Bharatiya Janata Party questions Marxist history writing
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday held a public meeting at Parade Grounds opposite to the historic Red Fort in the national capital to pay its obeisance to the freedom fighters of the First War of Indian Independence in 1857.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday held a public meeting at Parade Grounds opposite to the historic Red Fort in the national capital to pay its obeisance to the freedom fighters of the First War of Indian Independence in 1857. Leader of Opposition L K Advani, BJP president Rajnath Singh, party's election coordinator Susmha Swaraj and a host of local Delhi leaders were present at the meeting.Speaking to a motley crowd, Rajnath Singh said: “Struggle for India's Independence didn't start on 1857 because India was under colonial rule for 1200 years. And there was accusations against colonial rule.”
Though the BJP president did not elaborated Mohammedan and Mughal rule in India, but by saying that India was under colonial rule, he cleared that BJP considers Mohammedan rule in India as colonial. This goes against the established Marxist history writing in India.
Adding further, Singh said that '1857', which according to the Marxist historians was not the year war of independence and least to say the first war of independence.
It is to be noted that BJP till now has been saying that VIR Savarkar has described 1857 mutiny as the first war of Independence. But today it said that it was not Savarkar rather it was Karl Marx, the great philosopher, who was writing at the time for an American magazine, which stated that 1857 war of India was the first war of Independence.
Thus by saying this, Rajnath Singh attacked the Marxist historians of India who not recognised 1857 as the first war of Independence.
This also gave the indication that if BJP comes to power, it will go back to its old agenda of rewriting Indian history. This rewriting of history has created lot of controversies in the past during the NDA rule.
Taking Rajnath's argument further, Sushma Swaraj said, “Marxist or left historians has depicted 1857 totally wrong colour. They've distorted the version of 1857”
By observing Saheed Divas, BJP attempted to correct historic mistakes. The party organised the Saheed Divas today because on the day in 1857, Mangal Pandey was fired by cannon for refusing to use greased cartridges.