Patriotism should not result in blinkered approach to history: Prez

Patriotism should not result in blinkered approach to history: Prez
Patriotism should not result in blinkered approach to history: Prez

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: President Pranab Mukherjee today said patriotism should not result in “blinkered” approaches in interpreting history or a compromise with truth in order to justify an argument of choice.

Inaugurating the 77th session of the Indian History Congress, he asked historians to be as objective as possible in their approach to history and said freedom to doubt, disagree and dispute intellectually must be protected as an essential pillar of one democracy.

Advocating that reason and moderation should be the guide, Mukherjee said, “It is natural to love one’s country and see as much glory in its past as one can detect. But, patriotism should not result in blinkered approaches in interpreting history or a compromise with truth in order to justify an argument of choice.”

“No society is perfect and history must be also seen as a guide on what went wrong and what were the contradictions, deficiencies and weaknesses of the past,” he said.

“An objective pursuit of history, such as our best historians have attempted, requires an impartial mind of a judge and not the mind of an advocate,” the President said.

“We must keep our eyes open for unfamiliar ideas and be ready to consider a range of different inferences or assumptions,” he said. (AGENCIES)

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