Springer’s Handbook of Indian History, sparked controversy following an announcement on social media platform X by well-known distinguisherd Hindu Professor Levanya Vemsani, the editor.
Instant criticism flowed from Islamic scholar, Associate Professor Brannon Ingram for allegedly excluding Muslims from the history of India.
Ingram alleged, based on the apparently low number of mentions of the word ‘Muslim’, that the handbook was a case of the “Hindutva-isation” of Indian history. The figure provided however, was exponentially lower than actual word use.
Utilising the Springer link function for ‘search this book’, the word ‘Muslim’ appears, as Ingram claims, only nine times – but this isn’t a count of how many times the word is used. Similarly, though not mentioned by Ingram, the word ‘Hindu’ using that function, also results in only 18 mentions. Using the same search function, the word ‘Islam’ appears another five times, bringing the results to 14 mentions for Muslim or Islam compared to 18 for Hindu. Downloading the PDF or EPub from Springer provides very different results.
Vemsani’s work is divided into three parts. The first spans the period of early settlement of India to the 2nd century BCE. The second comprises topical exploration of the first millennium, and the last third spans the period of colonisation and modernity.
The search tool for the Handbook of Indian History PDF (ctrl F) counts each time the word is used. For instance, the word Muslim is mentioned in the handbook 55 times while Islam is mentioned 51. The word Muslim appears at the introduction and picks up in frequency from chapter 12.2, in the third part of the book. From there, the word is mentioned in chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and in a footnote of chapter 20. Islam [or Islamic] is mentioned in chapter 1, 8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.
Hindu is mentioned 459 times, and it appears more often at the start (20 times) in the biographies for each contributor, indicating that the scholars are perhaps not focussed on Islam like Ingram. Hindu is scattered sparsely in section one, appearing more frequently at the second part of the work and then more densely applied in section three. Due to copyright issues, rather than screenshot the text showing word use, the sliders below document distribution of each word across the text.
Image: Mentions of Muslim and Islam in Vemsani et al 2024 (Source: Screenshot)
The above slider screenshots show that Muslim and Islam mostly appear in the third section, consistent with the time frame of the second millennium. Hindu, similarly, appears more densely in the first and second millennium which correlates with historic trends. Muslim and Islam combined comprise around one-fifth the usage of Hindu.
Hindu history of India spans five millennia, while Islam spans less than one. The use is therefore proportionate in terms of time, although how accurate such a measure really is in terms of significance, or how the different groups are portrayed is not indicated by how many times a group is mentioned.
Images: Mentions of Zoroastrians (1), Indian Jews (1), Sikhs (31) and Christians (36) – not Buddhists (267), Jains (338) in Vemsani et al 2024 (Source: Screenshot)
If any group are disproportionately under-represented it is the minority Zoroastrians (1), Indian Jews (1), Sikhs (31) and Christians (36) – not Buddhists (267), Jains (338), Hindus (459) or Muslims/Islam (106). So, if any of these groups have a reason to feel left out, it is the Indian Zoroastrians who are a global micro minority surviving only in India.
In this case, it is certainly not a sign of Muslim erasure as had Ingram disclosed the proportion of chapters from his search method, relying on the Springer function, including the word Muslim, Islam, and Hindu, he might conclude the representation was disproportionately high for Islam and Muslim at 14 to 18 for Hindu.
There is a point to make about the impact of tweets and engagement on social media, considering the way in which Grok Ai summarised the issue in favour of Ingram, and how it came to be given that around 300K people viewed the tweet and nobody rushed to set the record straight.
In my opinion, had replies checked the numbers prior to responding, Ai may have had more information to provide a balanced view. The matter generated much ado about nothing although instead of making it the nothing that it was, engagement tended to make it into something. What that something is, appears to be a misunderstanding based on a search tool that does not tell scholars how many times a word is mentioned.
The last mention of Islam in the Handbook of Indian History is a quote by Sri Ramakrishna and worth remembering in conclusion to these few observations:
“‘I have practiced,’ said he, ‘all religions–Hinduism, Islam, Christianity–and I have also followed the paths of the different Hindu sects. I have found that it is the same God toward whom all are directing their steps, though along different paths . . . The substance is One under different names, and everyone is seeking the same substance; only climate, temperament, and name create differences. Let each man follow his own path. If he sincerely and ardently wishes to know God, peace be unto him! He will surely realize Him.'” (Nikhilananda 1942, 35)
The final word comes from Grok:
“This story is a summary of posts on X and may evolve over time. Grok can make mistakes, verify its outputs.”
To err is apparently not just for humans. And though forgiveness may well be divine, verifying outputs is the obligation of a scholar. Ad hominem, however, should be avoided at all costs.
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