Shivaji was the last great constructive genius produced by the Hindu Civilization’ Sir Jadunath Sarkar

The Sambhaji brigade is at it again. The house of Kumar Ketkar, the Loksatta editor was vandalized by a NCP affiliated organization, the Shivasangram Sangathana (hooligans acting in the name of the Maratha king Shivaji) His crime was his audacious verbal assault on an idol of Shivaji erected at a cost of 100 crores of public money at a time when hundreds of farmers are regularly committing suicide at Vidarbha, and several thousand potential others are on the verge of doing so having been crippled by outstanding debts and failing crops.

This demeaning devotion to Shivaji is not new. James M Laine who penned the controversial history book on Shivaji with research material provided by the prestigious Bhandarkar research institute questioned Shivaji’s traditional paternity and his hero-worthiness! Immediately, the Sambhaji brigade, a Maratha chauvinist organization also affiliated to Sharad Pawar’s NCP gave vent to their fury by barging into the institute and destroying several irreplaceable and priceless manuscripts. The then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee publicly condemned the violence and considered any attempts to ban the book as antidemocratic. But the Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra, eager to represent itself as the exclusive protector of Shivaji’s legacy and for sake of petty political gains went ahead and banned the book. The irony was that the worldwide condemnation was directed against Hinduvta organizations when it was the Congress-NCP backed Sambhaji brigade which was at the vanguard of the movement. Even James M Laine pointed out to the leftist weekly, the Frontline as to the difficulty in categorizing the Sambhaji brigade as ‘Hindu fundamentalist’ when all evidence indicated its anti-brahmin orientation.

I must concede that there were some Hinduvta sympathizers like the journalist Sandhya Jain, who went overboard in the book’s criticism and made the unfortunate remark that she did not consider the violence as totally unjustifiable. Admittedly, some of the insinuations were in a bad taste. But James M Laine was well within his rights to write a critical account of a medieval Hindu king and his efforts should only have been resisted in the academic arena. That the power of the pen is mightier than the sword is now pass’.

The UPSC civil services examination prelims 2008 paper on History contained a question which hinted at Sambhaji’s loose character. Sambhaji was Shivaji’s elder son and legend suggests he was imprisoned by Shivaji himself when he came to know that he had violated a young woman. But since Sambhaji has emerged as a non Brahmin icon due to his contempt for Brahmins, such a fact was deemed unacceptable and the UPSC board the very next day publicly annulled the question with an apology in place.

We find that in each of these incidents, the perpetrators of violence share some profound anti-historical values. Shivaji was an exceptionally sensitive and caring king regarding his subjects. The historian Stewart Gordon informs us that Shivaji encouraged taqqavi loans, low settlements to repopulate devastated areas and carefully commanded his army when they were in monsoon cantonments not to disturb tax collectors while uncultivable wastelands were usually excluded from assessment. However, M G Ranade, the nationalist statesman in his Rise of the Maratha Power admits Shivaji’s policy inevitably caused great hardships to the peasants situated in the border areas of neighboring states. But despite such problematic scenario, we are confident that Shivaji would have done anything to alleviate the condition of the peasants. Yet the mercy of Maratha chauvinists remains unmoved as farmer suicides in Vidarbha multiply. Worse, they would probably not even allow the uncared Vidarbha region the status of a separate state due to regional parochialism. It is difficult to envisage how the unostentatious Shivaji could even have considered his literally idolatrous deification at the cost of his starving subjects.

Shivaji faced a slew of slanders since his career began. Aurangzeb considered him no better than a ‘mountain rat’; Khafi Khan, the contemporary Mughal chronicler used the choicest expletives against him although he grudgingly admired the infidel Shivaji’s respect for Muslim female prisoners of war whom he returned to the enemy camp unmolested and his respect for religious scripture including the Quran whose copies he returned non mutilated. The colonial historian Vincent Smith denounced him as a robber chieftain who ‘inflicted untold misery on hundred of thousands of innocent people’.

Still, the worst calumny was being charged as a degraded murderer by Grant Duff because of his killing Afzal Khan. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the great leader publicly refuted the charge and defended Shivaji for his nationalist actions. The wary English pounced on the opportunity and sentenced Tilak on the charges of sedition. However, the eminent Indian Historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar discovered the clinching proof which formed the basis for Shivaji’s exoneration. In his ’Shivaji and his Times’, he conscientious proves through the letter of the English factory record (Rajapur letter, 10 Dec. 1659) that Afzal planned to murder Shivaji by pretending friendship. Also, the contemporary Maratha historians are all unanimous in stating that it was Afzal who struck the first blow in the interview. This evidence rips apart the claim of Grant Duff that Shivaji had effected a pre-medicated political murder.

So truth does triumph, although it may take time, effort and a sustained will. Only ethically and intellectually bankrupt people resort to violence when faced with academic challenges.

Finally, the innocent assumption of the brigade that Shivaji shared an anti-brahmanical orientation is baseless and renders a travesty of historical scholarship. Shivaji in his letters honestly believed himself to be a Rajput. However, since Brahmins continued to cast aspersions on his claims to royal lineage, he had to invoke the services of the great Brahmin scholar Gaga Bhat, who certified his right to the throne. Shivaji had high regard for Brahmin scholarship and this is the reason he replaced Persian with Sanskrit as the language of the court. In his coronation ceremony, Shivaji spent more than a crore and half on feeding and gifting the Brahmins. He continued indulging brahmanical orthodoxy as is evident at Shri Shaila close to his death where he built a monastery, a rest house, fed a lakh of Brahmins and gave away large sums to them. Of course, the reverse attempts at Brahmanical appropriation of Shivaji by those like Rajwade are also incorrect.

Shivaji had a stern mind and usually believed in independent decision making. He did make measured checks on Brahmanical power. He even considered punishing some intolerant Brahmins by removing them from lucrative secular duties like the command of armies; and instead limit them to the work they know best ‘ worshiping god. But nowhere do we find any hint of him being endowed with a natural aversion to Brahmins, leave alone hatred for the same. Shivaji’s administration did envisage a society free from caste based exploitation and which granted equal opportunities where each could be self-reliant. It advocated toleration and justice towards all its members. But he neither had the luxury of time, nor resources to work towards a lasting solution for Hindu society.

Shivaji was a sagacious and constructive Hindu king in Islamic India. But his hypocritical contemporary followers, swearing on his name, yet following a policy of parochialism, bigotry and hatred prove the dangers of historical ignorance. Today, it is not a question of how Shivaji’s name survived the onslaught of the most powerful Mughal emperor but how shall his memory outlast the malevolence created in his name by such disruptive forces.