AIHS Says Modi Government Damaging Academic Discourse

As they  All India History Summit (AIHS) got underway today in New Delhi, historians present were vocal about what they believed to be the rewriting of history by the present government, most unfortunately with an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) slant. The event organized jointly by the Centre for Educational Research and Training (CERT), Centre for Study and Research (CSR) Hyderabad and Student Islamic Organisation of India (SIO), and taking place in the Nehru Memorial Museum Library (NMML) will continue over the weekend.

 

Thouseef Madikeri, CERT Director, when asked about insinuations that pro-Hindutva perspective was being worked into the education system said, “The Hindutva forces are trying to rewrite history, and it is not a recent phenomenon, they have been trying to do so since 1970s. Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana (part of the RSS) worked on it for a long time. The changes that we are now seeing in history textbooks are old contributions, but they are being implemented now.”

 

Speaking more directly about the issue to the Indo Asian News Service, Madikeri pointed a finger at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by saying, “But the problem with the BJP is that they do not have credible people, they do not have qualified historians, they are placing mediocre people at top posts of the institutions. We have no problem with ideology but the person concerned should have credible qualities. That is missing and that is a big problem because it is going to do damage to the academic discourse.”

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