Murali Manohar Joshi, the Indian education minister, has accused British historians of "distorting" Indian history and has vowed to correct the "colonial tilt", writes Hasan Suroor.
"It's time to bring out the truth. I will not allow anyone to harm the image of my country," he said.
Dr Joshi attacked liberal historians for slavishly following their British "predecessorsI who always distorted Indian history". He objected to references in the works of "Anglophile" historians to the practice of beef-eating among Hindus in ancient India. "Hindus did not eat beefI you cannot distort history. It is intellectual terrorism," he said.
Dr Joshi's remarks in an interview in Asian Age , a national newspaper, have fuelled the row over what liberal academics see as his attempt to rewrite history to suit the "Hindutva" agenda of his Hindu nationalist party, the BJP.