Teesta Setalvad and Romila Thapar on how Hindutva abuses history to divide India

Addressing the JNU students on Sunday, activist Teesta Setalvad along with historian Romila Thapar, talked about the definition of nationalism and how history is altered to produce a communal divide in the country. Thapar questioned how central government has been biased in producing BR Ambedkar's work, and creating a void about Ambedkar's work among the people.

"Maharashtra government publishes the collective works of BR Ambedkar every year and central government takes the copyright and also publishes it in a better format. But recently I had a conversation with a renowned journalist Dilip Mandal , who told me that this time they are selling the copies of Ambedkar's work without 11 volumes. That means, 11 volumes from the work weren't sold in the government's set," she told students.

"You can take a guess, what volumes were missing in the set? Widows and Hinduism, States and Minority, Women and Revolution, these critical rocks of Ambedkar's work have been removed. If you really want to accept BR Ambedkar, don't showcase a biased work," she added.

Targeting the government in defining new narratives about terrorism, she suggested how one could halt the RSS' rumour mongering. "I would like to congratulate JNU teachers and professors in creating this students' movement. If we compare JNU with HCU and if the faculty of HCU had shown the same amount sensitivity as the faculty of JNU had shown, Rohit Vemula would have been alive today and his letter from December 18 would have been read among all of us today," she said.

"It was a warning of his stress. Even after his death, four students who were protesting with him are on suspension. That means, the government hasn't learnt anything from these unique protests and obstinate on its stand," she added.

Adding to what Thapar said about nationalism, she said the existing government frequently talked about a "Muslim state" versus a "Hindu state".

"First of all, I would like to give you the example of Sri Lanka where I had gone in 1997. If you combine religion and state together, there will be the birth of fascist tendency, which also happened in Sri Lanka. The Constitution of Sri Lanka was written in 1951 and as in Indian constitution, 22 languages and more than 700 dialects were added, Sri Lanka failed to put other languages including Tamil in its Constitution, which meant Sinhala is the official language of the country. And by doing that, they immediately sowed the seed of alienation among the Tamils. So when you are building a composite nation, you have to consider everybody," she added.

Setalvad also spoke on the difference between Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar's ideology. "But when Gandhi was asked who should be the best person to write the Indian Constitution, he directed his finger towards Ambedkar. Gandhi maintained the thought that Ambedkar has faced enough inequalities in his life and he would be the best person to write a constitution which would make India a composite nation," she said.

Setalvad also challenged RSS and Shiv Sena on altering Indian history. "The ideologies which can challenge you, you are trying to suppress it," she targeted RSS. " Today we are all Sharman. That means, whoever is against caste based discrimination and inequality are Sharmans. You will be shocked to hear that even Gandhi was against religion based nation but according to Shiv Sena, Gandhi was shot because he gave Rs 55 crore to Pakistan. That's an utter lie. See, that's where RSS and Shiv Sena alters the history," she said.

"Shivaji can't be glorified as a Hindu leader. Shivaji wrote three respectful letters to Aurangzeb for reducing the taxes. Aurangzeb didn't agree to what Shivaji had requested, so they both parted their ways. Along with them, many states also took sides. But what do we hear today? Shiv Sena and RSS give communal colour to Shivaji and Aurangzeb. Appropriation and misappropriation of history is purely a fascist project," she added.