Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s call for rewriting history from India’s point of view needs a closer dispassionate look so that the demand could be understood in all its dimensions and a decision can be arrived at without rancour or ill will.
There was nothing new in what Shah was asking for in the ancient city of Varanasi on 17 October 2019 while inaugurating a two day international seminar since the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliate organisations have been stressing on this issue for a few decades now.
The Home Minister’s words have resulted in a debate with pros and cons of the long-standing demand of the present-day ruling establishment being defended or opposed depending upon the position on either side of the ideological divide.
There was nothing new in what Amit Shah was asking for in the ancient city of Varanasi.
While the proposed issue of history rewriting is serious and demands a deeper dialogue within the country in general and among the historians particularly, unfortunately it is being linked to the demand of honouring Vinayak Damodar Savarkar with the prestigious Bharat Ratna award, which was included in the manifesto of the ruling BJP in the ongoing Maharashtra assembly elections.
“It was Savarkar who gave the name ‘First War of Independence’ to the 1857 ‘kranti’, otherwise our children would have known it as a revolt,” Shah had asserted to add weight to the proposed project of rewriting history. An the other historical fact that he referred to was from ancient India, which was about the glorious reign of Emperor Skandgupta, during which India’s boundary was extended from Junagarh to Afghanistan. “It is also unfortunate that his merits and contributions are ignored and there are not enough historical references about him,” the Home Minister pointed out stressing that it “is the responsibility of our historians and people to preserve and rewrite the nation’s history.”
Undoubtedly, it is the responsibility of historians — and what Shah underlined about Emperor Skandgupta — is known to all those who have interest in history, and therefore, it is an issue that needs to be resolved by various committees that decide school curriculum in Indian states, since education is a state subject. It is not an issue of rewriting history but rather it relates to popularising it through various means, including introduction in school books at the appropriate levels.
It is the responsibility of historians — and what Shah underlined about Emperor Skandgupta — is known to all those who have interest in history.
So far, Savarkar renaming the 1857 revolt by soldiers of the East India Company forces as country’s ‘First War of Independence’ according to the Home Minister is factually correct and if doubts over the authorship of the concept exist then they must be addressed and corrected. It must be said that while Savarkar re-termed the 1857 revolt in his book,
Indian War of Independence, that was published in 1907 during his stay in London, the debate on the entire issue had begun immediately after the revolt on 30 June 1857 itself, when Karl Marx and his co-author Friedrich Engels had called it a ‘national revolt’, strongly disagreeing with the British description of it as ‘Sepoy Mutiny’. The two had prepared the ground on which Sararkar proceeded further as per the normal process.
In fact, writing of history was always and remains to be a continuous process depending upon discoveries of newer facts as human history has never been static. There have been gaps and hitherto unknown facts which are added, updating the older versions of events, happenings, conquests, defeats, advances, etc.
The study of history is an academic pursuit and has always been a contested field (as it should be), since there can be multiple interpretations of a past event, based on the point of view or the ideological perspective of a particular historian or the school to which he or she belongs to. But, these differing historians agree upon the need to first establish facts about the past through a well laid out and internationally agreed upon norms of social science research that are rigorously and catholically followed. These facts are not decided according to pre-determined and desired outcomes.
There are indeed gaping holes in what is being taught in schools as history books deal primarily with the history of north India. Only exceptionally, does one find references to events and happenings beyond the Vindhya Mountains. The history of the Northeast or East India hardly finds any mention, thus rendering our students ignorant about the joys and sorrows of the people who, like north are part of India that is ‘Bharat’. Similarly, Dravidian history, too, has paid a heavy price.
There are indeed gaping holes in what is being taught in schools as history books deal primarily with the history of north India. Only exceptionally, does one find references to events and happenings beyond the Vindhya Mountains.
There is a great need to make our children aware of the composite history that spreads from the East to West and from South to the North and in this order. Rewriting of history cannot be based on the assumption that since historical wrongs have been committed, there is a need to rewrite them. The project cannot address the phenomenon rather help in removing the inferiority complex which Indians allegedly suffer, according to RSS ideologue Sunil Ambekar, who has dealt with these issues in his new book,
The RSS: Roadmaps for 21st Century.
At the same time, historians cannot be given the responsibility of turning a murderer like Nathuram Godse into a hero just to fulfill a political demand. Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination is a historical fact and would remain so irrespective of political dispensations.
Rewriting history from India’s point of view, therefore, is a serious project and is long overdue. But it has to be done and can only be achieved by qualified experts and not half-baked self-claimed historians who are often loud enough to make such demands.
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