Source: Unsplash by @JoannaKosinska
Roots from the seeds of tribes make up a nation. To become a civilisation, nations need to be able to withstand the test of time. Through millennia, successful nations endure change of religions, rulers, forms of government, along with numerous other faces; yet, the entity survives – so does the culture and homogeneity of the people.
Do such nations exist? Monarchies of Oman and Thailand claim to be such entities, as do China and Iran. However, can one describe these collectives of disparate nations as staying cohesive regardless of the centuries passed? One may believe so, if their purported history were plausibly true.
The famous saying claims that history is made by the victors. So, how can one know the reality when time travel is not (yet) possible? In our modern era, some countries under repressive regimes have made bids to remake history, in order to tap into nationalist sentiments. India, under current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is one such example. This case is not an anomaly, but quite the norm when populism is needed to camouflage the ruling cult’s ineptness and moral degeneration.
Countries that are the product of designs of the colonial powers at the end of both World War I and II have created mythical historical narratives. Such maneuvers only create distortions and tensions along ethnic, religious and linguistic lines. A prime example of such a scenario is Pakistan, where the real history has been hidden and replaced by bits and pieces of facts – at times fictitious – to align them to its ideology. Can countries borne out of imperial projects even be termed as nations which through time become a civilisation?
Denial of history along with alter-history speckled with myths can only create animosities. Such moves are not just carried out in autocracies whether ruled by dictators or democratic rulers in the East. The West is no better: political correctness as opposed to stating the facts, facing the repercussions, and respecting the values of disparate groups is not the way forward. This has been most evident with United States recent measures to remove Confederate figures and monuments from the public consciousness.
Distortion of facts for campaigning in elections and referendums like that of Brexit can only create fissures within society. In case of Britain, the exit from the EU may take the ‘nation’ to its real existence in the past. The empire where the sun never used to set has been sent back centuries, in that the coming decades could lead to the disintegration and liberation of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland leaving England to attain status of an ordinary monarchy.
Is surviving time the goal of a society, or is it just to nurture the ruler or governing cult’s ego? Do leaderships ever think of social justice as a means to form a civilisation? Worldwide, such a scenario is absent. So, indeed; the past, present and future of nations are based on lies and cover-ups that form the widely accepted history.
Eloquently expressed!