Centre forms panel on Indian culture, clears the air saying not to ‘rewrite’ history

The Centre had formed a panel on Indian culture, which will support the diverse history and culture of the Indian continent.

The 17-member multi-disciplinary committee will work on important findings in the Indian history. Mahesh Sharma, Cultural Minister, said, “The committee met twice during its one-year tenure and has given various suggestions on important historic findings on Indian culture.”

The government, however, denied any claims that the formation of the panel has been done to ‘rewrite’ history, ancient Indian history, and textbooks. The Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar, too, denied of having any knowledge of the committee or its findings.

Mahesh Sharma denied any attempt to rewrite the Indian history or the textbooks for the schools, thought he admitted that various suggestions were being given on the origins of Sanskrit and the findings of the Kushan period.

As per reports, the panel would carry out ‘holistic study of the origin and evolution of Indian culture since 12,000 years before to present and its interface with other cultures of the world’. Reports also came that the panel would be instrumental in ‘rewriting’ history, amid all the speculations of formation of a panel on the Indian culture.

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A committee member said, “We are attempting to capture the antiquity of Indian history, culture and tradition. We will make recommendations and the committee will also be responsible to create resource materials and contents on the same.”

According to reports, the committee’s report will be made on the basis of archeological findings which will be used to argue that Hindus had directly descended from the original inhabitants, and also that the Hindu scriptures of thousand years ago are a fact, and not a myth.

KN Dixit, committee head, said, “I have been asked to present a report that will help the government rewrite certain aspects of ancient history.”

Manmohan Vaidya, RSS Spokesperson, said, “The true colour of Indian history is saffron and to bring about cultural changes we have to rewrite history.”

Over the reports of rewriting history, Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Meslimeen (AIMIM), said, “My people never felt so marginalised in the independent history of India. The government wants Muslims to live in India as second-class citizens.”