KOLKATA: History depends on "events of facts" and any attempt to invent facts will be treated as fiction, historian Irfan Habib today said.
The writings of renowned historians Tara Chand and Ishwari Prasad are not different from the history written by the so-called "Communist" historians, said Habib, who follows the approach of Marxist historiography, referring to allegations that the history of India has been written from a Leftist and Communist point of view.
"Knowledge has expanded but the assessments are the same. They should know the history of India before talking to us like that, where are we different from Tara Chand and Ishwari Prasad," he said on the sidelines of the Indian History Congress here.
"I want to ask them to read the history by Tara Chand and Ishwari Prasad and compare it with the history written by us.
Where is the difference ? ... You can't change history because history depends on events of facts. If you invent facts then that's not history, that's fiction," he said.
Habib's comment comes in the backdrop of Opposition parties accusing the BJP and the RSS of trying to "rewrite and distort" the history of India in order to put forward their agenda of Hindutva.
A section of Sangh Pariwar and Hindutva groups had accused that a distorted version of history is being taught in India by "Left and liberal historians" who since Independence have "monopolised the intellectual space" in the country.