In 2016, RSS ideologue Dinanath Batra sent a document to the National Council for Educational Research and Training, demanding removal of a few Urdu words and a couplet by the poet Mirza Ghalib from school textbooks. Similarly, such discussions and demands have reduced and suppressed the contributions of women in history.

During the first week of January in 2017, a group of Indian scholars gathered in a white bungalow in Central Delhi. The focus of their discussion was – how to rewrite the history of India. The ruling Hindu nationalist government led by Narendra Modi had appointed a committee six months earlier.

The juggernaut of Hindu cultural nationalism has its eyes set on rewriting history and glorifying the mythological past of India. This history pre-dates the British colonial era and the Mughal rule in India. This narrative challenges the well-known multicultural history of India.

The ideological mentor and the parent party of the ruling government of BJP – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) asserts that the ancestors of all Indian minorities were Hindus and that they should accept their common ancestry and bow down before the idea of a Hindu Rashtra. It conveniently calls it ‘ghar wapsi’ (homecoming).

This, many critics feel, would pave the way for second class treatment of minorities in the country. The RSS has for long advocated that the true colour of Indian history is saffron and to bring about cultural changes, it is important to rewrite history. Moreover, they say the time is ripe for reviving India’s past glory by restoring ancient Indian texts as ‘facts’ because they are widely considered as myths. Their continued efforts to undermine the accepted historical narrative of India stems from the insecurity that history as portrayed by secularists does not reflect reality.

The Aryan theory

It is very important for the Hindu nationalists to gain legitimacy by imposing their view that the current Hindu population descended from India’s first inhabitants. This notion of the Hindutva ideology stands against the fact that the country’s modern population has its origins from many different diverse sources. The ‘Aryan theory’ was embraced during British rule, which proclaimed that an influx of people from Central Asia 3,000 to 4,000 years ago swept the Indian subcontinent displacing the indigenous Indus Valley civilization. These Aryans were said to have introduced many key elements to Indian culture. One of the most prominent was the introduction of Sanskrit language which ultimately gave rise to many Indo-Aryan languages spoken widely across North, West and East India. This view challenged the Hindutva narrative that all cultural developments in India essentially have indigenous roots.

The government-appointed history committee seeks to paint a version of ‘Hindu first’ into school curricula, which has for decades taught the Aryan theory as fact. Senior figures in Modi’s party want to dismiss this theory of mass migration. Instead, they want to inject their belief into the school and college curriculum that Hindus descended from the land’s very first inhabitants and that Hinduism has deep-rooted indigenous origins.

Saffronisation of history is a fallout of the rise of Hindu nationalism, which has imposed a sense of cultural superiority, thus posing a serious threat to the country’s rich pluralism. The rights of minorities and the prohibition of religion-based discrimination has been upheld by the Indian Constitution from 1950 onwards.

Proving myths with facts or by inventing it

The Modi government-appointed committee has charted out a rather elaborate plan for their agenda which includes excavating archaeological sites and DNA testing of human remains. But ever since its formation in 2017, up until now, the efforts have only been to glorify history rather than proving it. Political patronage provided to the many claims of the discovery of modern science during ancient times furthers their agenda of rewriting history. The existence of plastic surgery which led to the birth of Ganesha wherein an elephant head was attached to a man’s torso and genetic science which led to the birth of Karna outside his mother’s womb were claims endorsed by PM Modi himself in 2014.

This in turn blurs the line between history and mythology. The committee formed by the Modi government has only archaeologists and no reputed historians. Moreover, there are no representatives from South India, no one from the minority community and not a single woman member. Many Members of Parliament have petitioned the President of India objecting that the committee does not represent the diverse pluralistic society of India. Critics have slammed the committee to be brazenly following the agenda of ‘one nation, one religion’, thereby effectively challenging the ethos of pluralism and diversity.

More than evaluating history through facts, the committee is bent upon rewriting history by glorifying a non-existent ‘Hindu’ India. Many school textbooks have already faced scrutiny by historians for their treatment of the rule of Muslims in India. In 2014, PM Modi said that India was troubled by “‘1,200 years of slave mentality.” It was quite clear that he was clubbing the roughly 200 years of British rule with the preceding medieval Muslim era. The right wing agenda is not to solely discredit the Indian Mughal history but the entire history of India’s Muslims.

Tipu Sultan is widely considered as a true national hero, as he is one of the most powerful symbols of resistance against the British. He was praised for his secular outlook and is still considered by many as the first freedom fighter of India. But recent changes in school curricula portray him in a negative light. It brands him as “a communal king who destroyed temples and massacred Hindus.”

Akbar, a powerful Mughal emperor, considered a liberal even by right wing Hindus, is widely considered as a symbol of enlightenment and religious tolerance. The saffron agenda seeks to glorify and invent Hemu, a Hindu king who fought briefly against Akbar, as the last of the great Hindu kings. In the state of Rajasthan, former education minister of the BJP government, Vasudev Devnani went a step further and changed the outcome of the Battle of Haldighati fought between Akbar and Maharana Pratap Singh. Historical records show that there was a stalemate but the BJP narrative termed it a victory for Maharana Pratap, thereby altering the accepted historical version.

Saffronisation of history is a fallout of the rise of Hindu nationalism, which has imposed a sense of cultural superiority, thus posing a serious threat to the country’s rich pluralism. The rights of minorities and the prohibition of religion-based discrimination has been upheld by the Indian Constitution from 1950 onwards.