In our
school and college days, History interested us but sadly, now we feel that most
of what was read was biased or partly presented. History (from Greek ἱστορία,
historia, meaning 'inquiry; knowledge acquired by investigation') is the study of the past. There is no doubt that most history across
the world has been written with a strong bias towards the victor and those in
power. History of World War two is perhaps the best example where mainly
British and Americans have been glorified and credited with achieving victory
over Nazi Germany.
In our
School curriculum – we read mostly about British Viceroys, their reforms and
the Governor Generals but not how they treated Indians. Congress (Gandhi Nehru) got us freedom
without shedding blood and freedom was gotten in midnight by peaceful
agitations (then why so many were imprisoned, punished, killed and died in
harness !). We read in detail about Slave dynasty (Mamluk was a soldier of
slave origin who had converted to Islam) After death of Muhammad of Ghor, his
empire was split in Ghazni, Bengal, Multan, slaves rose to power. Iltumish ruled from Delhi. But there was no lesson on Skandagupta Maurya
– Bhitari pillar inscription portrays that he restored Gupta powe defeating
enemies, repulsed invasion by Huns and ruled a vast territory expanded from
Junagadh to Afganistan. Our children may
not read about him – whose fault ? The life history of many Indians who sacrificed themselves in
freedom movement too has been forgotten and finds no place in our history, yet we took pride in memorizing the name of Lord Curzon,
Wellesley, Dalhousie, Minto-Morley reforms – History !!.
In the
arterial Mount Road of Chennai, at Spencer Signal stood a 10-foot bronze statue perched on a 12-foot
pedestal dwarfing its surroundings.
There was a satyagraha for its removal – did our History tell us
anything of this ? What do you feel – should History ever be rewritten ? should it not be factually
recorded and what happens when a latter generation feels it is unjust and was
loaded against them !
In 1513, a
group of men led by Vasco Núñez de Balboa marched across the Isthmus of Panama
and discovered the Pacific Ocean. They had been looking for it—they knew it
existed—and, familiar as they were with oceans, they had no difficulty in
recognizing it when they saw it. On their way, however, they saw a good many
things they had not been looking for and were not familiar with. When they
returned to Spain to tell what they had seen, it was not a simple matter to
find words for everything. For example, they had killed
a large and ferocious wild animal. They called it a tiger, although there were
no tigers in Spain and none of the men had ever seen one before. Listening to their story was Peter Martyr, member of the King's
Council of the Indies and possessor of an insatiable curiosity about the new
land that Spain was uncovering in the west. How, the
learned man asked them, did they know that the ferocious animal was a tiger?
In 1492, Columbus nursed a growing urge to sail west to
the Indies—as the lands of China, Japan and India were then known in Europe. He reportedly studied books, made hundreds of marginal notations in them
and came out with ideas about the world.
Christianity has meant many things to many men, and its role in the
European conquest and occupation of America was varied. But in 1492 to Columbus
there was probably nothing very complicated about it. He would have reduced it
to a matter of corrupt human beings, destined for eternal damnation, redeemed
by a merciful savior. Christ saved those who believed in him, and it was the
duty of Christians to spread his gospel and thus rescue the heathens from the
fate that would otherwise await them.
Although
Christianity was in itself a sufficient justification for dominion, Columbus
would also carry civilization to the Indies; and this, too, was a gift that he
and his contemporaries considered adequate recompense for anything they might
take. When
people talked about civilization—or civility, as they usually called it—they
seldom specified precisely what they meant. One way
to define civility was by its opposite, barbarism. To them, all those who were practicing
what they were not practicing were barbaric.
Christopher Columbus (1451
– 1506) was an Italian explorer and colonizer
who completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that opened the New World
for conquest and permanent European colonization of the Americas. His
expeditions, sponsored by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, were the first
European contact with the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. He married Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Moniz
Perestrelo and was based in Lisbon for several years, but later took a
Castilian mistress; he had one son with each woman. Following persistent lobbying, Queen Isabella
I and King Ferdinand II agreed to sponsor a journey west, in the name of the
Crown of Castile. Columbus left Castile in August 1492 with three ships, and
after a stopover in the Canary Islands made landfall in the Americas on 12
October (later celebrated as Columbus Day). Columbus subsequently visited the islands now
known as Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing a colony in what is now Haiti—the
first European settlement in the Americas since the Norse colonies nearly 500
years earlier. He arrived back in Castile in early 1493, bringing a number of
captive natives with him. Word of his voyages soon spread throughout Europe.
Columbus made three
further voyages to the New World, exploring the Lesser Antilles in 1493,
Trinidad and the northern coast of South America in 1498, and the eastern coast
of Central America in 1502. Many of the names he gave to geographical
features—particularly islands—are still in use. He continued to seek a passage
to the East Indies, and the extent to which he was aware that the Americas were
a wholly separate landmass is uncertain. He never
clearly renounced his belief that he had reached the Far East and gave the name
indios ("Indians") to the indigenous peoples he encountered.
Columbus's legacy
continues to be debated. He was widely venerated in the centuries after his
death, but public perceptions have changed as recent scholars have given
greater attention to negative aspects of his life, such as his enslavement of
the indigenous population in his quest for gold and his brutal subjugation of
the Taíno people, leading to their near-extinction, as well as allegations of
tyranny towards Spanish colonists. Now with the present unrest and ‘black lives
too matter’ movement, there has been push to remove confederate symbols.
A statue of a confederate
soldier was removed in Jacksonville, Florida, and the Navy moved to ban all
confederate flags from public spaces. As cities and organizations across the
country continue to take down monuments, memorials and
other symbols of hate, one controversial historical figure has come back into
the spotlight: Christopher Columbus. While the debate over the
controversial European explorer reignited, some of his opponents have already
taken bold action to his memorials. On
Tuesday night, a Columbus statue in Richmond, Virginia, was torn down by
protesters, set on fire and then submerged into a lake, police said. Overnight
Tuesday, another Columbus statue in Boston was decapitated, according to Boston
police.
A decapitated statue of
Christopher Columbus stands in Christopher Columbus Park in Boston. The statue's head, damaged overnight, was
recovered by the Boston Police, as a
movement to remove statues commemorating slavers and colonizers continues to
sweep across the U.S. In New York City, Columbus's opponents are re-upping
their calls to the city to remove the 14-foot marble statue that stands above a
pedestal in Columbus Circle outside Central Park. They say that this is right time and the city
did not need a monument to a figure who
had a history of destroying and enslaving indigenous people. Proponents for the
statue acknowledge that Columbus' history was far from the heroic, noble
explorer portrayed in some history books; however, they said the history behind
the New York statue is more nuanced.
A distinguished professor of sociology who was
part of a special commission that reviewed controversial monuments in New York
City, noted that the New York statue was erected mostly to honour Italian
Americans persecuted during the 19th century, while many confederate statutes
were put up to symbolize the triumph of
whites over blacks in the south. In
2018, the city removed a statue of J. Marion Sims, a 19th-century surgeon who
conducted experimental operations on female slaves, from Central Park,
following the commission's report.
History is a powerful wave
and those who try to hold it back will be crushed, it is stated. Getting back to that bronze statue in the
middle of Mount Road – it was that of Colonel James Neil erected in 1861. He was notorious for indiscriminately killing
Indians in revenge after the First freedom war in 1857. In 1927 there was a famous agitation,
satyagraha for its removal. It was subsequently moved to Ripon Building Campus
and from there to Madras museum after a resolution was passed in Madras Corporation.
Last known, it was lying uncared for, with gunnies surrounding it in Madras
Museum.
Ozymandias is a sonnet written by the PB Shelly and published
in 1818 ~ its central theme is the inevitable decline of all leaders
and of the empires they build.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
11.6.2020
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