Indian historians protest against Modi government's 'rewriting of history' to exclude Muslim contributions

A group of 250 Indian historians are protesting against the government’s "rewriting" of history to conform with what they say is the ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ideology. 

School textbooks have been revised to omit large parts of the history of India's Muslim former Mughal rulers, whose kings built the Taj Mahal. 

In addition all references to the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat have been removed. Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat at the time and is widely believed to have encouraged the violence. 

“You cannot understand modern India without the Mughals—so it seems to be a silly and self-defeating embrace of ignorance about one’s own origin,” says Audrey Truschke, associate professor of South Asian history at Rutgers University.https://t.co/STPRiIv0Ca #Mughal #history

— Dr. Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) April 7, 2023

The historians said that the deletions around India’s Muslim history are part of the BJP government’s "partisan agenda" to get rid of "chapters which do not fit into the larger ideological orientation of the present ruling dispensation", according to The Times.

The group of historians include eminent academics including Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib and Jayati Ghosh. 

The new editions of the political science and history textbooks were published by India's National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and will be used by students in grades 6 to 12 when they return to classes this week for the new academic session.

NCERT said the measures are meant to "streamline" the school curriculum and reduce the workload of students after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Professor Aditya Mukherjee on NDTV India right now on the removal of Mughal history from textbooks “Whenever we have witnessed erasure of a particular community from our history, it is usually followed by a genocide of the community”

— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) April 4, 2023

History is a major battleground in India’s culture wars. Hindu nationalists, including members of the BJP, have over the years attempted to label India’s Muslim rulers - who ruled over India in whole or in part for around 600 years - as 'oppressors'.

They have sought to downplay their contributions to Indian society and culture in an attempt to challenge modern India's secular and multiconfessional status. 

They have championed other historical figures like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a hardline Hindu ideologue who is described as a "most celebrated freedom fighter" and a "great patriot" in new Indian textbooks. 

This rewriting of history is not just confined to textbooks. Governments have opted to rename cities named after Muslims or Mughals, such as Allahabad to Prayagraj and Aurangabad to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. 

A number of mosques have also been targeted by Hindu nationalists, who claim without evidence they were constructed on sacred Hindu sites.

The most prominent such mosque, the historic Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in northern India was destroyed in 1992.

In 2020 Nidi laid the foundation stone for the Hindu temple currently being constructed on its former site.

The erasure of Muslim history, along with a rise in attacks against Muslims across the country is raising fears of large-scale violence against the minority community in India.