TRUE HISTORY IS NOT BASED ON GOVT FACTS BUT REAL EVENTS: SHAH
NEW DELHI: True history is not based on facts presented by the governments, but on real events unearthed and documented by people, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said at the launch of a book, Maharanas, based on the Mewar rulers.
Contending that several rulers were overlooked by historians who chronicled India’s past, he said, “History is based on true events and not governments…it is like a shining lamp in a dark night.” Shah said when governments write history, there can be problems, but when people unearth details and write about historic facts, the truth emerges. “Those who had to distort history have already done so …but who can stop us now; we are free and not dependent, we can write our own history,” he said.
He said had VD Savarkar not been around, the truth about the uprising of 1857 would have also been buried. Savarkar, a writer and revolutionary considered one of the pioneers on Hindutva ideology, wrote The Indian War of Independence, which was first published in 1909. Referring to himself as a “student of history”, Shah said to ensure a bright future, one must be inspired by the past, learn lessons, and decide the way forward. “There are some who wrote history in a way that led to nirasha (disappointment), but in the end, the truth wins and it has won,” he said. Professor of contemporary history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aditya Mukherjee said, “Jawaharlal Nehru in his discovery of India talked in glowing terms about the Rig veda, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharat, Budha, the Gupta Empire etc., long before any Muslim ruler emerged in India. Questions about what has been included or left out should be raised by historians not politicians.”