New Delhi:
Vice-president Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that there is need to re-correct Indian history, which was distorted by colonial rulers. Addressing the Punyabhushan award presentation ceremony in Pune, Naidu urged historians, archaeologists, linguists and other scholars to come together and re-construct India’s "real history".
“There is tremendous potential to re-construct and re-correct Indian history, whose distorted forms were presented by colonial rulers. There are many great names like Shivaji Maharaj, Shankaracharya, Rani Lakshmibai and more, whose contributions are not much heard of. We need to re-discover ourselves and present the real history of India to the world,” Naidu said.
The vice-president said that India can become a strong nation only if we do away with the social evils and change the mind set of younger generation by teaching them the rich history of the country.
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“The entire world is looking upto India. All existing social evils based on caste, creed, religion, sex and region must be done away with, as we are One Nation and One People. We must strive to promote our culture, which is a way of life, besides working to maintain peace and harmony in the country. There is a need to change the mindset of our younger generation, who should be told about our rich history and past. Only then will India be a strong nation,” he said.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has often been accused of trying to change the history of the country. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in apparent reference to the BJP and the RSS, had recently said that those who killed father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi are proudly claiming to have fought the battle of Independence.
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"I cannot deny that it was the Indian National Congress that had fought for India's Independence. History is history. We cannot change history for political reasons. Never heard of this. But now this is also happening... They are changing names, they are changing history," she said.
According to a Reuters investigative report, the Hindu-nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has quietly appointed a committee of scholars to establish that Hindus are directly descended from the land’s first inhabitants many thousands of years ago.
