18

Apr

Rana Sanga Controversy Indicates A National Malady

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A simple statement by a senior member of parliament has snowballed into a major controversy, leading to a point of confrontation. Worst is the fact that some people have tried to use this needless controversy to the advantage of the political parties to which they belong.

As a school student, in my history book, I read about Rana Sanga having invited Babur, and that was more than six decades ago. There were students of all castes and communities in my class. Then, as a college student, I studied at Agra’s Balwant Rajput College, as the Raja Balwant Singh College is known today. It is a college run and dominated by proud Kshatriyas whose families were still holding all the trappings of a grand feudal order when I was a student there. However, I  never heard anyone caring for what Rana Sanga did or defending his act, which gets a by-the-way mention in history books.                    

Whatever the motivation, it is a fact of history that Rana Sanga invited Babar to attack Delhi as he wanted to settle score with the Sultan of Delhi Ibrahim Lodi and was not militarily strong enough to take him on his own. Perhaps he expected Babar to return to his kingdom in Central Asia which did not  happen. Rest is Mughal history.

What Rana Sanga did was a common practice among kings and sultans who always wanted to enhance the borders of their kingdoms for greater clout and greater revenue resources. This was something like the alliance's political parties – big and small do today to win elections and form governments.

Ranga Sanga was no doubt a great warrior and fearless fighter. The alliance he sought is no reflection on his capability as a great general and administrator. He was also a great patriot, but his country was his kingdom and not the Indian subcontinent as a whole. And nobody’s patriotism was questioned on Hindu-Muslim lines before the British rule-engineered partition of India in 1947, and after 2014, when the Modi era started. Hindu kings had Muslim generals and soldiers, and Muslim kings and Mughal Emperors had Hindu generals and Hindu soldiers. Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, who is painted as the most anti-Hindu Muslim ruler, had a Hindu as Commander-in-Chief of his huge army.

 

Column at a Glance
A recent statement by a senior parliament member has ignited a significant controversy, with political factions attempting to exploit the situation for their gain. The article reflects on historical events, particularly Rana Sanga's invitation to Babur to attack Delhi, emphasising that such alliances were common among rulers seeking to expand their territories.
Friday Fuss
By Pradeep Mathur
The author argues that questioning Sanga's actions after 500 years is misguided and highlights a broader issue of societal intolerance and emotional responses, particularly among groups like the Karni Sena. The piece critiques the current state of Indian society, suggesting that a loss of humour and patience has led to increased aggression and divisiveness, particularly along communal and caste lines. It calls for a return to the values of unity and communal harmony that were central to India's freedom struggle, warning against the dangers of polarisation in a diverse society.

Therefore, after 500 years of the First War of Panipat, which paved the way for the  Mughal dynasty in India, to question Rana Sanga’s credentials for inviting a Muslim is nothing but plain idiocy. This shows a lack of knowledge of history as well as an understanding of the social and political matrix of that time.

The question is, if the controversy on the issue is irrational and stupid, why has it snowballed into a major confrontation endangering even the law-and-order situation? The answer is the emotional response of members of Karni Sena, a caste outfit of young members of the Kshatriya community of Rajasthan, which came up in the year 2006, basically on the demand for jobs in government service.

Surprisingly, such an insignificant issue should crop up when our priorities should be issues of faster socio-economic development.  Doesn't this show that there is something wrong with our evolution as a modern society fit to be in the 21st-century world?

The fact is that now we have become a nation of people who are perpetually tense and live on a short fuse. We have lost our sense of humour. The capacity to laugh at oneself has become a thing of the past. How could we have a sense of humour when I was a school student, and why can't we have it now when I am a grandfather of teenage children? With the loss of humour, we have lost the tolerance and patience to put up with an opinion opposed to what we hold dear. Intolerance, lack of patience, and aggression are signs of weakness.  

  Though we have a constitution that endorses and protects liberal values of a democratic society, but anything can hurt somebody’s feelings, and an FIR can be filed and a court case initiated.

Whatever the anomalies and shortcomings in our growth strategies, the fact remains that today we are much better off on the economic front than we were four to five decades ago. With an economy and military force which is among the five biggest and best in the comity of nations, why have we become a country of weaklings? It is not something of great concern and we should not do something about it before it is too late.

The reason is obvious. We have forgotten the values which were generated during our freedom struggle. Our talk of Vasudhav Kutumbam is an empty slogan. What to say of the world we do not consider our neighbours and even our citizens as one family. We no longer put due emphasis on national unity. Rather, in the name of unity, we have put forth the concept of Rashtravad, which, for no valid reason, questions the loyalty of minorities and of those of the majority community who say it is wrong and must stop.

In the past decade, we have promoted communal polarisation. We have forgotten the fact that in a big and diversified society, the tendency to divide would know no barriers. The division cannot only be on a Hindu-Muslim basis. This tendency will also divide the caste-riden Hindu society of multiple cultures and languages. The confrontation with Rana Sanga is just a case in point. We are already witnessing caste/ cultural conflicts in many states, including Maharashtra.

The time is to act firmly against these divisive tendencies and return to the path of communal harmony and the values that we imbibed with the idea of India as propagated during our freedom struggle, led by Mahatma Gandhi.

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