Students of history at Banaras Hindu University were asked in an examination last month to describe the sacrifice of legendary Rajput queen Padmini in medieval India, The Indian Express reported on Sunday. Most historians believe Padmini was not a real person, unlike what Rajput folklore claims.
Assistant Professor Rajiv Srivastava defended the question and said students must know real history, as it had been distorted, ANI reported. “If [Muslim ruler] Alauddin Khilji has any truth, so does Padmavati,” he said.
“What do you mean by jauhar tradition?” the 10-mark question asked. “Describe Rani Padmavati’s Johar in the period of Alauddin Khilji.”
Jauhar was a medieval custom of Hindu women immolating themselves to avoid capture by invaders. Padmini’s jauhar is the subject of a controversial Hindi film Padmavati, whose release has been put off following objections and death threats for the film crew from right-wing groups. The historical drama is based on the life of Rajput Queen Padmini, the protagonist of sixteenth-century poet Malik Muhammad Jaisi’s Avadhi poem Padmavat.
A student said he had studied about jauhar since it was part of the syllabus, but queen Padmini was mentioned in the chapter only in passing as a debated topic.
The exam for second-year postgraduate students also asked them to discuss the evils of triple talaq and halala in Islam. A former head of history department told The Indian Express that halala had recent origins and such a question had not been seen in a paper on medieval history before. “The moderation board should have checked these,” he said.
In response, Srivastava asked why Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University ask questions about Hindu evils such as child marriage and Sati.
“Islam also has demerits which must be raised,” he told ANI. “When we teach history of Islam, we will have to teach such things. People like [Padmavati director] Sanjay Leela Bhansali won’t teach history to students.”
Students alleged the university is trying to force its ideology on them, India Today reported. Last week, they raised similar concerns when postgraduate students were asked in an examination to write essays on the “nature of the GST [Goods and Services Tax]” in Kautilya’s book Arthashastra and the role of Manu as the “first Indian thinker of globalisation”. The professor who prepared the questions is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
“These ridiculous and unpalatable questions in our paper are really disheartening,” a student had said. “We are being taught these fictitious concepts just to validate the policies of the present government.”
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