P Chidambaram writes: Distortion of history, disdain for future

History is like the commons. Any one can enter the commons and write or re-write history — until the myths are blown by subsequent research and study. European theorists, and some copy-cat Indian historians, portrayed the Aryans as a superior race who invaded and ‘civilized’ India and other lands. It was a myth. Ancient civilizations had flourished in many parts of India long before the Indo-Aryan movements: for example, archaeological discoveries in Keezhadi and other places in Tamil Nadu have traced a flourishing civilisation to 3500 BCE.

Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America was an early lesson in history that we all learnt in school. It was inaccurate in many ways; the land now called America was populated by men and women for several centuries before Columbus landed on the contin