Inconvenient truths are conveniently neglected or ignored by those that are selective about data
Facts are mentioned to be like porcupines: they are often prickly and uncomfortable to stay with. The reverse of reality usually is deemed to be fiction. But the true adversary of reality is faction.
One of the definitions of faction is a conflation of reality and fiction, by which fiction is taken for reality and replaces it. A current instance is that of Rajasthan’s minister for training who, whereas addressing a gathering at an Udaipur college, mentioned that he would burn all college textbooks that have been discovered referring to the Mughal emperor Akbar as ‘great’.
He went on to say that to talk in the identical breath of the Mughal ruler and his arch adversary, the nice warrior Maharana Pratap, is an insult to the nice king and to the valorous custom of Rajasthan.
The minister’s opinion as to the Mughal king’s ‘greatness’ is his personal to harbour, overlooking the purpose that the phrase akbar truly means nice. However, jurists may surprise if the honourable minister’s avowed intention of making a bonfire of the vanities by setting alight books which might be the authorized property of faculties mightn’t represent an actionable act of arson. And historians may enterprise to coach the minister for training on a problem of the previous.
Maharana Pratap did certainly wage battle towards the Mughal emperor, however the defeat he suffered on the nice Battle of Haldighati – an Aravali mountain cross that connects the present-day districts of Rajsamand and Udaipur – was inflicted not by a Mughal, however by a fellow-Rajput, Man Singh, considered one of Akbar’s most redoubtable generals.
On June 18, 1576, the greatly-outnumbered forces of Maharana Pratap fought towards a military led by Man Singh who gained the day, with the wounded Maharana being persuaded by his followers to cede victory and stop the battlefield.
So would the minister advocate that every one texts mentioning Man Singh even be consigned to the flames for his having been a traitor to the Rajput trigger, and thus offending Rajasthan’s honour?
Like porcupines and details, factions will also be uncomfortably prickly when uncovered for what they’re.
Disclaimer
This article is meant to deliver a smile to your face. Any connection to occasions and characters in actual life is coincidental.
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