Historians have given prominence to Mughals, little on Pandyas, Mauryas, Guptas: Amit Shah

PTI, Jun 10, 2022, 3:18 PM IST

Most of the historians in India have given prominence to recording the history of Mughals only, ignoring the glorious rules of many empires like Pandyas, Cholas, Mauryas, Guptas, and Ahoms, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday.

Releasing the book ‘Maharana: Sahastra Varsha Ka Dharma Yuddha’, Shah also said that the battle fought for the protection of the culture, language, and religion for 1,000 years has not gone in vain as ”India is again standing with respect before the world now and the country’s glory is recognized”.

”I want to tell something to the historians. We have many empires but historians have concentrated only on the Mughals and wrote mostly about them. The Pandya empire ruled for 800 years. The Ahom empire ruled Assam for 650 years. They (Ahoms) had even defeated Bakhtiyar Khalji, and Aurangzeb and kept Assam sovereign. The Pallava Empire ruled for 600 years. The Cholas ruled for 600 years.

”The Mauryas ruled the whole country — from Afghanistan to Lanka for 550 years. The Satvahanas ruled for 500 years. The Guptas ruled for 400 years and (Gupta emperor) Samudragupta had for the first time visioned a united India and established an empire with the whole country. But there is no reference book on them,” he said.

The home minister said reference books should be written on these empires and if they are written, ”the history which we believe wrong will gradually fade away and the truth will emerge”.

For this, he said, there is a need to start work by many people.

”By keeping aside comments, our glorious history should be kept in front of the public. When we make big efforts, then automatically the attempt of falsehood becomes small. So, we should pay more attention to make our efforts bigger,” he said.

Shah said history is not written based on victory or defeat but based on the outcome of any event.

History is not made based on the government and books, truth is made based on events, he said.

”No one can stop us from writing the truth. We are now independent. We can write our history,” he said.

The home minister said it is a fact that some people have written history in such a way that it generates disappointment. ”But India is such a country where disappointment can’t survive”.

”It may be decades, 50 years, or a hundred years but in the end, it is the truth which will emerge victorious,” he said.

Shah said some historians have written some books on a small scale but no one has done any comprehensive work on the history of the whole country and there are limited reference books.

He said the government is also taking initiatives but when the government takes the initiative for writing history, many difficulties come up.

”When independent historians write history, only truth comes up and that is why our people should write a book with facts and without making any comments,” he said.