Similarly,
we discus Babar's conquest of parts of North India without reference
to the larger Turkish upsurge, culmination in the Ottoman empire,
which, at its height, included present-day Albania, Greece,
Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, islands of eastern Mediterranean, parts
of Hungary and Russia, Iraq,Suria, Palestine, the Caucasus, Egypt,
north Africa (as far west as Algeria) and part of Arabia. This
lopsided and parochial view of history was designed, perhaps
deliberately, by British historians to inculcate in us a deep sense
of inferiority. But whether deliberate or not, the effort succeeded
remarkably well. Many educated Indians have accepted that everything
worthwhile in India, including Sanskrit, has come from outside and
that Indians have never been able to resist foreign invasions and
occupations. Nirad Chaughuri's Continent of Circe is perhaps the
best-known expression of the British-promoted view of us a
degenerate people.
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