NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), an organisation under the Ministry of Education, organised an exhibition on Medieval Indian dynasties, highlighting 50 different dynasties. However, the exhibition did not feature any Muslim dynasty.
The exhibition on ‘Glory of Medieval India: Manifestation of the unexplored Indian dynasties, 8th-18th Centuries’ was organised by the ICHR at the Lalit Kala Akademi in Delhi. The exhibition will be open to visitors till February 6.
On being asked as to why Muslim dynasties like Bahmani and Adil Shahi were not part of the display, Professor Umesh Ashok Kadam, member secretary of the ICHR, said he didn’t consider Muslim dynasties as Indian dynasties. “Those people (Muslims) came from the Middle East and didn’t have direct connect with Indian culture,” Kadam told India Today.
“Islam and Christianity came to India during the Medieval period and uprooted civilisation and destroyed the knowledge system,” Kadam said, adding that while Islamic dynasties were certainly a part of Indian history, history shouldn’t be Mughal/Sultanate-centric.
Minister of State for Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, who inaugurated the exhibition, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked ministers to remove “colonial hangover”. Singh added that in the journey from azadi (freedom) to swaraj (self-governance), “we must refine history”.
