The Legacy of Muslim Rule in India c6.s6.9

c6.s6.9

And yet some writers delude themselves with the mistaken belief that they can change their countrys history by distorting it, or brain-wash generations of young students, or humour fundamentalist politicians through such unethical exercise. To judge what happened in the past in the context of today's cultural milieu and consciously hide the truth, is playing politics with history. Let history be accepted as a matter of fact without putting it to any subjective interpretations. Yesterdays villains cannot be made todays heroes, or, inversely, yesterdays Islamic heroes cannot be made into robbers ransacking temples just for treasures. Nor can the medieval monuments be declared as national monuments as suggested in some naive secularist quarters. They represent vandalism. No true Indian can be proud of such desecrated and indecorous evidence of composite culture. History, says Froude, does teach that right and wrong are real distinctions. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of humanity.⁵¹ It is nobodys business to change this moral law and prove the wrongs of the medieval period to be right today by having recourse to misrepresentation of history.