NEW DELHI: Amid the allegations that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in the centre is re-writing Indian History, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, in the Lok Sabha, on Monday, flatly denied any attempts to re-write the history.
The minister, however, conceded in the house that BJP led Union government has taken an initiative to fill in the gaps in Indian History and make it more ‘comprehensive. The minister claimed that they (BJP Govt) were trying to give unsung heroes of Indian history their due.
The minister replying to a supplementary question raised by Congress MP from Punjab, Manish Tewari, who had asked for greater clarity on the issue.
Tewari had said: “There is a difference in their statements between the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the Education ministry over the re-writing of the Indian History. Indian Council of Historical Research in the public has claimed that they are re-writing history.”
Tewari said that there were two distinct concepts: Updating history and Re-writing history, which was a pernicious concept because it is the process of re-discovery of the current narrative by pinning it on certain historical moorings. “Anybody, who has tried to re-write history, has failed,” Tewari said in the parliament.
Citing some examples of unsung heroes from Indian history, Pradhan reiterated that Prime Minister had recently visited Mangarh Dham, where 1,500 tribals under the leadership of tribal leader and social reformer Govind Guru, were massacred by the British army in 1913.
Notably, PM Modi, during his visit to Mangarh Dham, had said the memorial raised at this place was a symbol of the bravery and sacrifice of tribals. He had said such an impactful event of the freedom struggle had not found its place in the history books because of “unfortunate circumstances”.
“Recently, we celebrated Veer Bal Diwas to mark the martyrdom of two young revolutionaries Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh (Sons of Sikh Guru Gobind Singh). They attained martyrdom at the young ages of 9 and 7 respectively, shouldn’t they be part of Indian History? Likewise, don’t we need to know about revolutionary Alluri Sitarama Raju from Andhra Pradesh, a mass leader of Tribal people? Buxi Jagabandhu had led an Andolan against the British in Odisha in 1817. Why all these are not part of Indian History?” said Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Lok Sabha.
The minister further added that ICHR was working to include unsung heroes of history, who worked for the Culture, Civilization and Pride of the country.