BY DR.ABDUL AHAD
The myth fulfils an important function of not only of humour and hilarity in an otherwise dull or serious atmosphere but also of adapting our instinct to social life through conjuring tricks to make us believe what has not actually happened in history.
It will be too naive to presume that the myth has lost its sheen and lofty magic and has become irrelevant today. And that the vast explosion in science and technology has rendered it as ineffective as to relinquish its claim to amuse us anymore. It is, as a matter of fact, as relevant and effective today as it was in yesteryears and continues to beseech our attention and favour as interestingly as before.
Without ceasing to push us to a great bewilderment in a most bewitching manner, it has, thus, become our second nature to impact our attitudes and beliefs even amid growing speculation that the blessings of information technology and communication have rendered us completely emancipated to challenge its veracity. Even the Communists are not spared from its magical spell despite their keeping up the pretence that they believe wholeheartedly and unrelentingly in the scientific objectivity and in the strict observance of the rules of the Marxian game. Alongside the preponderance of globalization, the myth has besieged them so predominantly that a little space is left in their faculties to accommodate the contents of Das Capital as a gospel truth any more.
What is myth? How does it differ from reality and manage to preoccupy human mind? These are some pertinent questions that need to be answered in some detail:
The myth and the reality are two key features of a prevailing world social order. Though diametrically opposed to each other, they are so intimately interwoven with the human life that no social force or scientific advancement has so far proved potent enough to influence them to give up hobnobbing with our system. Any attempt to expurgate and separate them from human life is fraught with the consequences of emasculating the society and denying a nation the opportunity of shaping its ethos on impressive basis. They are the very breath of a society as they were in the bygone days. They are so firmly entrenched in the basin of our social pedestal that the significance of one cannot be appreciated and realized in the absence of the other.
The myth is a figment of imagination, a hatching up of a story entirely opposed to objective reality, or fantasizing about an unfathomable event; or an invention of an account or information about a historical process. It should not be taken to mean as a substitute for distortion of history. It always gains currency and preoccupies our mind owing to its inherent power of convincingly enticing us away from the realities of life.
Specially designed to fabricate events and historical processes in order to explain what is otherwise incomprehensible to an average mind, the myth presumably thrives and fosters its creed in an environment bereft of any qualitative intellectual acumen and reason. It assiduously cultivates tremendous public support because the masses believe it to be extremely meaningful in their own historical and social context. Quite contrary to myth, the distortion of history operates from a different pedestal and sings a tune not in keeping with the facts that constitute a historical event. As a different kettle of fish, it aims at fulfilling a hidden agenda and an ulterior motive by misinterpreting facts and diluting their purport communal disharmony, religious animosity, sectarian bickering, cultural incongruities, social segregation, economic differentiation and political rivalry are the most unfortunate consequences of the ruthless distortion of history. It is an ugly offspring of prejudice and intellectual vandalism; a sheer bigotry ; a social venom and an academic effluent that is periodically spluttered and Spewed up to create ripples of unease in the society.
Sultan Sikandar is a classic victim of this intellectual bigotry who has more sinned than sinning. The childhood, the youth and the manhood distortion -stricken Sultan are subjected to non-stop ridicule and condemnation by his detractors for acts which he has never committed. He is proclaimed as an iconoclast, an idol- breaker or a butsheken in a blatant contravention of archaeological evidence still extant, at Ganpatyar, Srinagar. This evidence is available in the shape of a stone slab which accredits him with having built temples in the Valley of Kashmir during his reign.
Dr. Abdul Ahad is a well-known historian of Kashmir. He presents a perspective on the Kashmir issue and talks about Kashmir’s history and individuality and personality.
