Qutub Minar, Mehrauli. Photo courtesy: Shaz Syed.
Culture
Revisiting Mehrauli
Swapna Liddle, author-historian, on Mehrauli, its composite culture and misinformation around its history.
"Misinformation around history is really in a sense poisoning the well. It is not historians that have had an agenda around history. It is non-historians and people who have an agenda who have actually used history or what is not history to push divisions [amongst communities]," says Swapna Liddle, a renowned author, historian and the former convenor of the Delhi chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
From the recent Gyanvapi mosque dispute to the Qutub Minar land controversy, the Bharatiya Janata Party has long been trying to create communal tensions based on dubious claims around historical monuments.