.
On 26 October, 53 Indian
historians voiced alarm at what they perceived to be the country’s “highly
vitiated atmosphere” and protested against attempts to impose “legislated
history, a manufactured image of the past, glorifying certain aspects of it and
denigrating others....” This was soon followed by an “Open letter from overseas
historians and social scientists”, 176 of them, warning against “a dangerously
pervasive atmosphere of narrowness, intolerance and bigotry” and “a monolithic
and flattened view of India's history.”
Such closely-linked
statements appearing with clockwork regularity in India and abroad — there have
been several more from various “intellectual” circles — are a well-orchestrated
campaign to create a bogeyman and cry wolf. They are neither intellectual nor academic in substance,
but ideological and, much more so, political.
In response to it, a group
of eminent historians and scholars of Indian civilisation have issued a
statement which is expected to be carried by many News papers tomorrow.
Their statement highlights the fact that these "leftist school of historians" who are speaking of the "values and traditions of plurality that India had always cherished in the past" never practiced them all these decades when they have been in charge of all the elite institutions and bodies such as ICHR. The statement also notes that it is these historians who had imposed a "legislated history" which has presented an alienating and debilitating self-image to generations of Indian students, and promoted contempt for their civilisational heritage. It calls for an unbiased and new historiography of India
An online statement has been posted as a petition for those who would like to register their support for the statement of these intellectuals. Started by Michel Danino, this petition along with the statement of the intellectuals can be accessed in https://www.change.org/p/concerned-indians-statement-on-hypocrisy-and-indian-history
Their statement highlights the fact that these "leftist school of historians" who are speaking of the "values and traditions of plurality that India had always cherished in the past" never practiced them all these decades when they have been in charge of all the elite institutions and bodies such as ICHR. The statement also notes that it is these historians who had imposed a "legislated history" which has presented an alienating and debilitating self-image to generations of Indian students, and promoted contempt for their civilisational heritage. It calls for an unbiased and new historiography of India
An online statement has been posted as a petition for those who would like to register their support for the statement of these intellectuals. Started by Michel Danino, this petition along with the statement of the intellectuals can be accessed in https://www.change.org/p/concerned-indians-statement-on-hypocrisy-and-indian-history
I request the readers to
read it and sign it as a mark of voicing our disapproval for the orchestrated
campaign by the Leftist historians who are out to destroy the true history of
our country and spread malicious propaganda against the nationalistic people.
