Forgotten History: Tribes & the Freedom of Bharat

There is a potent force working against change. People do not like change. They resist change for all kinds of right or wrong reasons.

- BY PROF. SHUBHA TIWARI

For example, the way we have been teaching history to our children has obviously been erroneous.

The freedom struggle that led to the rebirth of the nation as a new entity for the present world has been depicted one-sided. The narrative served to the nation for the last decades has truth in it. There is no doubt about it. But it excludes a large number of move ments, and efforts to resist British domination. Any objective learner can see that.

The cynics, poor status quo supporters, lazy learners will give a list of reasons not to revisit the freedom struggle. They feel uncomfortable when someone questions the flawed, clichéd nar rative. Their arguments range from the futility of resurrecting the forgotten heroes to doubting your intentions to focus on rel evant issues of today to a plethora of escapist routes. But we all know that history is important.

It is important to know who we are as a nation, as a society and as a culture. Justice must be done. It is better late than never. In the fol lowing paragraphs, I will narrate the heroes from the tribes of India who fought for freedom from the British. And we may remember that all these people were real and their lives were valid and real.