After writers and filmmakers, prominent historians in the country have slammed the Modi government's silence over rising intolerance in the country.
Over 50 historians including Romila Thapar, KN Panikkar, Mridula Mukherjee and Irfan Habib spoke against the "highly vitiated atmosphere" prevailing in the country.
"Differences of opinion are being sought to be settled by using physical violence. Arguments are met not with counter arguments but with bullets," said a joint statement issued by the historians.
"This is particularly worrying for us as historians as we have already experienced attempts to ban our books and expunge statements of history despite the fact that they are supported by sources and the interpretation is transparent."
"What the regime seems to want is a kind of legislated history, a manufactured image of the past, glorifying certain aspects of it and denigrating others, without any regard for chronology, sources or methods of enquiry that are the building blocks of the edifice of history," the statement added.
On Wednesday, 13 filmmakers had returned their national awards in support of FTII students, while over the past one month, several writers have returned Sahitya Akademi and even Padma Shri awards over the Dadri lynching and murders of rationalists like MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar.
