MOHAN GURUSWAMY: Till it is rewritten Indian history will remain just what it is, a compendium of defeats. History invariably is written and rewritten to serve the political and ideological cause of the ruling elites. No wonder Winston Churchill had said: "Gentlemen, history will be kind to us — we will write it!" Take Indian history as it is being taught in our schools today. It is the history of the vanquished. It is mostly a chronological scroll down of events in the Indo-Gangetic plain. The textbooks start with the Indus Valley Civilisa-tion and after that remain largely focused on the consecutive onslaughts and occupations of India from the northwest. Like the Aryans, Greeks, Bactrian’s, Huns, Afghans, Persians, Arabs, Uzbeks, Mongols and Turks, not necessarily in that order, all of whom entered through its northwest and stayed to leave their respective imprimaturs on India. The other part of the story covers the Europ-ean era and India’s freedom struggle, which is main...