It is not difficult to gauge the effects of generations of Marxist indoctrination of India’s youth when it comes to understanding the past. Besides pushing aside “nationalist" historians and elevating others of a certain ideological bent to preeminence, the slanted narratives of textbooks created a corpus of Indians willing to believe apologias for centuries of invasion and domination. As contrary evidence was not allowed to be presented, young Indians believed it.

If many people who consider themselves well educated and aware—and even “proud Indians"—asked “Who?" when they read the name of Meenakshi Jain among the four nominated to the Rajya Sabha, it proves the success of that Leftist indoctrination process. Those Indians may not even consider themselves left-leaning or have any discernible political views, but their co-option is evident in their ignorance about uncomfortable truths and those who tell them.

Among those challenged truths are, for instance, the importance of sacred spaces and deities to Hindus. “God is in our hearts," they say sagely. “We do not need idols or temples to worship." These “educated" Indians do not realise that collective memory was insidiously wiped out, replaced with a passive acceptance of the gruesome reality of temples and deities being the target of centuries of iconoclasm that led to many being destroyed and others being hidden by guardians.

The “God is in our hearts" mantra was a way to come to terms with the dire situation of a religion under persistent attack. When mandirs are demolished, deities are desecrated, priests are killed or converted, and the wealth of temples that also funded educational and societal functions is........

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