PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday said the history that has been forced upon us was actually propaganda of the West and added that such recording of events must be based on "facts" and not "opinion driven".
He was speaking at the launch of a book on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar by Vikram Sampath on the second day of the Kumaon Literary Festival here.
"In my opinion, history should be independent representation of the things that have happened in the past. One can have his own interpretation based on experience and intellect. But (recording of ) history has to be fact driven and not opinion driven,"the CM said.
"Unfortunately, in our country, the history that has been forced upon us, has been propaganda of the West and what they thought about us. They thought we are a land of snake charmers, they thought we are an impoverished country. My question is did they invade us as we were poor? The answer is definitely no," he asserted, The first person to challenge this vicious propaganda was Savarkar, who through his book '1857 ka Swatantraya Samar' (The Indian War of Independence), ignited the flame of patriotism among people, which led to the British banning this book, Sawant said.
Savarkar faced brutal punishment at the hands of the British but, post Independence, a section of people have spread absolute falsehoods about him.
"We as Indians have failed to applaud the life and work of this glorious patriot. I am happy Vikram Sampat has brought to light some well researched content on Veer Savarkar in the form of this book, which will become a document to inspire the future generations of our country," he said.
The CM also said Savarkar had written a book on Goa, which stressed the need for its liberation (from Portuguese rule).
Goa was always an integral part of India despite being under Portuguese rule, and Savarkar's book will be reprinted immediately and circulated all over, Sawant said.