People often complain these days that Indian history has been inadequately, even incorrectly, depicted, sometimes by people with questionable intentions. I agree but this is not a recent complaint. During the course of writing a paper, I discovered that one of the first people to
complain about this was Swami Vivekananda in the early 20th century! In the publications of the Ramakrishna Mission, there is a wonderful document which records an exchange between Vivekananda and a doctor (who even though Marathi thinks of Shivaji merely as a 'marauder' of the
Mughal empire. Vivekananda objects vehemently, and describes Shivaji as 'the greatest king that India had produced within the last three hundred years; one who was the very incarnation of Shiva, about whom prophecies were given out long before he was born; and his advent was
eagerly expected by all the great souls and saints of Maharashtra as the deliverer of the Hindus... and one who succeeded in the establishment of the Dharma'. Then Vivekananda says, 'This is what comes of your reading Indian history written by foreigners who could have no
sympathy with you, nor could they have any respect for your culture, traditions, manners, and customs which they could not understand'. So this is much older complaint, made by one of the greatest children of India, after all.
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