Distorted Indian History Part 5

Please also read

1. "Distorted Indian History Part 1"


2. "Distorted Indian History Part 2"


3. "Distorted Indian History Part 3"


4. "Distorted Indian History Part 4"


5. "Distorted Indian History Part 6"


6. "Distorted Indian History Part 7"


7. "Distorted Indian History Part 8"


8. "Distorted Indian History Part 9"

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Distortion of Indian History for Muslim appeasement, Part 5
By Dr. Radhasyam Brahmachari

Glorification of Sher Shah:

Sher Shah Suri, “The Tiger King”, founder of the Suri Dynasty, was born at Narnaul in Punjab in 1486 and died on May 22, 1545 at Kalinjar. His original name was Farid Khan. His father Hasan was a Jagirdar at Sasaram, Bihar . Ill-treated by his stepmother, he left home at an early age. He went to Jaunpur where he set himself to serious study and there he acquired good command over the Arabic and Persian languages. Because of his abilities, he was soon appointed by his father to manage the family Jagir at Sasaram. [1]

Picture of Sher Shah

Farid Khan exploited this opportunity to accumulate riches by highway robbery and plundering the wealth and riches of the Hindus, taking their women and children as captives and selling them as slaves, following the foot steps of Bakhiyar Khalji, the famoue warlord of Bihar , who lived in early 13^th century AD. In one occasion, Farid succeeded to kill a tiger and hence earned the title “Sher (tiger) Khan“. The money that Sher Khan accumulated by Criminal means helped him raise a small army and hence to begin his political career. Later on, Sher Khan could consolidate his power by gaining the possession of the Chunar Fort by marrying the widow of Taj Khan Sarang-Khani, the Governer of Ibrahim Lodi.

It may be mentioned here that Chunar is in the Mirzapur District of Uttar Pradesh state, India. Though a small town, Chunar has a great influence in Indian history. The Chunar Fort was built by Maharaja Vikramaditya, the King of Ujjain, in honour of the stay of his brother Raja Bhrithari. As per Hindu records, Chunar is the corrupt of Sanskrit Charanadri as Lord Vishnu had taken his first step here in his Vaman incarnation. The place was also well known as Nainagarh.

However, Sher Khan gained considerable strength after defeating the combined army of Bengal and Hamayun with his own Bihari army and some Pashtun tribes men, in 1537. Then he defeated Humayun at the Battle of Kanauj on May 17, 1540, and ascended the throne of Delhi with the title Sher Shah. His reign barely spanned five years, but the so called secular historians of India , who are not prepared to miss even a single opportunity to glorify the Muslim invaders, portray it as a landmark in the history of the Sub-continent. They project Sher Shah as a rare genius and say that he made many brilliant additions and improvements to the existing system of administration. [2]

They narrate Sher shah as an outstanding military genius, a great civilian administrator and, according to them; he left not even a single area of administrative syatem where he had not set up reforms. But to an unbiased reader, all such narrations appear to be nothing but cock-and-bull stories. According to these spineless slave historians, Sher Shah had revolutionized the revenue syatem which Akbar later on copied. But according another group of historians, Todar Mal, a Rajput minister of Akbar’s court, had implemented all such reforms connected to revenue administration, which are now being wrongly attributed to Sher Shah. [2]

Road Building Enterprise of Sher Shah:

The most interesting part of the episode is that, theses spineless historians are projecting Sher Shah as a great builder, particularly a road builder. From their childhood, the students of India are being taught that Sher Shah Suri had built the road which is now known as the Grand Trunk Road ( G.T. Road ). But how far is this correct? Let us read further to find more information on this matter.

During the days of undivided India , the said G.T. Road ran from Sonargaon near Dhaka (now in Bangladesh ) up to the bank of River Indus in Punjab . Historian R.C. Majumdar writes, “Length of the road was 1,500 kos or 3,000 miles (4,800 km).”[3] According to another historian, Shri Atul Chandra Roy, the length of the road was 1,400 miles or less than half of R C Majumdar’s figures.[4] Moreover, R.C. Majumdar holds that the champion road-builder, Sher Shah, undertook construction of three more roads and completed them in his lifetime. “One road from Agra towards south up to Burhanpur (600 miles), the second road from Agra via Chittor up to Jodhpur (200 miles) and the third road from Lahore to Multan (100 miles).”[5]

Thus, according to the estimate of R.C. Majumdar, the total length of all the roads built by Sher Shah stands at 3,900 miles or 6,240 km. These historians also say that Sher Shah planted trees on both sides of these roads to provide shades for the travelers and, in addition to that, he set up sarais (inns) at an interval of 2 kos along the roads where the travelers could take rest. In these sarais, Sher Shah provided separate accommodation facilities for the Hindus and the Muslims. He also employed Brahmin and Muslim cooks for preparing the meals of the Hindu and Muslim visitors. The reader should keep in his mind that all these things Sher Shah did within 5 years, despite his hectic military activities.

It has been mentioned above that the history books also tell that Sher Shah ascended the throne of Delhi on May 17, 1540, by defeating Humayun in a battle near Kannauj and in the same year organised a military campaign to suppress the revolt of the Gakkars in Punjab . He moved east, the next year, to suppress a similar revolt in Bengal in March, 1541 AD. The next year, he moved against the Rajput kings in central India and conquered Malwa. The very next year (i.e. in 1543 AD), he organised a campaign against the Hindu king Puran Mal and took control of the fort at Raisin and then moved against the Rajput king of Marwar. In 1544 he subdued the Rathore king, Maldev and in the subsequent year, he died in an accident in 1545 AD, in Kalinjar.

So, the rule of Sher Shah lasted only for five years and out of these five years, he spent nearly one year to gain control over the fort of Kalinjore.[6] During the rest of his reign, he was on hectic movement from east to west and north to south for suppressing revolts or conquering new forts. It should be mentioned here that the period under consideration was a period of political chaos and lawlessness and to restore order, Sher Shah had to fight many battles and that too with partial success. Thus the question naturally arises-Was it possible for Sher Shah (or any other ruler of that time) to build such long roads within such a short span of time? Furthermore, is it possible to make roads, nearly 6,240 Km long, today using modern technology, within a period of 4 or 5 years? The real story is that, Abbas Khan, a court-chronicler of Sher Shah had written some lies to please and glorify his master and our historians took those narrations at their face value, without applying their common sense to estimate the credibility of those blatant lies.

A close scrutiny of events, during the time of Sher Shah, also reveals that, despite his vast efforts, he did not succeed in bringing the vast stretch of land, from Dhaka in Bengal and River Indus in Punjab , under his control. So, how could Sher Shah carry out such a gigantic project like making a road from Bengal to Punjab , when the territory in question was not under his supreme control?

A Muslim chronicler, Sheikh Nurul Haque, most probably honest, who mentioned in his Zubdatut Tawarikh, the road-building endeavour of Sher Shah, and wrote, “Sher Shah made the road which now runs from Delhi to Agra, by cutting trees in jungles, removing obstacles and built serais. Before that time people had to travel through the doab between these two places.”[7] This description seems plausible and Sher Shah could have built a road, 300 Km long, within his reign of 4 years. It is important to note that this chronicler did not mention a single word about building a road from Bengal to Punjab by Sher Shah.

However, regarding the road building activities of Sher Shah, Abbas Khan, a court chronicler of Sher Shah, in his Tarikh-i-Sher Shah, writes, “May glory and blessings be upon his eminent dignity! For the convenience in traveling of poor travelers, on every road, at a distance of two kos, he made a sarai (inn); and one road with sarais he made from the fort which he built in the Punjab to the city of Sunargaon , which is situated in the kingdom of Bengal , on the shore of the ocean.. Another road he made from the city of Agra to Burhanpur, which is on the borders of the kingdom of the Dekhin, and he made one from the city of Agra to Jodhpur and Chitor; and one road with sarais from the city of Lahore to Multan . Altogether he built 1700 sarais on various roads; and in every sarai he built separate lodgings , both for Hindus and Musulmans, and at the gate of every sarai he had placed pots full of water, that any one might drink; and in every sarai he settled Brahmans for the entertainment of Hindus, to provide hot and cold water, and beds and food, and grain for their horses; and it was a rule in these sarais, that whoever entered them received provision suitable to his rank, and food and litter for his cattle from Government.”[8]

“Villages were established all round the sarais. In the middle of every sarai was a well and a masjid of burnt brick; and he placed an imam and a muezzin in every masjid, together with custodians (shahna), and several watchmen; and all these were maintained from the land near the sarai. In every sarai, two horses were kept, that they might quickly carry news. I have heard that Hussain Tashtdar once, on an emergency, rode 300 kos in one day. On both sides of the highway, Sher Shah planted fruit-bearing trees, such as also gave much shade, that in the hot wind travelers might go along under the trees; and if they should stop by the way, might rest and take repose. If they put up at a sarai, they bound their horses under the trees”, Abbas Khan continues.[8]

Sher Shah’s Mausoleum at Sasaram

From what has been said above, it becomes evident that Abbas Khan wrote darkest lies in his Tarikh-i-Sher Shah, to please and glorify his master and our historians simply copied those narrations without considering the credibility of those narrations. To any unbiased reader, it would appear utterly impossible for Sher Shah to build such long roads, even if he would have devoted his 5 or 4 years of rein entirely for road building setting his military and political aspects aside. However, it is a shame that the spineless secular historians of India , to glorify the foreign invaders, are believing in these cock and bull stories which, perhaps, even a donkey would refuse to admit.
As a matter of fact, India is a great country and its civilization is oldest in the world. And it is needless to say that such a grand civilization could not have developed and sustained without extensive trade and commerce, and without good roads such large scale trade and commerce could not have been possible.. So, simple common sense tells us that there were networks of good roads in existence throughout the country from very ancient times, centuries before the arrival of the Muslim invaders. One should remember that, in those days, military campaigns among the Hindu kings were very common affair. How could these military campaigns have been possible without good roads? It means that there were good roads, wide enough for chariots drawn by four horses, even in very ancient times. For example, the epic Mahabharata describes how kings from remote corners of this country had assembled at Kurukshetra with their army to participate in the war. Did they come to Kurukshetra through jungles?


Picture of Chunar Fort on Ganga

Other Credits Attributed to Sher Shah:

According to our historians, Sher Shah was not only a champion road builder but “Sher Shah planted shade-giving trees on both sides of the roads and sarais or rest houses at an interval of 2 kos, where separate arrangements were provided for the Muslims and the Hindus.“[9] How could Sher Shah do all these things within a period of about four years? No sane man would believe in this garbage of lies except the secular historians of India .

To glorify Sher Shah, our historians write, “Sher Shah was indeed a striking personality in the history of medieval India … His military character was marked by a rare combination of caution and enterprise, his political conduct was, on the whole, just and humane; his religious attitude was free from medieval bigotry; and his excellent taste in building is well attested, even today, by his noble mausoleum at Sasaram. He applied his indefatigable industry to the service of the state, and his reforms were well calculated to secure the interests of the people.”[10]

What Sher Shah Really was:

But, in reality, Sher Shah was a Muslim Pathan from Afghanistan and like any other Muslim invaders, he was equally treacherous and cruel to the Hindus. His court chronicler, Abbas Khan, in his Tariq-i-Sher Shah, says that in 1543, Sher Shah invaded the kingdom of the Hindu king, Puran Mal, and put his Raisin fort under siege which compelled the Hindu army to surrender. Puran Mal sought a safe passage for his royal family and army. Sher Shah agreed. So Puran Mal and his army came out of the fort and took shelter in a pre-arranged camp provided by Sher Shah, just outside the fort.

In the meantime, the Pathan army started massacring the Hindus and to describe the wholesale slaughter, Abbas Khan writes, “While the Hindus were employed in putting their women and families to death, the Afghans on all sides commenced slaughtering of the Hindus. Puran Mal and his commanders, like pigs at a bay, failed to exhibit valour and gallantry, and within the twinkle of an eye, all were slain. Such of their wives and families, as were not slain, were captured. One daughter of Puran Mal and three sons of his brother were taken alive and the rest were all killed. Sher Shah gave the daughter of Puran Mal to some itinerant minstrels (bazigars) that they might make her dance in the bazaars, and ordered the boys to be castrated, so that the race of the oppressors (i.e. the Hindus) might not increase.” [11]

At that time, the Rohtas fort in Bihar was under the control of the Hindu king, Hari Krishna Roy, who was a friend of Sher Shah. In 1537, Humayun launched a military campaign against Sher Shah and proceeded to attack the fortress at Chunar. Sher Shah had 1,000 women in his harem in the said fort at Chunar. Apprehending the fall of Chunar fort, Sher Shah requested Raja Hari Krishna Roy to provide a safe place for his harem in the Rohtas fort. Once upon a time, the Raja had given, in a similar crisis, shelter to Mia Nazim (younger brother of Sher Shah) and hence Sher Shah could request the Raja for a similar benevolence. At first, King Hari Krishna was hesitant.

However, on Sher Shah’s promise by touching the Quran, the Raja agreed to give shelter, but could smell a rat. As soon as Raja Hari Krishna agreed, Sher Shah hatched a plan to capture the fort. About 1,200 dolis (palanquins) were made ready overnight and two Afghan soldiers, clad in burqas, occupied each doli. The security staff in the fort checked the first few dolis and failing to detect the conspiracy, allowed the rest to enter the fort. Nearly 2,500 Pathan soldiers succeeded in entering the fort and in the mid-night they started killing the Hindu security guards and thus occupied the fort. King Hari Krishna somehow managed to escape the fort through a secret passage. [12] Our spineless historians describe this incident as exhibit of exemplary military acumen and bravery of Sher Shah. [13]

But Hari Krishna Roy did not know that the Koran instructs the Muslims that they can enter into any agreement with the kafirs and break that agreement in the opportune moment, for the benefit of Islam. Moreover, Allah designates such a treachery with the kafirs as taqiyah or holy deception and attaches merit for such treacherous activities.

This kind of treachery is still going on today and an incident may be cited in this context. When Indian Prime Minister A B Vajpayee and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharf were having peace talks at Rawalpindi in 1998, the Pakistani army, at the instigation of Nawaz Sharif, was crossing the Line of Control (LOC) between India and the Pak occupied Kashmir (POK) and occupying the military bunkers on the Indian side at Kargil.
However, our so-called secular historians carefully avoid all these aspects in their versions of history and prefer to follow two fundamental guidelines, as mentioned above, to glorify the Muslim rulers.

How Farid Khan became Sher Shah:

It has been mentioned earlier that the so called secular and Marxist historians distort the Muslim colonial period of Indian history following the guidelines-

1) The period of Muslim rule in India was not a colonial period as the Muslim rulers, though came from outside, stayed back in this country.

2) The said Muslim period of Indian history should be mentioned as a golden period of Indian history, not a colonial period.

3) The ugly face of Islam is to be suppressed and it should be projected as a noble, generous, extremely tolerant and socialistic religion, and religion of universal brotherhood.

4) The Hinduism is to be exposed as a base religion infected with the inhuman institution like casteism and full of despicable superstitions.

5) The foreign Muslim rulers are to be narrated as highly civilized, generous, polished and valorous people and they were far superior to the Hindus in military skill and bravery.

6) During the Muslim rule, the Hindus and Muslims lived in peace as good neighbours and the present enmity and hatred between the two communities was created later on by the British colonialists.

7) It should never be mentioned that the Muslim rulers had massacred the Hindus in hundreds of thousands, demolished thousands Hindu temples or converted them into mosques.

It should never be mentioned that the Muslim rulers converted the Hindus at the point of sword. On the contrary, it should be said the low caste Hindus, being oppressed by the high caste Hindus and attracted by the generous and socialistic ideals of Islam, accepted Islam in droves and so on and so forth.

According to the set guidelines as mentioned above, the so called secular historians are projecting Sher Shah as a great ruler, a rare genius free from religious bigotry and by any similar lofty word the might find in the dictionary. They also say that exemplary military skill, keen foresight, extreme diligence and prudence helped Sher Shah rising from humble Farid Khan and ending up ultimately as the Sultan of Hindustan . But the real story is quite different.

In an earlier article, it has been pointed out that Islam has nothing like human resource development program and it has no plan to develop its followers as wealth creators. On the contrary, the Koran inspires the Muslims to acquire wealth by criminal means such as theft, robbery and plunder of the kafirs by waging jihad against them. Most importantly, their Prophet taught his followers this easy means for acquiring wealth by killing and driving away the Jews from Medina and confiscating and distributing their wealth and the riches among the believers. It is needless to say that these teachings of Islam have made its followers, though poor in creative intelligentsia, expert in criminal activities.

As a Muslim, Farid Khan also utilized that celebrated criminal path to accumulate wealth while he was serving his father to manage his jagir. He used to conduct raids on Hindu villages, plunder the wealth and riches of the Hindu subjects of his father’s jagir, to become rich. As a procedure, he used to encircle a Hindu village, kill the adult males and sell the women and children as slaves and confiscate their properties. He also used to bring false allegations against the Hindu landlords and occupy their wealth and properties after killing them en masse or driving them out of the jagir.

To narrate such a raid in a Hindu village, Abbas Hasan in his Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi, writes, “His horsemen he directed to patrol around the villages, to kill all men they meet and to make prisoners of the women and children, to drive in cattle to permit no one to cultivate the fields, to destroy the crops already sown and not to permit any one to bring anything in from neighbouring parts.” [14]

To describe how Farid Khan attacked and plundered the wealth of the Hindu zamindars, Abbas Hasan, in his Tarikh-i-Sher Shahi, writes, “Early in the morning, Farid Khan mounted and attacked the criminal zamindars, and put all the rebels to death, and making their women and children prisoners, ordered his men to sell them or keep them as slaves and brought other people (i.e. Afghan Muslims) to the village and settled them there.” [14]

While commenting on such oppression of the Muslim rulers on the helpless Hindus, H M Elliot writes,”Under sauch rulers, we cannot wonder that the fountains of justice are corrupted; that the state revenues are never collected without violence and outrage; that villages are burnt and their inhabitants mutilated or sold to slavery; that the officials, so far from affording protection, are themselves the chief robbers and usurpers; and that the poor find no redress against the oppressor’s wrong and proud man’s consumely.” [15]

He also writes, “The few glimpses we have of Hindus slain for disputing with the Muhammadans, of prohibitions against processions, worship and ablutions, and of other intolerant measures, of idols mutilated, of temples razed, of forcible conversions and marriages of proscriptions and confiscations, of murders and massacres, and of the sensuality and drunkenness of the tyrants who enjoined them, show us that this picture is no overcharged, and it is much to br regretted that we are left to draw it for ourselves from out of the man of ordinary occurrences, recorded by writers who seem to sympathize with no virtues and to abhor no vices.” [16]

But it is a shame that the so called secular historians of India are portraying oppressive and jihadi rulers as extremely kind hearted, generous, tolerant and polished people free of religious bigotry. It is needless to say that, by such false portrayal of those diabolical rulers, they are committing an unpardonable crime.
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References:

[1] http://www.storyofpakistan.com/person.asp?perid=P055

[2] R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhury and K. Datta, An Advanced History of India, Macmillan & Co (1980),

428-429.

[3] R.C. Majumdar (General Editor), The History and Culture of the Indian People, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (in 12 volumes), Mumbai (1996) VII, 87.

[4] Atul Chandra Roy, Bharater Itihas (in Bengali), Maulik Library, Calcutta (1985), I, 84.

[5] R.C. Majumdar, H.C. Raychaudhury and K. Datta, An Advanced History of India, Macmillan & Co (1980), .434

[6] Atul Chandra Roy, ibid, Maulik Library, Calcutta (1985), I, 27.

[7] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson, The History of India-As Told by Its Own Historians (in 8 volumes), Low Price Publication, Delhi (1996) IV, 488.

[8] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson, (ibid) Low Price Publication, Delhi (1996) IV, 417-418.

[9] R.C. Majumdar et al (ibid) Macmillan & Co (1980), 434.

[10] R.C. Majumdar et al (ibid) Macmillan & Co (1980), 435.

[11] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson (ibid) IV, 403.

[12] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson (ibid) IV, 361.

[13] Atul Chandra Roy, ibid, Maulik Library, Calcutta (1985), I, 25..

[14] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson (ibid) IV, 316.

[15] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson (ibid) I, xx.

[16] H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson (ibid) I, xxi.