तळमळत असून कवी बनणे, श्रीमान योगी बनणे... 17th Century

मराठी भाषिकांसाठी १७वे शतक हे मंतरलेले आहे- शहाजी, जिजाबाई,  शिवाजी, तुकाराम, आणि रामदास ही पाच  महान व्यक्तिमत्व त्यात जगली.

मराठीत '१७वे शतक' असे एखादे पुस्तक लिहायला जायला पाहिजे होते. गेलेही असेल तर मला माहित नाहीये. जेंव्हा ते लिहले जाईल त्या वेळी त्या पुस्तकात त्या शतकाचा सर्वांगीण आढावा घेतला जावा.

माझी तत्कालीन महाराष्ट्राची माहिती ही काही पुस्तकांवर आधारित आहे.

कै. दिलीप पुरुषोत्तम चित्रे त्यांच्या 'पुन्हा तुकाराम', १९९० मध्ये तो प्रयत्न करतात. पण ते सगळ फारच मोघम आहे. त्यातून आपल्याला एवढ मात्र समजत की १७व्या शतकातील सामान्य माणसाचे जीवन किती कठीण होते (ते केंव्हा नसते?).  "... इ स १६२९च्या दुष्काळात तुकोबांची पहिली पत्नी अन्नान अवस्थेत त्यांच्यासमक्ष तडफडत मेली. देहूतील अनेक नात्याची आणि ओळखीची , इतर लोक , गुरेढोरे सर्वच जीव दुष्काळात होरपळून निघाले...."

रा भा पाटणकर त्यांच्या 'अपूर्ण क्रांती', १९९९ मध्ये लिहतात : "...शिवाजीने रयतेच्या भल्यासाठी केलेल्या गोष्टी सर्वश्रुत आहेत. पण तरीही तेथील सामान्य रयत सुखात होती असे म्हणता येणार नाही... अव्वल दर्जाच्या जमिनीची कमतरता , पावसाची अनिश्चितता , नेहमीच युद्धाचा प्रसंग, २/५ सारा व वतनदारांच्या विविध पट्ट्या , सावकारांचे मोठे दर- अशा परिस्थितीतला शिवकालीन शेतकरी संपन्न असू शकेल का? "

पण याच्याच बरोबरीने आपल्याला खालील एक-दोन गोष्टी पण विचारात घ्यायला लागतील.

दुष्काळ हा भारतासाठी एक मोठा शाप आहे हे खरे पण त्यांची भयंकरता इंग्रजी आमदनी मध्ये प्रचंड वाढली. Jon Wilson यांचे 'India Conquered: Britain's Raj and the Chaos of Empire' , २०१६ वाचून हे समजले की त्याची सुरवात प्लासीच्या लढाईनंतर झाली आणि आधीच्या आणि नंतरच्या भारतीय राजवटी, कशाही असोत,  त्या इतक्या टोकाचे अकाल टाळायच्या. 

"To collect cash from the new territories in Bengal acquired with the diwani, Robert Clive ordered ten companies of troops to march into the countryside and enforce payment. In his two last years as Governor of Bengal, 1766–7, Clive tried to focus the Company’s servants’ attention more emphatically on the goal of collecting revenue, banning officers from engaging in private trade and allowing them a commission on the Company’s private trade instead of private profits. This met with much resistance, and Company servants continued to make fortunes from personal commerce for another twenty years. But the impatient focus on the collection of revenue at all costs undermined the capacity of political authorities in Bengal to respond to economic crises. The consequences were catastrophic... 

... Later British officers saw Bengal as a place peculiarly vulnerable to these malign natural forces. In reality, though, they found it very difficult to find evidence for such a devastating famine in Bengal’s recent history. The last similar event occured in 1574, when the Mughal conquest of Bengal had only just begun. Between then and 1769, the back and forth of Mughal politics ensured ecological shocks did not cause human disasters. Good years created surpluses of food and money, which could then be redistributed to feed people in lean times. Bengal’s little kings and Mughal rulers used their reserves to buy grain, to feed the poor, to accept the late payment of land revenue and lend money to farmers to get them started again if their crops were wiped out. This was not an economy with a high rate of growth, and living standards were poor by today’s standards. But bad harvests, in 1737 and 1738 for example, did not create large mortality rates. India before the British was, after all, a polity where power depended partly on consent, and resistance and flight were options for subjects who did not like the way a ruler behaved. Maintaining political authority needed political leaders to be sensitive to the needs of subjects when their livelihood was under threat. It was that sensitivity the British lacked..."

भारत जवळजवळ १९व्या शतकापर्यंत, इंग्रज स्थायिक होई पर्यंत, जगात आर्थिक दृष्ट्या बलाढ्य राष्ट्र होते. ["...Strachey argued that the Raj was bad for Britain and the British. In Inglorious Empire, Shashi Tharoor argues, with equal passion, that it was much worse for India and the Indians. In 1700, when the British were mere traders clinging on to a few coastal toeholds, the Emperor Aurangzeb ruled over a country that accounted for a quarter of the world’s economy. By the time the British left, India’s share of global GDP had sunk to just over 3 per cent..." (Ferdinand Mount, 'Umbrageousness', LRB, September 2017)].

मराठीत एकूणच लिखित इतिहासाची वानवा. त्यात नैसर्गिक घटनांची नोंद आणखी अवघड.

SN 1054 (Crab Supernova) was a supernova that was widely seen on Earth in the year 1054. It was recorded by Chinese and Arab astronomers as being bright enough to see in daylight for 23 days and was visible in the night sky for 653 days, outshining the most brilliant stars in the heavens.

Dr. Jayant Narlikar writes in his book “The Scientific Edge”, 2003:

"...Our searches did not lead to anything definitive that can stand alongside the Chinese or Japanese notings of the Crab supernova, nor are they even broadly confirmatory, as in the case of Ibn Butan’s records... 

Thus the practice of writing down some fact or idea and preserving it for posterity, common to Europe, China and the Middle East, was not so common in India. Also the practice of debating at length deep philosophical concepts in preference to experiments and observations must have played a role. Even the written material cannot be authenticated vis-à-vis dates, for in some cases portions from earlier manuscripts were simply copied in later ones, presumably because the author felt that it would enhance the overall credibility of the entire text. In other cases, portions were added later and made to appear to be from the original text. This was done presumably so that the later insertions would command the same authority as the original text..."

तेंव्हा १७व्या शतकातील महाराष्ट्राच्या पर्यावरणात कोणते आणि किती बदल झाले याबद्दल मी तरी अजुन वाचलेले नाही. 

१७व्या शतकावर लिहले गेलेले इंग्लिश मधील पुस्तक 'Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the 17th Century' by Geoffrey Parker, २०१३ च्या परीक्षणात, डेव्हिड पॅरट 'लंडन रिव्यू ऑफ बुक्स' (LRB) मध्ये लिहतात:

"Contemporary accounts leave little ambiguity about the character of the 17th century. Natural disasters, warfare, political unrest and rebellion combined to bring about levels of mortality, destruction and collective trauma unmatched until the mid-20th century. The confessional conflicts, rebellions, plagues and famines of the 16th century were mild by comparison ..."