Sharda Lal
“You were asked to bend, but you began to crawl” is a very famous quote of L.K. Advani, while referring to the attitude of media during the Emergency days (1975 to 1977). During a long spell of subjugation or under a threat to life, the people generally find it convenient to adopt this behavior either to escape pain of victimization and physical torture or to retain important positions in public places and the society or to continue earning bread and butter, or just to survive.
Another astonishing fact is that almost all the masters of India during her entire history of slavery came from the West. These masters being mainly aware of the history, geography, science and culture of their own homeland and the countries in the vicinity, they presumed that whatever good existed in the world had the origin in their own land or in the places through which they traversed and not in India and the Far-East. They ascribed all vices to the East.
Being a matter of attachments with native land, culture and emotions it is quite understandable that the West may never acknowledge that a fair proportion of resources and knowledge of the world had already existed in the East, including India, even before these were discovered or conceptualized by the West. It is however not understandable why many in India prefer to toe their line only despite of evidences in favour of India and the East. Is it because of the slavery hangover?
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We know that Takshashila University in Taxila, present day Pakistan, is dated 2700 years old. Nalanda University situated in present day Bihar (India) is the second oldest university in the ancient world and is dated to be 2500 years old. Telhara University also in Bihar, is believed to be probably much older than Nalanda. Other oldest universities in the world according to Wikipedia, including in Europe and the Near East, the Platonic Academy (sometimes referred to as the University of Athens), founded ca. 387 BC in Greece. In modern day Turkey the Byzantine, Pandidakterion of Constantinople, founded as an institution of higher learning in 425. In South Asia the Pushpagiri was established in the 3rd century AD in present day Odisha, India. Odantapuri university in Bihar (circa 550 – 1040), Somapura university in Bangladesh (from the Gupta period to the Turkic Muslim conquest), Sharada Peeth university in present day Pakistan, Jaqaddala Mahavihara university in Bengal (from the Pala period to the Turkic conquest), Nagarjunakonda university in Andhra Pradesh, Vikramashila university in Bihar (circa 800-1040), Valabhi university in Gujarat (from the Maitrak period to the Arab raids), Varanasi university in Uttar Pradesh (eighth century to modern times) are the other universities established before the 12th century.
It is, but sad to comment however that many of us continue to believe in half truths like, ‘the universities were taking form in the 12th century AD' as reported by an esteemed writer in an esteemed newspaper of Jammu and Kashmir. It is unfortunate that even within the country, regionally biased and unsubstantiated narratives are being floated and at times by very learned personalities. It was appalling to find a recent article by Dr. Pushpesh Pant titled ‘J&K special report: Kashmiri saffron gets GI tag – Helping restore expensive Indian spice its rightful space of pride.' Dr. Pushpesh Pant is a noted Indian academic, food critic and historian who has retired as Professor from the JNU, Delhi. His article has found a place in the Gulf News sponsored Special Supplement on Agricultural Produce of Jammu and Kashmir brought out by the Consulate General of India, Dubai as a follow up to the UAE-India Food Security Summit held in Dubai on Dec 8-9, 2020 by the Consul General of India Dubai in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Invest India.
Whereas, the Hon'ble Lt. Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Shri Manoj Sinha has been eloquent in saying that J&K is aspiring to map itself in the market of the United Arab Emirates, Dr. Pushpesh Pant has found it opportune in the write up to not only discredit the quality of Kishtwar Saffron, the otherwise highly acclaimed produce from the other pocket of the Union Territory of J&K, but also made an uncalled for and untimely remark by comparing it to the Saffron from Kashmir. It is not understood what prompted Dr. Pant to say at this international forum that “saffron from Kishtwar was no match to its Pampore cousin”. Instead of focusing on the promotion of novelty products only, the following statement of Dr. Pant in the special supplement is obviously embarrassing:
“During another such trip in Kishtwar, we encountered the local saffron. The host generously gifted us a small casket of the best quality — we are not being ungrateful, but it was no match to its Pampore cousin.”
Dr. Pant would have done better to give a fair and adequate account of the history and origin of Saffron in his article. Though he preferred to quote from a legend that zafran (or saffron) was brought to the Valley some time in circa 5th century after the birth of Christ by two itinerant Sufi saints from Persia, (much before the Sufism said to have originated after 632 A.D. and developed into orders after the 12th Century), but he ignores documentary references to “the cultivation of saffron in Kishtwar town back to the Mahabharata period.” Dr. Pant seems to have not gone through the following important observations of Sir Walter Roper Lawrence (1895) either, in his book The Valley of Kashmir: “In the former days the saffron cultivation was a large source of revenue to the State, but in the famine the people in their distress ate up the bulbs, and although seed has been imported from Kishtwar, ………. ”.
In the same vein, the statements of eminent personalities like Shri Gurcharan Das, Sh. Sharad Kumar Saraf and Manoj Singh Gaur that ‘Pheran and Pakol cap belong to the art and culture of Jammu and Kashmir' and therefore befitting for the traditional convocation robes of IIT Jammu, shouldn't come as a surprise. Shri Gurcharan Das is the renowned Indian author having a long corporate career at his back. Sh. Sharad Kumar Saraf, Chairman – Board of Governors, IIT, Jammu, (Chairman & Managing Director Technocraft Group of Industries, Mumbai) and Manoj Singh Gaur, Director, IIT Jammu are the respectable personalities, but it seems that all of them must have been wrongly briefed about this aspect of Dogra traditions by someone from the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir only. The observations are with respect to the controversy over ‘Pheran and Pakol cap' dress code affecting Dogras' Cultural Identity during the recently held convocation of IIT Jammu.
The author is from Bhaderwah and can be contacted at cmohan.sharma15@gmail.com.
