The Indian Council of Historical Research, the government body that funds research into the past, seems set to continue on its saffron trend as it gets ready to reconstitute its governing panel.
Three of the 18 candidates suggested by Y Sudarshan Rao, president of the council, are office holders in the Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, the historical wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Rao, who was a member of the organisation before moving to the council in Delhi in July, has spoken of the need to Indianise historical research. He also maintains that the Ramayana and Mahabharata are valid historical texts and that the Saraswati river needs to be discovered. In 2007, he argued that caste was an effective social system before the Muslim period.
The yojana, which also aims to rewrite Indian history from an Indian perspective, has declared several controversial projects over the years. It is now working on compiling all the Puranas and distributing them as the true history of India.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development is yet to decide which of these 18 names will eventually make it to the council. As the council oversees funding and therefore the path of historical research in the country, members of the governing panel are often historians eminent in their areas of specialisation.
Here are the academic profiles of the three nominees
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