NEW DELHI: The myopic attitude and bigotry of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India has seeped into many autonomous bodies working under different ministries. The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is a case in point.
This autonomous organisation which works under the Ministry of Education is holding an exhibition on Medieval Indian dynasties, highlighting 50 different dynasties. However, the exhibition is not featuring any Muslim dynasty.
Prof. Umesh Ashok Kadam, member secretary of the ICHR, said he did not consider Muslim dynasties as Indian dynasties. “They (Muslims) came from the Middle East and didn’t have direct connect with Indian culture,” Kadam was quoted by Indian media as saying.
The exhibition on ‘Glory of Medieval India: Manifestation of the Unexplored Indian dynasties, 8th-18th Centuries’ at the Lalit Kala Akademi here is open to visitors till February 6.
“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.
Inaugurating the exhibition, Minister of State (Mos) for Education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, 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), history should be refined.
