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Albeit
slowly, and, often painfully, India is recovering from the experience of a
long, and, on occasion, savage slavery. There are deep conditioned
reflexes caused by trauma to contend with. The main one being a lack of
self-esteem. Many feel inferior and are convinced that it was always thus,
that Indians are inferior to others and in particular to Whites.
To aid the healing process many measures are necessary,
these must be undertaken consciously as a rehabilitation process and
sustained for at least two generations, before positive results can be
achieved. Priority should be given to restoring the dignity and status of
men of consequence in India’s history. These were lost under alien rule.
It’s not as if the British had any special animus against particular
individuals. Their attitude was more general. No Indian was or could be
employed at decision making level. As an executive or officer or manager
in either the civil or the military functions of the British Raj in India.
Not because they, the British known for "justice" were not
willing to employ Indians as officers but because no Indian was or could
possibly be "worthy" of such status. The
"decision-making" status was beyond the reach of coloured people
because of their lack of "character" and "other officer
like qualities," called OLQ in short.
There was a genetic, inalienable quality about the
difference. "Fair" means just proper and right while
"dark" means the opposite. Europeans are fair and Indians are,
by and large, dark. Even as late as the beginning of the 20th century, the
colour factor ruled out the appointment of a particular Indian to the
Viceroy’s Executive Council because his dark complexion would upset the
Whites on the body. A less able but "fairer" looking Indian was
chosen.
This discrimination persists. Even today the publicly
acknowledged and flaunted all over the world lover of Princess Diana, Dodi
Fayed is referred to by pucca Brits as a "sand nigger" because
he was not European but Arab and an Egyptian to boot! The bereaved father
of the unfortunate Dodi, believes that the establishment in Britain could
not countenance the idea of the mother of a future King having a coloured
husband. A Black stepfather for a King of England was repugnant to White
racists. In consequence, he fears that an accident was engineered which
took away not only Dodi but also Diana. The colour prejudice which hobbled
Indians from 1757 to 1947, continues to plague humanity even as we enter
the 21st century.
To get away from the foul present and to give the lie
to the propaganda that all Indians at all times were narrow communalists
who hated all others, we shall focus on a brilliant figure from the court
of Akbar, Emperor of India (1556-1605).
He was one of the most formidable intellects of the world in the 16th
century AD. Abul Fazl Allami, son of Shaikh Mubarak, called the "Hindustaanee"
shaikh because of his dark complexion, rose to the highest ranks in the
Imperial Mughal Service. His career owed its curve of success to his
formidable intellect and the excellent education and training he received
from his father.
Abul Fazl’s prose is ranked alongside the poetical
works of Nizami and Amir Khusro. This is about the highest praise possible
in a verse obsessed society. The corpus he created is immense and includes
monumental tomes such as "Akbarnaameh" (Akbarnama), and
Aaeen-i-Akbaree (Ain-i-Akbari), which are more encyclopaediae than books.
The letters or epistles he composed for his master, friend and guide,
Jalaluddeen Muhammad Akbar Badshah Ghazi, Emperor of India, are models of
prose writing. They were taught as text in schools (madrasaas). This
happened soon after his assassination in 1601 and continued until English
replaced Persian as the link language and the language of culture and
commerce for the whole country in the mid-19th century. To be standard
text for 250 years in the then richest and most cultivated country in the
world means that the Allama achieved instant classic status and sustained
it for 10 generations.
Born on 14th January 1551 to Shaikh Mubarak, in a family which had
produced scholars and savants teachers and thinkers for many generations,
Abul Fazl spoke fluently and in complete sentences at 12 months. In
keeping with the custom amongst the Shaikh families of intellectual
eminence, his formal teaching and learning started in the fifth year. By
15 years, Abul Fazl had covered the traditional as well as the rational
sciences. He established a hold on the three major schools of philosophy
in vogue in the formal scholastic learning of the time.
These three were, firstly and most importantly, the
unrestricted or wide treasures of the various sects of the Sufis. The
other two were Greek origin studies. This , the Younaanee or Ionian
knowledge or philosophy was divided into two. One was the philosophical
thought that arose out of the stimuli provided by "the dialogues of
Plato" and the other was triggered by the teachings of Aristotle. The
former were called the wisdom of "Aflaatoon" which word is the
Persian rendering of "Plato." The second school or "Arastoo"
(Aristotle) followers were called the itinerants or peripatetics. This
name arose out of Aristotle’s practice of teaching his acolytes on the
move while restlessly walking up and down in the compound of the Lyceum of
Athens.
All the immense learning provided by tradition failed
to contain our hero’s aspirations or confine him to the narrow grooves
of religion. It appeared that formal education did not satisfy his
intellectual curiosity and left unslaked "the yearnings of his
soul." Worse, the orthodox faith failed to provide him spiritual
solace. Abul Fazl’s craving for spiritual sustenance and succour became
a raging fire egging and goading him into an insatiable quest for
knowledge. He increasingly found the learned men of the time unable to
help him. This dissatisfaction was inherited from his teacher/father
Shaikh Mubarak.
The answer appears to have been found in action to
bring about a paradigm change in the thinking. As Akbar’s role in making
this change was positive and critical Abul Fazl became a devotee and
acolyte of the Emperor. We hope to return to this great and creative
relationship between an Emperor and an intellectual in a future
column.
See Also: Itihaas articles on
Abul Fazl. |
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