Why blame Rahul?

That many important people of the country do not know that India exists beyond Bengal is not a new thing. That is exactly why there is nothing to be surprised or feeling offended over Congress 'stalwart' Rahul Gandhi's one latest tweet in which the Northeast – which is India beyond Bengal – has not found mentioned. The Gandhi scion had on Thursday posted a tweet, which has been quoted ad verbatim by the media as follows – "There is strength in our Union. Our Union of Cultures. Our Union of Diversity. Our Union of Languages. Our Union of People. Our Union of States. From Kashmir to Kerala. From Gujarat to West Bengal. India is beautiful in all its colours. Don't insult the spirit of India." The fault however is not exclusively with Rahul Gandhi. As most people in Assam and the Northeast still recall and recall with deep anguish, his great grandfather Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had in November 1962 bid farewell to the region when the Chinese People' Liberation Army (PLA) had started marching down towards Tezpur after having overpowered and diminished the ill-equipped yet brave soldiers of India and occupied the stretch right from Bumla and Tawang to Bomdila and Rupa. It was those textbooks whose syllabi were drawn up during the regimes of Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi which did not have anything about the Northeast for the young students to learn how big and diverse India is. All that used to find space in all-India high school textbooks till about one or two decades ago about the Northeast was Cherrapunji – the wettest place on earth – which too was actually entered in textbooks by the British during the colonial period. Millions of children across the country have grown up in the past six or seven decades since Independence knowing nothing about the Northeast, be it the geography, history, language or culture of the region. Yet numerous historical characters big and small from all the other regions and states of the country have been taught right from high school. Names of Shivaji, Tantia Tope, Raja Bhoj, Tipu Sultan, Sher Shah Suri, Ashoka, Puru, Krishnadeva Raya, Bukka and Harihara and so on are familiar across the country because those were mentioned in school textbooks. But names of greater heroes, be it like Naraka and Bhagadatta of the mythical period, or like Siukapha, Naranarayana, Prithu, Rudra Simha, all of Assam, are not known, not to speak of great Manipur kings like Loyumba, Pitambar Chorairongba or Gambhir Singh. Names of rivers like the Godavari, Krishna, Cauveri, Jhelum, Chenab, Mahanadi, Mahananda, etc are familiar across India. But except for the Brahmaputra, names of other rivers like the Siang, Kameng, Nambul, Longai, Tlwang, Jinjiram, Lohit, Burhidihing etc are hardly known outside the region for the same reason. The same applies to the list of heroes, be it of the anti-Mughal struggle or the anti-colonial struggle. So lackadaisical is the attitude of policy-makers, decision-makers, intellectuals, historians and media captains of the country that Lachit Barphukan, who had registered the most crushing victory over the Mughals in the Battle of Saraighat is not at all mentioned in that chapter of Indian history which deals with the Mughal period. The great historians of India have probably not heard of the fact that Rudra Singha had organised kings of eastern India to mount a "once and for all" assault on Mughal. About the heroes of the anti-colonial movement, the less said the better. Even when India is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the hard-fought freedom, historians, intellectuals and editors across the country have not heard of Ranaram Choudhury, Gomdhar Konwar, Piyoli Phukan, Maniram Dewan, Tirot Singh, Tikendrajit, Thangal General, and Taji Modern. They will refuse to believe that the youngest martyr of India's freedom movement was a 12-year old girl called Tileswari Barua of Dhekiajuli, and not Khudiram of Bengal. As such, it is meaningless to waste time questioning or condemning the likes of Rahul Gandhi. A quick survey among the hon'ble members of Parliament will also probably reveal a picture not very different from the level of ignorance from which Rahul Gandhi suffers from.