Reliance on other archives

Indian rulers do not like history. It is difficult to understand why; is it a genetic problem? While for thousands of years, Chinese Emperors made sure that the details of their lives and times were noted for posterity, India has hardly any historical and political records of her past except for a few pillars and stone writings of Ashoka’s time. In China, the Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals meticulously recorded life during the Xia dynasty, 5,000 years ago. 

This disdain for history has continued till our times. The recent controversy around a book on Mohammed Ali Jinnah is one more symptom of this deficiency. It is not my purpose here to go into the rights or wrongs of Jaswant Singh’s work (which I have not yet read), but it is sad that in the 21st century, ideology dictates what history should be.

What is the problem if there are 10, 20 or 50 versions of the same historical event? In any case, to ban a book because it does not paint the baddies black and the good guys white and therefore does not fit the party line may be acceptable in a totalitarian country, but certainly not in the world’s largest democracy.But there is worse. 

Today, Indian rulers have confiscated all recent historical records lying in the vaults of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund Library or in South Block. The leaders in Delhi (whether they belong to the UPA or the NDA) have continued to confiscate the history of modern India on lame and fabricated excuses or because they believe that it belongs to them. 

The most notorious example is the report prepared by Lt Gen Henderson-Brook on the October-November 1962 debacle. Forty-six years after it was presented, the report is still kept in a locked almirah in the North Block Office of the Defence Secretary. 

Very few have had the privilege to go through the pages written by the Anglo-Indian general.

A few months back, defence minister A K Antony gave a written reply to Rajeev Chandrashekhar, a Karanataka Rajya Sabha MP who had asked about the status of the report. The minister made an amazing statement: “The Hunderson (sic) Brook Report on 1962 Indo-Sino war still remains classified and unreleased. Considering the sensitivity of information contained in the report and its security implications, the report has not been recommended to be declassified in the national security interest."

The fact that the name of the author of the report is misspelled tends to prove that Antony has probably not read the findings himself.

On December 31, 2007, when asked to decide if a report pertaining to the INS Khukri which sank south of Diu on December 8, 1971, could be declassified, the Central Information Commission (CIC) made an interesting remark.

The CIC recommended that the ministry should build “a storehouse of information” for scholars or historians. “We recommend that the Indian Navy and, in fact the Indian Armed Forces, build up their storehouse of information, as mandated u/s 4(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 for disclosure at the appropriate time for the benefit of the students of India’s defence and to enhance the people’s trust in the armed forces’ undoubted capacity to ensure national security.”

Babus must have slept on the recommendation since then.

During the arguments, the ministry of defence, in whose custody the files are, gave a most amazing argument: “The tactical evaluation and recommendations contained therein were still the basis of Naval strategy, so their disclosure would compromise security.” Indian naval strategy has not changed for nearly 40 years!

Today, the tragedy is that the Right to Information Act protects those who do not want India’s history to be known. Article 8 (1) (a) says: that “there shall be no obligation to give any citizen, (a) information, disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.”

It is enough to cover for 100 years all blunders and mischief by those who have made India’s modern history, particularly the present ruling family. This practically bars any scholar or organisation from doing what is regularly done in the US: asking a court to verify if a specific classification is still justified after 30 years .

A ruling of the Supreme Court will probably be necessary to clarify this point. What are the strategic interests of the Indian State today? To protect politicians and babus?If you want to study the recent history of India, you have to rely on US or other Western archives.