Who can stop us from writing history? Speaking at the book launch, the Home Minister said the effort to bring out facts through new history books should be “bigger and more intense than those who spread lies”.
Who can stop us from writing history: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said that “history cannot be made by governments” and urged the society to take the initiative to present history in its true form. Lamenting that the many battles fought by the Indian kings against the invaders had been forgotten, Shah said that those battles – such as those conducted by the Ahom kings in Assam and the Marathas led by Shivaji in the north-western region – gave India that place. Given where he is now.
Who can stop us from writing history? “It is a fact that some people have distorted history. Whatever he had to do, he wrote. But who can stop us (from writing on ourselves)? No one can stop us. History is not made by governments, rather it is made on true events,” the home minister said while releasing Omendra Ratnu’s book ‘Maharana: A Thousand Years’ War for Dharma’ at the NDMC hall on Friday.
Shah said that no one can stop the process of writing about these battles for the next generation. Shah said that efforts to bring out facts through new history books should be “larger and more intense than those of liars” so that it “can be effective”. Who can stop us from writing history?
Who can stop us from writing history? With both the RSS and the BJP alleging that history books were created by left-wing historians and who ignored the contributions of Hindu kings and states, Shah is urging writers and filmmakers to work on “bringing out the truth”. The home minister was present at the screening of television serial ‘Rebel’, based on the life of Odia freedom fighter Baksi Jagabandhu, in April and also attended a special screening of ‘Samrat Prithviraj’, a biopic on ruler Prithviraj Chauhan, last week. National Capital. He had earlier urged filmmakers to make more such films and serials on unsung heroes.
Who can stop us from writing history?
Who can stop us from writing history? Shah cautioned, however, that although books such as ‘Maharana’ – it tells the stories of “the resistance of the Mewar kings for a thousand years to Islamic invaders of various colours” – would trigger debate through which young India’s glorious will learn about the past, it will take a long time to establish them.
“If we start researching and writing history, it will start debate, and the younger generation will start discussion. But it is a long journey… Many important events were forgotten because the dust of time lay upon them. Had fallen. We have to trace them and bring them before the people to wake up the society,” he said, adding that the battles of the kings who were successful in keeping the invaders out have not even been properly recorded.
Urging writers to write books on dynasties like Pandya, Ahom, Chalukya, Maurya, Gupta etc., he said that history writers ignored these dynasties. “There are no reference books either. I want to say stop commenting on this but write on them to bring out the real history in front of people. Gradually the history which we consider to be false will automatically disappear.
Although the government has started an initiative to document “real history”, the exercise will be successful only if society takes it up as a mission, Shah said. “If it was not for Veer Savarkar, I can tell you that the truth of 1857 would not have come to the fore,” he said.
“… Revolutions that could have been defeated at that time have the potential to awaken society and people. Padmavati’s sacrifice gave women and men the energy to live life with their heads held high. Documenting history is important because the events or whether the consequences of the revolts are insignificant, it has to be weighed by its effect on the people,” Shah said.
“The invaders had destroyed the language, culture and traditions of the regions they had invaded, but they had to stay here in India… making them proud after so many years,” Shah said.
