traumatized society. That's what #RemoveMughalsFromBooks suggests.
- Be'Havin! (@WrongDoc) March 2, 2016

#RemoveMughalsFromBooks but collect revenue from tourism in all the historic monuments build by the Mughals!
- ravish kumar (@RoflKumar) March 2, 2016

The ones who prioritise better.