On Tuesday 17 Jul 2007 3:32 pm, ashok _ wrote: > I would say "hindu kingdoms" (rather than "indians do not document > anything" ) did not document anything. The arab tradition of > documenting everything was followed by muslim kingdoms...
er.. a very small percentage of Muslims in India would fall in that category IMO. There rest were Hindus and behaved like Hindus even after conversion for various reasons. However we are heading into Naipaulesque territory here. The narrative of a convert would not normally reflect what is pre-conversion or even pre-islamic. The narrative of the Hindu might be anything, but he thinks he is very clever and refuses to document anything. Ultimately social records of the past will have to come from narratives that exist in Hindu families. And a lot if interesting stuff will come out if people are honest and document what they were taught dispassionately. But the Hindu will take years before he can do that without squirming and fighting. shiv
