INDIA, March 9, 2015 (by Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times): It may soon be right side up for history writing in India with a new team taking charge at the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) last week, comprising scholars who have worked on topics such as Ram and Ayodhya, and written on Hindu Gods and sacred animals. The new members — some of whom are known to be close to the BJP and its ideological fountainhead the RSS — have also conducted research on the condition of Hindus in Bangladesh, Kashmir and Kerala and are taking on the country’s top left-leaning historians.
The discourse on medieval India is witnessing the most heated debate as the composite culture theory that highlights Hindu-Muslim syncretism is being challenged by an assertion that Hindus were persecuted during the period. Saradindu Mukherjee, a member of the new panel, embodies the shift. “Hindus suffered at the hands of their Islamic conquerors. Look at the records and not the propagandist books and you find destruction of temples, discrimination, forced conversions either smothered or rationalized, if not justified,” he says.
Veteran historian KN Panikkar also told HT the panel seemed to lack diversity and RSS leanings were perhaps considered crucial. Mukherjee, who has often spoken out against left-leaning academics in the past, retorted. “Those who can’t even accept simple facts of history such as the existence of a Ram temple at Ayodhya and its destruction by ‘holy’ Islamic warriors are not worth a dialogue. The RSS is a patriotic organization. It is rooted to this land. After all, Sir Syed Ahmad’s legacy has many takers,” said the professor.
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