feeds from sacw.net
print versionPast is purity
Disfiguring of history has consequences not just for the future but also the present
The Editorial Board | Published 29.12.22
History, the cynic might conclude, has been reduced to putty in the hands of the Indian politician. Thus, the Union home minister can thunder, without blinking an eye, that none can stop the current regime from rewriting history to ‘correct’, what the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Hindutva eco-system crows are, ‘imbalances’. A precedent of this revisionism could have been the decision by Rajasthan — the BJP was in power in the state then — to brazenly declare in school text books that Rana Pratap, and not Akbar, had won the Battle of Haldighati. This abracadabra is not without a purpose. The distortion of history and, increasingly, historiography is aimed to shift the ideological moorings of Indian civilisation, from an inclusive, pluralist entity to that of one with a pronounced majoritarian character. The concerns expressed by India’s professional historians about this government’s repeated assertions — threats — to tweak history to give it a more nationalist, character are, therefore, not incidental. An altered past, the BJP hopes, would lead to the alteration of young, impressionable minds and, as a result, lead to a very different kind of future for the republic.
The disfiguring of history has consequences not just for the future but also the present. This was the gist of the message of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin, during his inaugural address at the 81st Indian History Congress. He referred to the deleterious effects of the unfolding project of having history window-dressed and added that there is an urgent need for a historiography that is based on evidence and seeped in the spirit of secularism. It is difficult not to agree with Mr Stalin’s assessment. It must be conceded that objectivity and fraternity, along with history, find themselves on the endangered list in New India. The resistance to this contamination must be multi-pronged. The Opposition must run a sustained campaign to raise awareness. Historians — India has some of the finest of this tribe — must unitedly oppose the falsification, mythologisation and communalisation of history in pedagogy. This may be an unequal battle given the regime’s resources and its ability to infiltrate institutions. Most importantly, students must be equipped with tools of historical thinking and praxis. The best way to keep history untainted is by assembling an army of informed citizens.
