By NABEEL AHMAD / Maktoob Media
Genocide of a community often involves demonization, name changes, and history erasure. In India, open calls for Muslim genocide are being made with impunity. Epistemicide is the destruction, erasure, or devaluation of a knowledge system. Epistemic injustices that are persistent, systematic, and collectively function as an organized oppression of specific ways of knowing are called epistemicide. Epistemicide can happen in a number of ways if the hegemonic power controls the education and knowledge system, epistemicide results in either silencing or erasing the intellect and knowledge. In India, it has been in the process for a while, yet it took a fast pace recently.
Hindutva ideologues make incorrect assertions about premodern India. However, such fabrications serve the political objectives of demonizing Muslims as the supreme other and portraying a contemporary Hindutva ideology as an antiquated pillar of Indian civilization. In the midst of this confrontational atmosphere, Muslim historiography has endured unintended harm, resulting in its stifling and the erosion of its intricate narrative and significance.
Hindu nationalists have introduced historical claims into school textbooks and academic spaces, undermining their mission to advance science in India. By 1615, India had a thriving economy and a composite Indic-Islamic cultural fabric. However, textbook deletions often misinform children and generate a stunted relationship with the concept of the past.
The erasure of the Mughal and Sultanate periods is detrimental to understanding India’s history. During this period, India produced a quarter of the world’s GDP and was the largest exporter of textiles. There have been attempts to create a coherent narrative that exalts the Hindu majority and its leaders by eradicating mentions of Iqbal, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the Godhra riots, and other important historical and scientific facts from textbooks.
More than 100 books authored by Maulana Maududi and Forty books by Syed Qutub have been taken out of the AMU library. While Maududi was an Indian national who fled to Pakistan in 1947 when that nation was separated, Syed Qutub was an Egyptian-Muslim scholar. Both lived at the same time. The work produced by two prominent Islamic minds and authors, Syed Abul Ala Maududi and Syed Qutub Shahid, were abruptly removed from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Islamic Studies curriculum after a group of 25 academics with allegedly Hindutva backgrounds sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
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