LITERARY NOTES: On the importance of 1857

It is heartening to note that academic institutes and universities are growing cognisant of the cultural development and career building of their students.
BIZTEK (Institute of Business & Technology), Karachi, is certainly one. Enjoying "A" category status in private universities of the country, it arranged a lecture on the important topic of "The First War of Independence 1857" last week, and invited eminent historian Dr Mubarak Ali to deliver a lecture on the issue.
Dr Mubarak Ali was in town to launch his three books Qadeem Hindustan, Ahd-e-wusta ka Hindustan and Bartanui Hindustan. These books have been published by Sang-i-Meel, Lahore. Having more than four scores of books to his credit, he is also editing a monthly journal "Tareekh", which is a wel-known research journal of South-Asia.
Dr Mubarak Ali deserves credit for popularising history in a country, which has not cared to preserve their primary sources - archives and architecture, of its past.
Thousands of archives are being eaten away by white ants year after year, and important monuments are being neglected. Corruption in the department responsible for their preservation is allegedly rampant. Some of the historic buildings will one day collapse and there will be nothing left to preserve. The ruins of Moenjodero are a case in point. They are more dilapidated now than they were a decade before and crores of rupees have gone down the drain. Even the UN's intervention has not been able to do much to look after Moenjodero the way it ought to have been.
Dr Mubarak Ali's lecture, in a way, reflected the importance which BIZTEK was attaching to the First War of Independence. One of the reasons for discussing the repercussions of the event is the advent of modernity which 1857 brought to the sub-continent.
With the assumption of sovereignty over India, by the British Parliament, the unity of India was made possible through the establishment of railways a common currency and postal system.
In Karl Marx's prophetic dispatches, described these developments as positive factors. Marx was critical of the blatant exploitation of India by the British. It is known that India was the supplier of world's textile up to the first half of the 18th century, and that monopoly was shattered by Manchester's textile factories. The exorbitant burden of taxation alienated the peasants, and more than a score famines visited India in the 19th century, to turn it into a poor country, whose industry was shattered and agriculture unproductive.
Dr Mubarak Ali spoke on the reasons that culminated in the War of Independence. The Hindus, as well as the Muslims, felt the pinch. The Religious Disabilities Act had abolished Suttee and Muslim AUKAF Estates, and hurt the general mass of people equally.
The thousands of Jagirs, the displacement of Persians and the unbearable taxation had alienated the Indians. The episode of May 10, 1857 in Meerut was simply a pretext.
The Barrackpur rebellion had already taken place. The point that shouldn't be ignored was that the first war of Independence was the joint struggle of Northern India, mainly Delhi, the North-Western province (the Provinces of Agra & Oudh) and Bengal and its tentacles had spread to Punjab, N.W.F.P and Sindh. Particularly in areas where the Poorbi soldiers were stationed. Benjamin Disraeli regarded it as a mutiny and not a mere military rebellion.
Dr Mubarak Ali's BIZTEK lecture was a success as was the launching ceremony of his Trilogy on Indian history a day before the book is free from prejudices common to history books written in India and Pakistan.
Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, Dean of the Faculty of Management & Social Sciences, BIZTEK, introduced the theme of the day. He recounted the importance of the lecture and raised Dr Mubarak Ali as a popular historian, who has played an important role in dispelling academic prejudices rampant in our history text books.
Professor K.K Aziz has also pointed out some distortions in his book on the subject, but Mubarak Ali's effort is a more serious effort to pinpoint the religious biases and ideological travesties. Facts are facts. They should be treated sacred. Interpretations may vary and they shouldn't be mutually exclusive.
Dr Mubarak Ali is almost a lone voice. The kind of interpretations which Aitazaz Ahsan advocated in his book on the Indus Civilisation is another kind of bias, which we have to confront.
He advocated the idea of the Partition of the sub-continent from the ancient times onwards, instead of treating his topic in different stages of history, not as different histories.
This is also a chauvinism of sorts as Dr Qudrutullah Fatimi's thesis was in the 70's, regarding the areas comprising Buddhist India of the past. Dr Mubarak Ali's theme overrides the time, as well as the ethnic divides. It takes the sub-continental as a whole, and then moves ahead with the passage of time.