Ministry of Culture and ASI have an important impartial responsibility to build a real India with its original culture.
A country is known for its culture and historical heritage. With the richness of Indian history and heritage, it is somewhat disappointing to see India neglecting their Hindu heritage. It seems that Indian Historians have been neglected by the Indian Ministry of Culture. A recent visit to Bharat by our group of Indian Americans found some glaring loopholes in maintenance and preservation of Vedic Heritage sites particularly connected to Hindus and their faith. It seemed that a particular focus was being given to eliminating Hindu heritage sites through a gradual process of neglect of ancient Hindu heritage sites.
Is a campaign going on to wipe out Hindu archaeological heritage sites and replace them with a false narrative of preserving medieval history? It appears so. Entire South Asia and beyond are filled with relics of ancient Vedic civilization. In a FREE India, it is natural to ask the custodians of Indian Culture, why this discrimination against Hindu Culture and Heritage? Ministry of Culture, led by Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, under whom Archeological Survey of India comes, needs to urgently pay attention. It is well known that culture depends on the History of the land. Why a systemic thrust is being put to erase ancient Hindu History sites? If India does not preserve Hindu heritage sites then who else?
What about Indraprastha?
If you look at the Twitter handle of ASI, https://twitter.com/asigoi, you will find that the entire ancient history of Indraprastha has been eradicated. There is no scientific and archaeological emphasis being given to the history of Pandavas and other Hindu heritage sites across New Delhi. It seems that the old historical sites of Pandavas were demolished to make the history of Hindus disappear from the minds of residents of New Delhi. Why this cultural apartheid against Hindus? Probably, Ms Usha Sharma, the current DG of ASI has a lot to answer. The organizations such as the Aga Khan trust based out of Canada have been systematically working with ASI to eliminate Hindu heritage history and promote a version of their history. Hindu leaders and monuments have been neglected to superimpose their versions on the minds of Indians.
ASI has neglected all Hindu Heritage sites in New Delhi and systematically ignored the Freedom Struggle of Indians under Mughal Rule and also other eras.
History creates an identity and it seems that a conscientious attempt is being made to eliminate the Vedic history of India. When Alexander Cunningham formed the Archeological Survey of undivided India, it was obvious that their one of the goals was to make the residents of their colony look inferior and subordinate to their British masters. Also, it was also very obvious that the historians on the payrolls of Islamic invaders of undivided Bharat were paid to look Hindus inferior and lower than their own. But why ASI and Ministry of Culture of India, has continued those policies? With Shri Narendra Modi, the most popular brand ambassador of India, India needs to showcase the real culture of India. Ministry of culture has an important responsibility to also increase tourism to India. India has a real cultural history to tell to the world, and our recent visit to these historical sites don’t tell that history. It looks as if India hasn’t gained independence in the last 70 years. Any country of the world goes a long way to remove their colonial past as much as possible. But India has gone in the reverse direction partly due to cultural corruption in important bodies such as ASI and Ministry of Culture.
The lighting of Mughal era buildings with funding from NBCC, ASI, Aga Khan Trust under the tutelage of the Ministry of Culture, it seems that there is a bias against the ancient history of New Delhi. The old fort of Pandavas looks like a Mughal period monument with the complete destruction of the original history of Indraprastha. The children and future generations of India need to know the full history of India, her conquerors, her defenders and also her victors. Many names of Hindu kings who were the defenders of India have been relegated to the dustbins of unknown. An independent India must glorify their defenders more than their conquerors.
The world comes to India to discover original India. It is for Indians to tell their story. But when Indians tell them propaganda as a story, then the world is automatically bereft of the real glory of India. History creates identity. Looks like there is a program to create an alternative identity of Indians. Ministry of Culture and ASI have an important impartial responsibility to build a real India with its original culture. Failure to do so on their part is almost like sedition against India and abandonment of Indian history.
ASI has neglected all Hindu Heritage sites in New Delhi and systematically ignored the Freedom Struggle of Indians under Mughal Rule and also other eras. It’s time to accurately tell the story of India truthfully without colonial bias of either Mughal Invaders or British Invaders. We will be going to highlight more to raise such awareness.
Key demands of Indian Americans from Shri Prahlad Singh Patel, Ministry of Culture and ASI:
- Highlight all history of Indraprastha (New Delhi), not just Mughal history.
- Old Fort or Fort of Pandavas must display the History of Pandavas
- Lighting should be highlighted for all monuments
- Actually the history of Mughal Rulers, Freedom fighters against Mughal Rulers must be equally highlighted
- Histories and Monuments from Ramayan and Mahabharat must be preserved and highlighted as much as the history of Mughal and British invaders
India is an ancient land and her ancient history must be repackaged and told to the world to attract tourism to India. ASI and the Ministry of Culture have a lot to do in this area. It’s time for Hindus across the globe to work with Sattology foundation to preserve Ancient Vedic History.
Note:
1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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While I fully agree with the author that the Indian Government has “fully neglected the upkeep of and restoration of Hindu and Vedic sites in India”, Aditya Satsangi becomes a real conspiracy theorist when he states that there “there is a campaign going on to wipe out Hindu archaeological heritage sites and replace them with a false narrative..” I doubt the Indian Govt, BJP and RSS would engage in such a conspiracy!
He further blatantly lies when he erroneously states that The Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) “have been systematically working with ASA to systematically eliminate Hindu heritage history..” This is absolute nonsense! That honour belongs to the ASI and Indian Government itself! It is not the job or mandate of the AKTC to promote Hindu culture or restore Hindu or Vedic sites in India. That is the Indian Govt’s job, and if it has not done so then stop blaming other organizations!
The AKTC funds and restores projects around the world which comply with its objectives and mandate.
If Aditya Satsangi is so passionate about restoring Hindu and Vedic heritage sites in India – and believe me that it direly needs to be done – then he should put his money where his mouth is and start raising and donating funds to the ASI to do this!
While i agree with your comments what i should do. At the same time, Aga Khan trust or any other organization must be investigated to check their intentions and objectives for purposefully undermining Indian Vedic history.
If the government doesn’t do it, god will make them do it.
When people get to throne using Hindutva, but later don’t care a damn about preserving Hindu temples n liberating Hindu temples will face similar neglect by god.
The artcle is very pertinent and timely and well written. It is High time that now ASI and Ministry of culture start relooking ancient Indian history in an unbiased and true sense including vedic, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Maurya and others. Remove colonial biased attitude as damage has already done by motivated historians to misrepresent Vedic, Ramayana, Mahabharat, Maurya, Gupta’s and other related Hindu history. Whatever has been taught to us of IVC, AIT do not hold good in view of new discoveries based on scientific data’s. As such the these motivated historians even updated time line of IVC from 1900-1500 to 4500-3500 BCE? They have completely ignored link of Sarswati river and vedic civilisation. As per well reasearched book by Sh Nilesh Nilkanth Oak, the time line of The Ramayan and Mahabharat goes back to 12209 and 5560 BCE respectively by verifying the texts in these epics with position of Celestial bodies and planetary position. So Ministry of Culture to take ñotice and start putting it’s acts together.
Yes, we need unbiased Indian history with no prejudice.