NEW DELHI, Feb 13: The Indian Council of Historical Research has not launched any project to “rewrite Indian history” but is working on incorporating all prominent figures and incidents that are not part of the current history books, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Stating that India respected all languages, all cultures and all faiths, Pradhan said, “The ICHR has not launched any project to rewrite Indian history. The government has no intention to rewrite history. But if you ask me, if the ICHR has taken any project on history, with due respect and humbly, I would like to inform this House that, yes it has taken,” he said.
“We are expanding history” and filling “gaps” by incorporating major historical events, personalities and incidents, the Union minister said during the Question Hour in response to a question. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Mangarh Dham, where in 1913, the British massacred 1,500 tribals for their rebellion under the leadership of Govind Guru, Mr Pradhan said.
The Modi government has also decided to observe ‘Veer Bal Diwas’ in the memory of Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh — sons of Guru Gobind Sahib — who were martyred in the 17th century at the age of six and nine, the BJP MP said. The minister asked should not India know about Telugu revolutionary Alluri Sitarama Raju or Baxi Jagabandhu Bidyadhara Mohapatra of Odisha, both of whom had fought against the British.
All these are not part of current Indian history books, the Union minister told the House.
Not only this, Mr Pradhan said, for about 1,100-1,200 years, India was under foreign rule and if there was an analyse of those period, be it south or the north, be it the east or the west, there were many civilisations that worked for the glory, respect and upliftment of culture.
“All these should come in the pages of history. The ICHR is filling such gaps. We are not rewriting history. We are expanding history, drawing a simple line. This much working we are doing, the ICHR is doing,” he said.
The minister said there were many views and opinions about civilisations but not much about their history. The clear stand of the central government in this regard was that India is a country of many cultures, Mr Pradhan said.
“I would like to give an example about the Kashi-Tamil Sangamam which was held about two months ago in Varanasi. The oldest language of the world is Tamil. This is our view. India is a country which respect all languages, all cultures and all faiths. This is what the central government believes. There is no need to create a debate over it,” he said.
(Manas Dasgupta)