Reflecting on how erasing history is used to dominate people

✒️:. Shahid Manzoor Bhat

I had the opportunity to read Jason Stanley
Yele Professor’s book Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future, and I thought to share the experience I gained from this book with you. The book consists of seven chapters that describe the harms of fascism.

In the preface itself, Stanley writes, “At every opportunity, these regimes find ways of erasing or concealing history in order to consolidate their power.” He further states on the same page that the greatest enemy of authoritarianism is democracy. Is there truly a conflict between democracy and authoritarianism? If we look around the world today, in every state or country where democracy exists, minorities face violence. Thus, deeming democracy as just seems contrary to reason, where laws made by the majority are enforced as mandatory.

In the first chapter, How to Create an Autocracy, Stanley writes on the first page, “Wars are won by teachers.” Indeed, teachers have transformed the world, and through education, humans have gained superiority over others. While the Creator of the universe said that an educated person and an uneducated person cannot be equal, what about the education of someone like Henry Ford, who used his industry, skills, and business to facilitate the massacre of minorities? Whether it’s Hitler in Germany, Donald Trump in present-day America, Netanyahu, Barack Obama, Manmohan Singh, or Narendra Modi, each has used education and altered curricula to excessively praise their nation, whether they belong to the right wing or the left wing.

In the second chapter, Colonizing Mind, Stanley quotes someone, saying that while bullets can enslave nations, language can rule over hearts. Indeed, cultural imperialism is being promoted in the world today. Now, to dominate a country, atomic bombs, bullets, or tanks are not used; instead, a curriculum is crafted and imposed on nations. Take the example of China, which has begun to dominate the world by producing cheap goods.

In the third chapter, The Nationalist Project, Stanley writes, “The colonizing nation is justified simply because of its military power.” Language and culture alone are not enough; objections can be silenced through military might. Under supremacist nationalism, the dominant nation does not acknowledge its sins, whether it’s violence against Black people in America or the forced occupation of Indians in Asia. In the same chapter, he writes, “A number of violent supremacist nationalist movements are based on religion.” Whether it’s one religion considering itself superior to others is a separate question, but is religious violence occurring? The answer is absolutely affirmative. Whether it’s Russia’s oppression of Ukraine, Russia’s aggression toward Poland, Britain’s tyranny over India, or the imposition of the three-language policy, all these atrocities are committed under the guise of religion. But are these injustices only perpetrated by the right wing, as Stanley suggests? No, the leftists have also committed such atrocities after coming to power.

In the fourth chapter, Stanley writes that there are five major themes of fascist education:

1. National greatness
2. National purity
3. National innocence
4. Strict gender roles
5. Vilification of the left
   These five elements were used by Hitler to carry out massacres in Germany. Keeping these elements in mind, the curriculum in America was developed under The 1776 Commission, and fascists have used education as a weapon to justify their sins.

In the fifth chapter, Anti-Education, lack of education is considered a sin, and fascists have repeatedly committed this sin, whether it’s scholasticide or targeting hospitals in Palestine, , or imposing bans on books in Kashmir. This selective education is a tool to ensure that readers do not question an oppressive ruler.

In the sixth chapter, criticizing Classical Education, Stanley writes that Hitler led people toward their golden past, which resulted in atrocities against Jews. In the same chapter, he critically notes, “We must remember, after all, that classical societies practiced slavery, insisted on the subservience of women,….” But is Stanley’s focus solely on Western countries? Has he not seen how women were labeled as the cause of evil, and yet a noble king honored them? Not only that, but people were taught that paradise lies at the feet of a woman. Should we curse classical education? Absolutely not. The more connected a person is to their past, the brighter they make their future. Yes, some principles change with time.

In the final chapter, Reclaiming History, Stanley writes about how a fascist can alter historical narratives. Whether it’s laws discriminating against genders, erasing historical events, or suppressing minority rights, through all these actions, we can alter history and create a world of slaves in the future.