Need to rewrite history from Indian point of view, says Amit Shah

He said that it was only because of Veer Savarkar that the first war of Independence was not reduced to being called 'a revolt'

Varanasi: While inaugrating a seminar on 'Guptvanshak-Veer: Skandgupta Vikramaditya' at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah urged academics to rewrite history from an Indian point of view.

He said that it was only because of Veer Savarkar that the first war of Independence was not reduced to being called 'a revolt'. "Had it not been for Veer Savarkar, the 1857 'kranti' (revolt) would not have become history and we would have been seeing it from the British point of view," he said.

He also said that as many as 25 kingdoms and 200 great personalities were not given their due by the academics. "Forget who wrote what. Don't get into controversy. Write history from the Indian point of view," he added.

Further, Shah spoke about Skandgupta, an Indian emperor. "India never invaded any foreign territory, but we have our own heroes like Skandgupta who defeated the Hunas when they had conquered a large part of Asia and Europe and had seemed invincible. It is unfortunate that our children don't know about the great ruler (Skandgupta) who extended India's boundary from Junagarh to Afghanistan. It is also unfortunate that his merits and contributions are ignored and there are not enough historical references about him," he said.

BJP has been pushing for a Bharat Ratna for Veer Savarkar.

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