A committee was set up by the Indian government to conduct a ‘holistic study’ of Indian history. The committee is attempting to understand the 12,000 years of Indian culture and the study is going to be made public soon. The government is denying that this is an attempt to rewrite Indian history which will also change the language of textbooks in the country.
The committee was given a year to conduct the study which will cover the entire span of “Indian” history right from its origins to the present. Bureaucrats, academics and archaeologists make up the team responsible for the research. The team is a 17-member multidisciplinary team. But the intent of the panel came into question because of the fact that they were trying to link the origin of Indians to its original inhabitants. It is also attempting to match dates of Hindu scriptures to particular incidents in Indian history.
The head of the committee KN Dixit was also quoted saying, “I have been asked to present a report that will help the government rewrite certain aspects of ancient history.” RSS spokesman Manmohan Vaidya was quoted as well, “The true colour of Indian history is saffron and to bring about cultural changes we have to rewrite history.” The study includes the Aryan migration or how the Saffron ideology may term it an “invasion”. The report is still in the initial stages of development. Nobody expressed any news of rewriting history. A separate advisory committee was set up to study the origins of the mythical river Saraswati.
The Indian Muslims with this news are afraid of what it means to their identity. History is always the first victim in politics and propaganda. The whole reason why saffron at the centre was a threat was that it threatened the status of an identity that didn’t have a saffron hue. History has lost all meaning in the conversation of politics and agendas. But one will have to wait for the final report to pass a rational judgment on the matter.