Nationhood is constituted by people who share a “common sense of their history” and a “common vision of their future”, National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval said as he released an 11-volume book series that charts different phases of the history of ancient India and its accomplishments.
Addressing a gathering at the launch event here on Tuesday, the NSA said, “People who have got a different sense of history, ‘if my hero is your villain’, you and I cannot make a nation.”
Describing India as a “civilisation of antiquity” and “civilisation of continuity” spanning thousands of years, Doval also said it was a “paradox” that the narrative that has been brought is that probably, “the first chapter about Indian history in any western, this thing... Is that it starts with Alexander”.
After releasing the series ‘History of Ancient India’, published by Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) and Aryan Books, he said it consists of scholarly papers contributed by a “large body of scholars”.
Doval said nations or members of nationhood are “those people who share a common sense of their history, common sense of our ancestors, common sense of their achievements of their past, and a common vision of their future. All those who believe in that they make one nation. People who have got a different sense of history, ‘if my hero is your villain’, you and I cannot make a nation”.
There are a few aspects about Indian history that nobody questions, including “our detractors”, he said. “One is its antiquity, that it is one of the oldest civilisations, and probably a human life had evolved, and society had perfected to a very high (level). Now, who did it? Were they the original people or they came from outside?
“There may be a bias about that but they will all say that this is a civilisation of antiquity. The second is its continuity. It has been continuing for thousands of years without disruption. And, the third feature, its vast expanse, where the footprint of the civilisation was very visible,” he added.
On Alexander’s connection with India, Doval cited William Jones and said he was a big Sanskrit scholar who said that “nowhere in Sanskrit or Pali or Prakrit literature or local dialects, he could find any mention of Alexander”. There is “no mention”, the NSA added.
It was a “non-event, it was a very small event of history” where some raiders on horseback, probably wanted to plunder, but faced resistance and returned. “But you make such a mountain of it as if the world history has changed with Alexander the great conqueror,” he said. Foreign domination was “responsible to some extent” for the feeling of nationhood not developing, he said.
Then, there was a deliberate attempt to “destroy” the vestiges of the proof of that. Now, it’s not only the temple, the religious bigotry. But institutions like Nalanda or Taxila universities, or the libraries, etc., were the “prime targets”, they had to be destroyed and any sources from where Indians could connect themselves to their glorious past, he added.
But, there was another reason -- Indians’ mindset. “For us events and personalities were very secondary,” Doval said.
“Now, this combination of these factors deprived us of our own existence and identity. And history is important for your identity,” he said.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was presented this work and told about it, and it has found “a place of prominence in his library”. The prime minister suggested that these can be donated to libraries and that idea is still there.
