Monday, March 09, 2009

Sri Aurobindo Ashram cannot produce reliable history

[Comprehensive History of India
"Dr. K M Munshi liked my work on ancient Bengal and asked me to work on a comprehensive volume on Indian history. He introduced me to many great scholars. In my seventy years of career that work was to become a great achievement. Dr. Munshi was also a great researcher and historian, and I truly enjoyed working with him. We did have our differences, but he always let me prevail. Since I could not ignore his opinion, I had to include both view points often contradicting each other, in several places. It took 35 years to complete all the volumes! I was happy that it was completed before Munshiji breathed his last."
"Munshi believed that a government sponsored institution can never document history in a honest manner. I realized this truth in the later years. The federal government built an editorial board to document India's freedom struggle with me as the chief editor. I discovered that other fellow historians were so eager to write history glorifying their friends in politics that I had to get out. We should not write corrupted history, however bitter the proceedings may be. Many countries have the tradition of changing history as their leaders change. We should not let India become one of those. History should be written based on sound proof and reasoning and not focused around famous personalities." Interview with R.C. Majumdar
The history may repeat itself but great historians like
Dr. R.C. Mazumdar are rarely born again. Just before he passed away in 1980, I met with him at his residence in Calcutta. Excerpts from the interview.
-- Jyotsna Kamat Interview conducted on April 29, 1979 Article First Published: May 1980 in Mallige Monthly This Web Page Last Updated: February 10, 2009]
If "a government sponsored institution can never document history in an honest manner," then it follows that Sri Aurobindo Ashram cannot produce reliable history relating to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]

1 comment:

  1. Is there any "Ashram sponsored" history? An individual, belonging to the Ashram, writing it does not make it Ashram sponsored.

    RY Deshpande

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