If history has to be taught then it has to be with caution. I am not in favour deleting parts but a more rational and responsible way to putting facts which puts the entire blame of a group of fascists and not the whole community.

see i’m normally right :p ha ha just kidding… gr8 phase in life… enjoy it.

This discussion has taken an entirely different route. I raised the issue of causes of violence but sadly you thought i am trying to justify it or as you say [quote post="380"]so a blast accused’s brother is threatened and ill treated by police… it would a choice to indeed to blow up some more people out to earn a living… he won’t be forced into it.[/quote]

so a blast accused’s brother is threatened and ill treated by police… it would a choice to indeed to blow up some more people out to earn a living… he won’t be forced into it.

pink glasses you mean the world is in an even worse state than i see it

abt the story abt Vishwanath temple, please read this

http://voiceofdharma.com/books/acat/ch7.htm the story is a complete lie… mr pande is spreading stories without ZERO evidence…

what the article proves abt marathas??? that only in this war people suffered and while aurangzeb was in deccan for the last 25 years of his life with his huge army, the locals were experiencing heaven??? this article even if true (gives no sources) proves NOTHING… it doesn’t prove that marathas were targetting muslims because muslims (or in the name of islam) had targetted hindus under aurangzeb, which was the original point.

btw where are all these amazing benevolent farmans of aurangzeb? they look like more of pande stories.

Let us look at the following comments by some British officers:

“Lord Curzon (Governor General of India 1895-99 and Viceroy 1899-1904, d.1925) was told by the Secretary of State for India, George Francis Hamilton, that they ’should so plan the educational text books that the differences between community and community are further strengthened’.

Another Viceroy, Lord Dufferin (1884-88), was advised by the Secretary of State in London that the ‘division of religious feelings is greatly to our advantage’, and that he expected ’some good as a result of your committee of inquiry on Indian education and on teaching material’.

‘We have maintained our power in India by playing-off one part against the other,’ the Secretary of State for India reminded yet another Viceroy, Lord Elgin (1862-63), ‘and we must continue to do so. Do all you can, therefore, to prevent all having a common feeling.’

In his famous Khuda Bakhsh Annual Lecture (1985) Dr Pande said: ‘Thus under a definite policy the Indian history books text-books were so falsified and distorted as to give an impression that the medieval [i.e. Muslim] period of Indian history was full of atrocities committed by Muslim rulers on their Hindu subjects and the Hindus had to suffer terrible indignities under Muslim rule. And there were no common factors [between Hindus and Muslims] in social, political and economic life.’”

Source: http://www.islamherald.com/html/current/india/muslim_rule_in_india.htm

From the same link:

“The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (born 1618, reigned 1658-1707) is the most reviled of all Muslim rulers in India. He was supposed to be a great destroyer of temples and oppressor of Hindus, and a ‘fundamentalist’ too! As chairman of the Allahabad Municipality (1948-53), Dr Pande had to deal with a land dispute between two temple priests. One of them had filed in evidence some farmans (royal orders) to prove that Aurangzeb had, besides cash, gifted the land in question for the maintenance of his temple. Might they not be fake, Dr Pande thought, in view of Aurangzeb’s fanatically anti-Hindu image? He showed them to his friend, Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, a distinguished lawyer as well a great scholar of Arabic and Persian. He was also a Brahmin. Sapru examined the documents and declared they were genuine farmans issued by Aurangzeb.

For Dr Pande this was a ‘new image of Aurangzeb’; so he wrote to the chief priests of the various important temples, all over the country, requesting photocopies of any farman issued by Aurangzeb that they may have in their possession. The response was overwhelming; he got farmans from several principal Hindu and jain temples, even from Sikh Gurudwaras in northern India. These farmans, issued between 1659 and 1685, related to grant of jagir (large parcel of agricultural lands) to support regular maintenance of these places of worship.”

Dr Pande’s research showed that Aurangzeb was as solicitous of the rights and welfare of his non-Muslim subjects as he was of his Muslim subjects. Hindu plaintiffs received full justice against their Muslims respondents and, if guilty, Muslims were given punishment as necessary.

One of the greatest charges against Aurangzeb is of the demolition of Vishwanath temple in Banaras (Varanasi). That was a fact, but Dr Pande unravelled the reason for it. ‘While Aurangzeb was passing near Varanasi on his way to Bengal, the Hindu Rajas in his retinue requested that if the halt was made for a day, their Ranis may go to Varanasi, have a dip in the Ganges and pay their homage to Lord Vishwanath. Aurangzeb readily agreed.

‘Army pickets were posted on the five mile route to Varanasi. The Ranis made journey on the palkis [palanquins]. They took their dip in the Ganges and went to the Vishwanath temple to pay their homage. After offering puja [worship] all the Ranis returned except one, the Maharani of Kutch. A thorough search was made of the temple precincts but the Rani was to be found nowhere.

‘When Aurangzeb came to know of this, he was very much enraged. He sent his senior officers to search for the Rani. Ultimately they found that statue of Ganesh [the elephant-headed god which was fixed in the wall was a moveable one. When the statue was moved, they saw a flight of stairs that led to the basement. To their horror they found the missing Rani dishonoured and crying deprived of all her ornaments. The basement was just beneath Lord Vishwanath's seat.'

The Rajas demanded salutary action, and 'Aurangzeb ordered that as the sacred precincts have been despoiled, Lord Vishwanath may be moved to some other place, the temple be razed to the ground and the Mahant [head priest] be arrested and punished’. (B N Pande, Islam and Indian Culture, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna, 1987)”

I don’t know when people will understand that Shivaji fought to establish his political presence and Aurangzeb fought to defend his Empire..

Like the quotes of British officers this issue will be used to divide Hindus and Muslims..

Also, fro the die-hard supporters of Marathas, please read the following link on attrocities of Maratha soldiers on the people of Bengal:
http://www.indhistory.com/maratha-bengal.html