In documents like Mahabharta and Ramayana, I refuse to believe the one version story told to me.
For the simple reason, that these are very old documents and even if there are no distortions in the reporting (if the incidents are true), they do come up in the translations and transfer to future generations.

One of the parts of Mahabharta, the story of Eklavya is such.
I am assuming that everyone knows his story.
But what actually happened could have happened because of other reasons also.

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Why did Drona request that Ekalavya cripple himself? Was Drona justified in making such a request? The Mahabharata is clear that Drona acted in order to protect Arjuna's status as the greatest archer. However, the Mahabharata does not answer the question whether Drona was ultimately justified.

It could be that Drona wanted to hamper Ekalavya's archery skills because he feared that Ekalavya would use them against Drona's employer, the King of Hastinapur (Ekalavya's father worked for Jarasandh, who was an adversary of the Hastinapur kingdom).

or

It could be that Ekalavya learned all the archery skills by secretly observing the training sessions of Dronacharya. When Dronacharaya found out, he visited Ekalavya to verify his suspicions. Although Drona could have demanded an even greater punishment under the laws in effect at that time, he asked only for Ekalavya's right thumb, thus making useless the archery skills which he had learned secretly.

or

It could be that Dronacharya demanded Ekalavya's thumb because the latter was not a Kshatriya, and in those days only Kshatriyas were supposed to get a military education.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eklavya

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Most of the people believe in the first reason, but I think second and third reason have equal force behind them.
Please don't get me wrong. Hear me out first.

Judgement is a relative term. What the masses believe is a direct consequence of the social, economic and political structure.
Right now in India we have democracy, equal rights to all and economic freedom. So caste system is considered bad, a blotch.

Now just for 2 minutes, stop thinking that you are in the present. Your body suddenly rises up and floats in space.
The space-time starts moving backwards and you reach the time where these incidents are supposed to have happened.
The society had monarchy and caste system. It was not at all considered bad.
It kept the society intact. It was completely justifiable in their time.

Reason no 3 means that Eklavya was doing what he was not supposed to do.
Don't think by today's standard. Today, knowledge is supposed to be for all.
Stay in that era. Knowledge is not supposed for all. Specific segments held specific knowledge.
Any transfer of knowledge had to be done willingly. Anything else is stolen.

Reason no 2 means that Eklavya stole knowledge. The knowledge of archery, by observing secretly.
This knowledge was not there in books, it was all in the mind.
Dronacharya could have got him killed for stealing the knowledge and thus in turn also destroyed the storehouse of his knowledge.
But he destroyed the way the knowledge could have been used and passed on.
By removing the right-hand thumb, Eklavya can't use that knowledge himself.
Neither can he pass it on. The thief got punished appropriately.

As per today's standards, it indeed is wrong. But is it really?

Take Reason no 1.
Archery was the one of the highest form of fighting-skills of that time.
Today if someone wants to use the same analogy, one should not consider archery.
Instead, one should consider bomb design or nuclear weapon design.
These are the highest form of fighting-skills of our time.
If someone steals this knowledge, surely there is a long punishment waiting for him.
Would anyone want this knowledge in the hands of enemies?

So in turn, no one knows why it happened. There can be a variety of reasons.
A different perspective has helped me at least, in getting a better understanding of what is there.