“Whitewashing genocides: Why KS Lal’s claims of 80 million Hindus killed by Islamic barbarism hold water”, First Post, November 22, 2023:
“I first looked at India’s medieval history through the works of court historians of those who invaded us and believed in the notion of “Dar-Ul-Islam”. And then I read the works of modern historians, examining the same era but with a different perspective. Perhaps, that is why American astronomer Donald Edward Osterbrock famously said, “ History is too Important to be left to the historians, ” while addressing the people as he received the Leroy E Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy in 2002.
Recently, a panel discussion featuring Meenakshi Jain, Vikram Sampath, Sandeep Balakrishnan and me as panellists was moderated by Sanjay Dixit during the Annual Jaipur Dialogue Event, 2022. The subject was to analyse the “Islamic Rule” in India. Sampath, based on works of authorities, pointed out that the Islamic invasion was one of the bloodiest leading to massacre of around 80 million people, besides auctioning of around 2.5 million women as slaves.
He also raised the issue of the ransacking of the great university of Nalanda by Bakhtiyar Khalji and how ironically, we have the railway stationed named after him near the very site of monumental destruction. As usual, without wasting even thirty seconds, Anand Ranganathan quoted the statement in a tweet and the matter became a matter of concern for various professional historians (as they like themselves to be called) and other celebrated faces…..”
Read the full article at Firstpost.com
