President Pranab Mukherjee has called for tolerance towards divergent positions in history and pointed out that traditions have always celebrated the ‘argumentative Indian’ and not the ‘intolerant Indian.’
Inaugurating the 77th session of the Indian History Congress on the Karyavattom campus of the University of Kerala on Thursday, Mr. Mukherjee stressed the need for a broad-minded approach that was receptive towards ‘unfamiliar ideas.’
One must be ready to consider a range of different inferences or assumptions. This necessarily barred intolerance of contrary opinions or judgements, he said.
Pointing out that the country’s greatest strengths included its pluralism, social, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity, Mr. Mukherjee lamented that there had been an unfortunate tendency in the country to take umbrage at the expression of any view perceived to be hostile to social or cultural institutions.
“Similarly, critical appraisals of our heroes and national icons have been met with hostility and sometimes even violence. The freedom to doubt, disagree and dispute intellectually must be protected as an essential pillar of one’s democracy. Nothing should lie outside the realm of reason, and therefore, of discussion and argument,” he opined.
The President urged historians to uphold objectivity in their approach to the discipline.
Cautions against prejudice
He cautioned that deep-rooted sentiments of prejudice or an innate sense of superiority could shroud the impartiality that was required in the profession.
The President held the view that reason and moderation should be the guide during one’s pursuit of history.
“It is natural to love one’s country and see as much glory in its past as one can detect. But patriotism should not result in blinkered approaches to interpreting history or a compromise with truth in order to justify an argument of choice. No society is perfect and history must also be seen as a guide on what went wrong and what were the contradictions, deficiencies and weaknesses of the past,” he said.
He lauded the Indian History Congress for its creditable record of standing up for freedom of expression and asking historians to be faithful to the cause of reason. “It (the academic body) has often taken cudgels against distortions of history,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
