Charles Dickens and MohenjoDaro

I'm a huge fan of David Copperfield. I quite love the fact that, it had an happy ending. Agnes was perfect for David. My favourite was Mr. Micawber. Never say die spirit. This might be blasphemy, but, Charles Dickens in my book is a better writer than William Shakespeare.

But, How many of us know of this one quote by Charles Dickens?

"I wish I were Commander-in-Chief  in India... I would do my utmost to exterminate the race upon whom the stain of cruelties rested"

This was written in a letter to a certain Baroness. This was during the 1857 wars.


Does this make Charles Dickens a bad person? That is debatable. What is not in doubt is the common perception of the times. Europeans are superior. White skin is destined to rule the world.  

This was the same time when Max Mueller was writing books where he was assigning dates to Hindu scriptures.  The World was supposed to have started in 4000 BC. For obvious reasons.

Move forward to , 1940's. The Indus Valley is being excavated. Theories are being formed. It sounded obvious that, this was pre-1500 BC site. So, how could this be Aryan? Because, Rigveda was 1500 BC .

Quoting Arthur Conan Doyle via Sherlock Holmes "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."





Sadly Social Science still lives with racial theories. It refuses to accept facts. Proof has been large and plenty since then. There has been geological data. There has been DNA proof. But, Our linguistic scholars still live in racial dominated echo-chambers.

Considering all this history, let us look at the reviews of the film Mohenjodaro. There has been criticism. Some complain about authenticity. Others complain about costumes.

But, what is the subtext?

The inhabitants of Mohenjodaro were supposed to be Dark skinned. They did not have horses.





RACIAL echo-chamber anyone.

Colour of skin is determined by a chemical called Melanin. This chemical adapts skins to different levels of radiation which is again governed by geography. So, an scandinavian european who works in the sahara for 50 years will turn brown.

The biggest problem the naysayers have is about the 4 horses. Hey Guys, take a break.  Just seeing 4 horses does not ensure that, this is an anti-AIT movie.  The rest is just cotton fluff.


The funny thing is, these reviews draws praise from across the border. Why? The education system there is based on one single thing. We are descendent of Aryans. The Jihadis are jumping in the aisles.

It is true that Bollywood is Patriarchal. But, this does not mean, that every movie is bad. Ashustosh Gowarikar normally makes better movies than trailers. And Jodha akbar was fairly authentic. Aishwarya Rai had a strong role.

But, then, it is normal to accept that,  FYI Black skin is not  a stigma.


Articles referred here -: Huffington Post , The Scroll


Update: There is a Brilliant article written by a student on historical accuracy of MohenjoDaro.  Worth Reading

Cool Article

Comments