The Historical Challenge : Transforming Hate into Compassion

During the past few years the country has been facing an increase in communalism and hatred in society. In this book The Historical Challenge-Transforming Hate into Compassion, the author has tried to bring out that in the Indian sub-continent hate got nurtured through a Brahmanical socio-political ideology. This feudalistic and elitist order has been very much entwined with the history of India. Facing many ups and downs it got a death blow through the Constitution of India which came into force on 26th January, 1950. This hatred has now changed its form into a type of communalism and a particular community is under attack in the name of nationalism and patriotism. It is time that the real malaise is pinpointed, the poison of communalism is tackled ideologically and hate is eliminated through waves of compassion accompanied by justice for all. The author suggests a number of steps to do away with false narratives and historical distortions, and also to contain the spread of hate. The main cause of the partition of the country in 1947 was communalism and the two nation theory. A befitting reply to communalism would be to undo Partition through the Idea of Greater India. Chapter-1: Early Civilization in the Indian Sub-continent-deals with the Indus Valley Civilization followed by the Vedic period and the emergence of a hierarchical socio-political order. Chapter-2: The Ups and Downs of a Brahmanical Socio-Political Ideology-describes the challenges to the hierarchical socio-political order and the responses and adjustments to these challenges. In Chapter-3: The Nurturing of Hatred-it has been explained how hatred in the society could be nurtured for centuries. Chapter-4: The False Narratives-enlists and elaborates the false narratives which have been created by communalists and elitists. Chapter-5: The Distortion of Historical Facts-In this Chapter some historical facts have been discussed which have been distorted to create communal antagonism. Chapter-6: The Communalization of History-In this Chapter it has been discussed that how planned efforts have been made to communalize history text books so that the virus of communalism is planted in the minds of children right at the innocent stage. Chapter-7: Transforming Hate into Compassion-In this chapter the author suggests a number of steps to transform an atmosphere of hate into an environment of compassion. Chapter-8: Epilogue-contains the concluding remarks of the author and a summarization of the previous Chapters.