Controversial RSS Prof Makhan Lal appointed to History Dept at AMU

Newly appointed AMU VC, Tariq Mansoor has appointed Dr.Makhan Lal, the Sangh Parivar pointsman for re-writing history books, as Adjunct Professor in the Department of History, sources told Sabrangindia.

The professor closely associated with the sangh parivar ‘s project of re-writing (read manipulating) history will now be part of a history department that boasts of being the department of the world renowned medieval history expert, Irfan Habib.

In 2006, the Indian Express had reported how one of the 16 Volumes of the History of the Jan Sangh authored by Makhan Lal (http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/a-volume-of-jana-sanghbjp-history-account-withdrawn/4063/) was withdrawn four months after it was released as part of the silver jubilee celebrations in Mumbai.

The series, written by historian Makhan Lal under the supervision of senior BJP leader J P Mathur, carried a foreword by then Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L K Advani.

The History of Jana Sangh, reportedly contained certain obectionable portions, sources had then claimed. The book was withdrawn after senior leaders noticed some controversial references to Muslims. There was confirmation to the media then of the sale of the controversial volume having been stopped.

It was then reported by the paper that the references said the ”anti-Muslim sentiments” prevailing in the pre-Independence period were due to the Congress policy of appeasement of Muslims.

Eaelier, in 2003, Dr,Makhan Lal was sacked from another Institute for alleged sexual offences.(See link from Hindu Newspaper Archives: Hindu : Historian accused of harassing girl students)

Apart from being accused of tampering with history in school textbooks, historian Makhan Lal had faced allegations of not just forcing students to learn history the “right” way, but also harassing girl students in his capacity as director of the Institute of Heritage Research and Management here in the Capital.

Experts from the Hindu story:

Students had then lodged a complaint with the Hauz Khas police station and announced that they would not attend any class till the historian was removed from the Institute.

Denying the allegation, Mr. Makhan Lal said his students had been misguided into a political game. “I have been in academics for nearly 27 years. Never in my life have I been accused of such charges. I have always upheld the dignity of a teacher’s job and acted as a father figure for students. Why the students resorted to this is a mystery, but I will come out with the truth,” he had asserted.

Students had then said that they had to silently suffer the advances made by the director but decided to put their foot down after one of their teachers, Anand Burdhan, was asked to resign for inefficiency. According to the students, “He happen(ed) to be the only one to take our(their) classes properly and provide us(them) with practical knowledge. Most of the other teachers teach us (them) straight from photocopied books. Many good teachers were made to leave the Institute earlier too because they did not subscribe to the thoughts of the director,” said students at the time.

There was also resentment among students about the quality of education being offered at the Institute that was affliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, the Institute was then about three years old. Students allege that they were not allowed to refer to Romila Thapar or any other author that the director believes is inclined to the Left. One of the teachers even went to the extent of stating that the demolition of the Babri Masjid was justified.