New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday called for rewriting history from Indian perspective in line with PM Modi’s ‘intention of getting rid of remnants of the colonial past’.
Addressing a book release here, Amit Shah further said that Veer Savarkar tried it for the first time by calling the 1857 revolt as the first war of independence, NDTV reported.
While appreciating the contributions of ‘non-violent struggle’ to India's freedom, Shah questioned the ‘current narrative’ that dismisses the roles of other movements.
India got freedom not as a grant but through the sacrifice and bloodshed of lakhs of people, he said adding that if there was no parallel armed revolution, independence would have taken several decades more.
Shah said that seeing the statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose installed at Kartyavapath has given him great satisfaction.
The potentially controversial remarks came when he launched the book: "Revolutionaries, The other story of how India won its freedom" by Sanjeev Sanyal.
Extoling Sanjeev Sanyal’ book, Shah said it is the summary of the “other story’, while ‘one perspective has been imposed on the public through history writing’.
“People say history has been distorted till date due to various reasons but now nothing can stop us from writing it in the right way,” he reportedly said.
Dismissing the claims of Mughals being the first empire that ruled India for more than 200 years, Amit Shah said there were empires that ruled this country for more than 200 years.