COIMBATORE, INDIA, November 17, 2015 (Change): A group of 53 eminent Indian historians, archaeologists and scholars of Indian civilization has taken strong objection to a recent letter signed by 176 leftist historians and social scientists from India and overseas. They are requesting concerned persons to sign their petition at “source” above.
Accusing the leftist group of creating a “bogeyman” through unjustified charges of “intolerance” and imposition of a “legislated history,” the statement, endorsed by several members of the Indian Council of Historical Research, also criticizes what it calls the “Leftist School of Indian historiography” and calls it “a faithful inheritor of colonial historiography”.
In its analysis, the scholars endorsing the just-released statement point out that the leftist school has reduced much of history to studies of caste and systematically underemphasized India’s original contributions, especially to various knowledge systems. They challenge the school’s claim to practice “scientific” history, when it has actually neglected large amounts of data, glossed over dark chapters of Indian history and indulged in unethical practices to capture the academic space through political support and suppress dissent and debate.
Finally, the scholars point out that the “values and traditions of plurality” which the two open letters invoked are precisely “those that the Leftist School never practiced” and call for an “unbiased and rigorous new historiography of India”.
Full statement and petition at source.