New Delhi: Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma, who had set up a multidisciplinary committee mandated to verify facts that establish the rich history of India and its culture, has denied any intent to rewrite history or textbooks.
“The committee set up by my ministry met twice during its one-year tenure and has given various suggestions on important historic findings on Indian culture. But the report has not been collated and put in the public domain as yet,” Sharma told Gulf News.
He said the committee was mandated to capture the antiquity of Indian history, culture and tradition.
“We will make recommendations and the committee will also be responsible to create resource materials and contents on the same,” the Minister said.
The committee’s one-year tenure ended on November 11, 2017. It has given various suggestions about the Indo-European confluence, origin of Sanskrit and references to findings of the Kushan period.
Sharma clarified that the committee had nothing to do with Hinduism or Islam but it only dealt with an investigation of Indian civilisation.
“The committee suggested that attempts should be made to examine a correlation between epics like Ramayana and the Mahabharata and ancient Indian history. The mandate of the committee is to trace Indian culture from way back and compare it with other cultures across the world,” the Minister said
He said ancient Hindu scripture Rig Veda, which was earlier believed to have been composed around 1,500BC, was now being assigned to the Harappan civilisation period by many scholars, thus indicating a co-relation between the two.
According to sources in Culture Ministry, the committee’s report has been received and the views of the members are being collated for a final decision on the issue.
However, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar, who had earlier said in the media that he had no knowledge of any such committee, told Gulf News that he would take the recommendations of the committee seriously.
“Bharatiya Janata Party’s government is the first government to have the courage to question existing version of history that is being currently taught in schools and colleges. My ministry looks after education and I am going to take the suggestions of the history panel very seriously,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sharma said the Culture Ministry also set up a separate advisory committee to study the origins of mythical river Saraswati.
“Apart from the committee set up to verify facts that establish our rich history, another advisory committee was also formed in September 2015 to study the history of river Saraswati. The committee was given a two-year tenure, which was extended for another two years in December 2017. I have also visited the site where Saraswati is said to have been found in Kurukshetra in Haryana,” he informed.
The committee comprises historians, archaeologists, anthropologists and linguists to study Saraswati basin and establish its origins.
