Union Minister Anurag Thakur said on Friday that the outline of Indian history set by the British glorified Mughal emperors and briefly mentioned warriors like Maharana Pratap and no effort was ever made to rectify these discrepancies. Addressing a national conference on ‘Recent Progress in School Education’ in Punjab, Thakur said, “Why was this conspiracy hatched to keep Indians away from their history? What was achieved by doing this?”
The Union Minister said that there is a need to understand why history textbooks have an entire page dedicated to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, why Akbar is called ‘the Great’, while only a few lines are mentioned about Maharana Pratap.
He said, “They (Mughals) came as aggressors and destroyed India. They ruled India and destroyed our culture, system of knowledge. Even after Independence, no efforts were made to rectify this. The Western thought was forced on us.”
The Union Information and Broadcasting Minister said that ‘Indianness’ is very important in the country’s education system, which was not reflected in the policies made after independence. Thakur said that a proper discussion is needed to know why Indians were not taught their real ancient history.
