Indian history misleading, needs to be rewritten: Union Minister Sarangi

Union Minister Pratap Sarangi called for rewriting of India’s history, saying that those who knew nothing about India were paid by the British to write the history that suited them.

Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Pratap Sarangi on Thursday stirred controversy as he said Indian history was written to suit the British and needed to be rewritten.

Speaking to reporters here, the Union minister of state for fisheries, animal husbandry and MSME, said, "It is said that Aryans arrived from the Caspian Sea region. It is said that Aryans and Dravidians are outsiders. There is no evidence that Aryans are Dravidians are two different races. They scripted their own new history to strengthen the British empire."

Sarangi, a first-time MP from Odisha’s Balasore constituency, stated that efforts were made to create a distinction between Hindus and Sikhs, and between the languages of northern and southern India.

"It is wrong to say that Sikhs and Hindus are two different communities. Guru Nanak Dev was a Hindu, he later established Sikhism," he said.

"There are similarities between the languages of northern and southern India. Irrespective of the region, all Indian languages are derived from Sanskrit," he added.

These are the wrong facts, erroneous imaginations.

Taking jibe at historians, Sarangi said that those 'who did not know anything' about India were paid by the British to write such things, adding that the current government is trying to make the necessary changes.