Skip to main content

India's communal forces have very little respect for methods of history writing

By Dr Abhay Kumar

It is a matter of great concern that the communal forces are distorting Indian history and changing the content of textbooks to create an ideological justification for their sectarian politics.
Since the communal forces have been in power, they are fast implementing their sectarian agendas. The secular educational and research institutions are being attacked and their progressive characters are being changed.
The sole agenda of the communal forces is to keep the fire of Hindus versus Muslims aflame.
All those who disagree with their narrow and sectarian politics are being demonized as "anti-national". To justify their position, the communalists are trying to paint India as the land of “Hindus”.
The communal forces have very little respect for the methods of history writing. In their conception, history remains frozen and it is projected in a binary. The communalists are trying to erase all contradictions. They love to operate within stereotyped images of Hindus and Muslims.
This poses a serious challenge to the secular character of India. The secular scholars, therefore, have no option but to wage an intellectual battle against the saffronisation of history writing.
In an article published in the Urdu daily Inquilab (September 20, 2022), I discuss some of these issues.
For more, click this video file.

Comments

TRENDING

Manufacturing, services: India's low-skill, middle-skill labour remains underemployed

By Francis Kuriakose* The Indian economy was in a state of deceleration well before Covid-19 made its impact in early 2020. This can be inferred from the declining trends of four important macroeconomic variables that indicate the health of the economy in the last quarter of 2019.

Incarceration of Prof Saibaba 'revives' the question: What is crime, who is criminal?

By Kunal Pant* In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”

Modi’s Israel visit strengthened Pakistan’s hand in US–Iran truce: Ex-Indian diplomat

By Jag Jivan   M. K. Bhadrakumar , a career diplomat with three decades of service in postings across the former Soviet Union, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Germany, and Turkey, has warned that the current truce in the US–Iran war is “fragile and ridden with contradictions.” Writing in his blog India Punchline , Bhadrakumar argues that while Pakistan has emerged as a surprising broker of dialogue, the durability of the ceasefire remains uncertain.