88 scholars come together to contest Hindutva's rewriting of Indian history

To counter efforts by the votaries of Hindutva, including the BJP-run governments at the Centre and several states, 88 Indian and international scholars have come together to publish a "report on the civilisation and histories of India."

The report, spearheaded by linguist G N Devy, was unveiled here on Sunday. It documents India's history over the last 12,000 years. Its objective is to contest a similar effort that the Centre announced in September 2020. The report attempts a contestation between the scientific view of history against the ideologically charged attempts to distort and twist the history of South Asia unfolding before us in recent years, Devy said.

In September 2020, the Centre set up a committee to study "the origin and evolution of Indian culture dating back to around 12,000 years ago". A similar committee was appointed in 2017. The government committees were criticised as they had either nominal or no representation from the south and northeast regions of India, the members of religious minorities, Dalits and women.

The Devy-led effort has a hundred sections covering genetics, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics and philosophy. Devy said the report should be seen as a work in progress, refined, revised and reformulated after short intervals. It strives to ensure that "no extreme and exclusionary stand ever gains hold over the minds of Indians", which may diminish the Constitution that makes India "a union of traditions, transformations and the people". Devy said the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is basing its attempt to recast Indian history on two sciences - genetics and archaeology, and circulating random selections of not fully verified findings on social media, which need to be countered.

Apart from Devy, Tony Joseph and Ravi Korisettar have edited the report with professors Rajmohan Gandhi, Hans Heinrich Hock, Sudesha Gua and Andrew Ollett as some of the expert advisors for the project. The book will be translated into several languages, including Kannada, Bengali and Hindi. The team of contributors has an ideal diversity profile and has religious, regional, gender and ethnic balance.

Poet Ashok Vajpeyi, historian Narayani Gupta, political scientist Zoya Hasan, political psychologist Ashis Nandy and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, among others, attended the launch.