‘Everyone has a hidden agenda. Except me!’ This might have been the conviction of outspoken actress Swara Bhaskar when she tweeted from an article by historian Rana Safvi which read “Mughals came to India as conquerors but remained as Indians not colonists.

They encouraged trade, developed roads, sea routes, ports & abolished taxes. Hindus were richest under them.” Rana is of course a well-known historian with several articles and books to her credit but the point is Swara is not. All the research and the referencing is conveniently ignored to make her final point specifically “Hindus were richest under them (the Mughals)”.

There were obvious objections raised to her tweet, and Swara responded by asking her trolls to read the article. Given the fact that her tweet had come out of the blue, it would be safe to assume that she had read the article and it was an initiative on her part to educate the less-informed about the golden age of the Mughals and in the process bolster her credentials as a plain-speaking liberal.

As is frequently the case, an agenda also betrays an overzealous mind susceptible to flawed logic. While there is nothing wrong with the quote itself her effort to arrive at a particular conclusion by using the word “Hindu” is laden with mischief. What follows in the quote “Drain of wealth started with East India Co” is revealing.

The article essentially draws a contrast between the Mughal reign and the British rule and how the Hindus were the beneficiaries of a liberal, secular Mughal monarchy while the era of massive exploitation, loot and plunder supposedly started under the British. While there is no denying that the British did bleed the country dry to enrich their nation, often with disastrous consequences, the comparison with the Mughals is incongruous. And the reasons are not far to seek, in fact they have been stated by the author herself when she says that they “remained as Indians not colonists”.

So it necessarily follows that they had to invest in their adopted homeland. Without articulating the rest it would be worthwhile to dissect the faux-erudition of people who loosely quote scholarly texts to flaunt their intellect. The trend of ferreting out information and putting it out on a social media forum to be tossed around and trivialized is endemic among a certain breed and is catching on rapidly. With the reader not having the time or possibly the inclination to analyze and establish the veracity of the tweets the viral becomes an epidemic.

With pro- and anti-nationalistic tendencies increasingly defining the identity of an individual, the presence of buffoons eager to earn their spurs on either side of the divide has assumed alarming proportions. While there is no doubt that the facts presented in historical articles of this sort are subject to interpretation, manipulating the information to suit one’s agenda needs to be called out.

Sensationalism helps the statement gather the initial traction, but it loses steam after being scrutinized and uncovered by the astute observer, but probably the damage has already been done.
In the not too distant past we were provided a daily dose of the ludicrous by a person who answered to the name of Biplab Deb. His utterances bordered on the comical and affected more the man himself than his supposed targets.

The man became the source of much mirth as the twitterati had a field day meming him. He ostensibly had to be reined in by the top brass, because of the obvious embarrassment he was causing to the party. There is no ambiguity about where Swara’s sympathies lie and in all fairness she has not quite made that descent towards the absurd as yet, but she would be well advised to keep a check on her statements.

There is a fine line between the rebellious and the divisive and the ones who cross it risk losing not just the credibility but also the freedom to voice their opinions without being labeled the agent provocateur.

Article By :Shantanu Sharma 

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