SOURCE: pti
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History is “complicated” and the politics of the day often indulges in “cherry-picking facts” and to a considerable extent that has happened in Tipu Sultan’s case, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
He claimed a “particular narrative” about the former ruler of Mysore has been advanced over the years. In his address at the launch of the book ‘Tipu Sultan: The Saga of Mysore Interregnum 1761-1799’ here, Jaishankar said there are some basic questions that “confront us all” today as to how much of “our past has been airbrushed”, how awkward issues have been “glossed over” and how “facts are tailored for regime convenience”.
The book has been written by historian Vikram Sampath.
The external affairs minister said, “In the last decade, the changes in our political dispensation have encouraged the emergence of alternative perspectives and balanced accounts.” “We are no longer prisoners of a vote bank, nor is it politically incorrect to bring out inconvenient truths. There are many more subjects on which the same degree of objectivity is needed,” he said.
The minister said open-minded scholarship and a genuine debate are central to “our evolution as a pluralistic society and vibrant democracy”.