1/n A thread on issue of #SarTanSeJuda & understanding the larger problem
Let’s first dwell back into recent past.
Summer of 1897 was approaching.
There lived an Arya Samaji Pandit Lekh Ram who was in continual academic confrontations with Ahmediyas.
2/n The self proclaimed prophet & founder of Ahmediya Cult, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had been a staunch critic of Hindu-Dharma & Arya Samaj specifically.
Pd Lekh Ram was not only questioning Islamic doctrine, he was also vocal about show it as root behind Hindu-Muslim tension.
3/n Mirza published Surma-i-Chashm-i-Arya (Antimony to open the Eyes of the Aryas)
In response Pd Lekh Ram wrote
Nuskha-i-Khabt-i-Ahmadiyya (A Prescription for the Madness of the Ahmadiyya).
To influence more in Punjab, Ahmad wrote Barahin-i-Ahmadiyya (The Muhammadan Proofs).
4/n Lekh Ram refuted that work through Takzeeb Barahin-i-Ahmadiyya (Falsification of the Barahin-i-Ahmadiyya).
This flared up matter & began the series of disputes between two sides that shall end only with Lekh Ram’s Murder (March 1897).
5/n 1892, Lekh Ram published his, Risala-i-Jihad ya'ni Din-i-Muhammadi ki Buniyad (A Treatise on Holy War or the Basis of the Muhammadan Religion).
Lekh Ram showed Islam as being a faith based on only war & sensuality which was root of Hindu Muslim tension of 1890s.
6/n Source till 5/n- Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th-century Punjab by Kenneth Jones, pg 149
1893, Mirza Ahmad published a prophecy stating that Lekh Ram will face divine punishment & die in violent circumstances within 6 years.
7/n Mirza spoke of Lekhram as a "lifeless bellowing calf", and went in to state that the fateful day for latter’s death will be very close to Eid.
Sources for 6/n-7/n-
A) Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background, pg 9
8/n B) Islam and the Ahmadiyya jamaʻat: history, belief, practice. Pg 48, by Valentine Simone
C) Islam and Britain: Muslim Mission in an Age of Empire by Ron Graves, Pg 38
9/n The same source (C) tells us that four years later, 6/3/1897 the next day to Eid, Lekh Ram was stabbed to death in Lahore.
He was stabbed by a stranger who had come to Lekh Ram to become a Hindu becoming his disciple.
10/n We observe two points here:
A) The event occurred exactly as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had professed, hence it can be a conspiracy hatched to prove his prophecy.
B)Al-Taquia has been a very evident tool against Kafirs
11/n While Lekh Ram was attacking Islam academically, the followers of Islam (Ahmadiya) sect showed terrific intolerance, thereby leaving him dead.
This assassination led to lots of street violence among Hindus & Muslims.
12/n It is interesting to note that Mirza went on record to state that he had no hand in the fulfillment of the prophecy other than through purely spiritual means.
Source: Prophecy Continuous: Aspects of Ahmadi Religious Thought and Its Medieval Background, pg 10
13/n The point to be noted is this, that Mirza by heart always wished Lekh Ram to meet such death.
Lekh Ram never wished such for any Muslim, yet...
14/n We all know that Dharmik faiths don’t convert but Islam & Christianity were on spree of mass conversion by force & by luring.
Examples of worst forced conversions were shown during Khalifa Movement supported by Congress & pioneered by MK Gandhi.
15/n Looking at the situation, Swami Shradhanand, a disciple of Dayanand had begun Shuddhi Movement (known as Gharwapasi today).
But it made Muslims go on extreme offence. The discussion between Shaukat Ali & Savarkar is a great example of such case.
16/n @vikramsampath has documented the whole discussion as it was in his book Savarkar-2.
It is ironic that even though Saukat Ali was keen not to stop converting, he had problem with Reconversion.
17/n MK Gandhi came out as strong critic of Shuddhi Movement too. 1922, he writes as below in Young India, in piece “Hindu-Muslim-Tensions: Causes and Resistance”
“Swami Shraddhanand has also become a character of disbelief. I know that his speeches are often provocative.
18/n Just as most Muslims think, that every non-Muslim will one day convert to Islam, Shraddhanand also believes that, every Muslim can be initiated into the Aryan.”
Interestingly he never asked Muslims to stop conversions though he knew the problem.
19/n 23/12/1926 he was assassinated by Abdul Rashid.
Interestingly it happened as opposition to Suddhi.
It gives clear hint that even though Muslims were keen to convert, they had issue if Hindus wanted to resist & do Gharwapasi.
20/n Later Gandhi went on to defend Abdul Rashid very boldly. He even called him his brother.
He even went forward to save Abdul Rashid from any action by the government of the day.
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I observed an interesting thing while chronicling the life of Babur.
Although Babur has not penned the patch between 1509-1519 AD, many recent historians have written the account being very sympathetic.
I’ve taken a different approach to cater to this issue.
I have used the excerpt from Baburnama translation by Annette Beveridge for this period. She has used the secondary sources like Tarikh-i-Rashidi & works of Ferishta.
This is just like chronicling the events.
I’m added it in Appendix.
Perhaps this approach may set free the tale of Timurid Colonisation beginning from the generic academic biases.
As a keen History Researcher,I have been aware but you brought the zithers in my spine.
2/n Here I'm going to put across my takeaways from #TheKashmirFiles
A)@vivekagnihotri , it was very important to give the background of term "#Aazadi" & how it was highly sinister of the #JNU students to orchestrate it.
It only meant making Kashmir "Dar-Ul-Islam".
3/n One will never know it until they have cared to read the history of #Kashmir during the era of insurgency.
What freedom, those Islamic Gangs were talking of? It was an absolute freedom from "Dar-al-Harb" which was state of India.
It is been almost 1000 days since the great professional historian #AudreyTruschke blocked me for just fact-check on #Hindutva.
& her audacity kept thickening.
Recently she made baseless allegations of plagiarism on @vikramsampath
Each charges made by her appeared so laughable & was exposed so well by @sanjeevsanyal
But then came the time to look at her own works. One would expect looking at her charges that her book would be full of citations way more than Dr Sampath in terms of % but...
I was taken aback. The size of her biography on Aurangzeb itself has total size= size of @vikramsampath ‘s citations.
Interestingly she quotes so many people but the book is devoid of any citation, footnotes, referencing. Check these pages
AL Basham, the teacher of #RomilaThapar writes about India after talking of Inequality by birth:
"(...) Yet our overall impression is that in no other part of the ancient world were the relations of man and man, and of man and the state, so fair and humane. (...)"
He further showers glory to India saying:
"In no other early civilisation were slaves so few in number, and in no other ancient lawbook are their rights so well protected as in the Arthasastra."
Then he says, "No other ancient lawgiver proclaimed such noble ideals of fair play in battle as did Manu."
Imagine that the Teacher of #RomilaThapar is praising Manu for giving best world ideals of ancient times.