Grappling with History
by Ananya S. Guha / December 7th, 2025
History is inexorable
But texts are not
So they can be changed
Rewritten, besmirched
In greyish darkness of a
Nation, which wants to rework
Justice in the midst of infidels,
Marauders, who they say changed
A nation, a religion, a dominion
So children now will learn about
Infidels, killers and iconoclasts
Secularism doesn’t work in today’s
Parlance, only – build statues
To countervail the iconoclasm
Of a nation still grappling with
Its history.
What is history in diverse settings?
Birth of different religions, languages?
Crush that pluralism to erect a
Monolith
Of one language, one religion
So that time and space withers with
History.
Ananya S Guha lives in Shillong in North East India, where he was born and brought up. He has been writing and publishing his poetry for the last forty years. His poetry has been published in both electronic and print formats such as: Indian Literature, Other Voices, Osprey Journal, Glasgow Review, The Literary Nest, Up The Staircase, Asia Writes, Art Arena, Praxis Online, Muse India, Your One Phone Call, In Between Hangovers, The Peeking Cat Magazine, Post Colonial Text among others. He has also written widely on educational and social matters. He has ten collections of poetry and his poetry has been anthologized in various collections of Indian poetry in English. He holds a doctoral on the novels of William Golding.
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This article was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.
