The prime minister said India needs to break free from the “narrow views” of the past to take the country to heights of success.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed his displeasure over the way history has been taught in India which he believes suited only certain narratives and led to inferiority complex among people.
At the first ‘Veer Bal Diwas’ event, Modi paid tributes to Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, Guru Gobind Singh’s sons who laid down their lives while defending their faith. Talking about the two greats, the prime minister said, “Sahibzaades are inspiring generations. A country that has such history should be filled with confidence but unfortunately, in the name of history we were taught only certain narratives which leads to an inferiority complex.”
He further said, “If we want to take India to newer heights of success then we have to become free from the narrow perspectives of the past”.
Speaking on the circumstances of the Sahinzaades’ execution, Modi said, “Guru Gobind Singh stood steadfastly against the terrorism of Aurangzeb and his intentions to change India. Aurangzeb and his people wanted to change the religion of Guru Gobind Singh’s children by the force of a sword”.
He said that the history of the world was filled with atrocities and violence. “Three centuries ago Chamkaur and Sirhind wars were fought, on one side there was Mughal Sultanate blind to communal extremism and on the other there were our Gurus,” Modi said.
“On the one hand, there was terrorism and on the other there’s spiritualism, on the one hand there was communal mayhem while on the other hand there was liberalism…on one hand there were forces of lakhs while on the other there were Veer Sahibzaade who didn’t relent at all,” he added.
December 26 is observed as Veer Bal Diwas, and commemorates the valour of ‘Chhote Sahibzaade’, the two youngest sons of the tenth Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh.
Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, the two youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh, were bricked alive on the orders of Wazir Khan, the Mughal faujdar of Sirhind, for refusing to renounce their faith and become Muslim. Zorawar Singh was nine years old at the time, and Fateh Singh only seven. Soon after they were walled up alive, their grandmother Mata Gujri (Guru Gobind Singh’s mother) died of shock.