“Why Indian Marxist historians are worse than Communist historians of Soviet Russia and Maoist China”, The Dharma Dispatch, June 27, 2023:
“Not long ago a program was shown on television in which a reporter asked a 10th grader with an interest in history, “Who succeeded Lenin as Head of the Soviet government?” How was he to know?! I am certain that tens of millions of viewers wrinkled their foreheads and wondered, “Yes, who?” It pointed out one of the many blank spots in our history as it is taught.
The yawning voids in it – that is the source of our chief troubles. I have read many history books, beginning with those published immediately after the [second world] war. Not only have names been expunged from them, but many events as well: the monstrous excesses at the time of collectivization didn’t happen, the famines of the 30s didn’t happen, the persecution of genetics and cybernetics didn’t happen, the stagnation of the economy didn’t happen…Nothing happened to cloud the sunny picture or spoil the smooth telling of the myth that has taken shape over the decades.
It seems that the authors of textbooks see as their main aim not to explain the vents of the past, not to reveal their causes and effects, not to teach youngsters how to utilize the lessons of the past but to skillfully ‘hoodwink’ them and bury the truth as deeply as possible…..”
Read the full article at Thedharmadispatch.substack.com
