Editorial 1: History as battlefield — the perils of reversing the past 

Context

What is dangerous is changing history to fit nationalism, identity politics, or territorial disputes.

Introduction

In March 2025, there was a push to revise textbooks by removing or criticizing figures like Babur and Aurangzeb, while praising certain native rulers. This was followed by growing public anger calling for the renaming or even destructionof Mughal tombs. Viral campaigns encouraged damaging historical monuments, driven by a view that paints India’s past in black and white. Supporters argue these actions correct colonial or biased views, but rewriting history in such a selective way often causes division, not clarity. When history is used to support ideologies instead of promoting reflection, it can tear society apart and create hatred instead of understanding.

• History as a Discipline: Requires careful and nuanced understanding of the past.
• Purpose of History: Study of causes, consequences, and context, not just recollection of events.
• Weaponization of History: Revisionism used to restore lost glory or correct wrongs becomes a tool for division.
• Risks of Revisionism: Leads to conflicts, wars, and prolonged suffering globally.
• Remembering History: Historical wrongs must be remembered, but not as mandates to reclaim past statuses or boundaries.
• Consequences of Reliving History: Chaos arises not from forgetting history, but from attempting to relive or reverse it.

Understanding Revisionist History vs. Historical Reinterpretation

• Historical Reinterpretation
  • A legitimate academic process.
  • Involves changing our understanding of the past using new evidence or different viewpoints.
• Revisionist History
  • Often linked to political purposes.
  • Reinterprets history to support current political goals, often related to nationalism, identity politics, or territorial disputes.
  • Aimed at justifying present-day agendas, rather than accurately understanding the past.

Examples of Revisionist History

• Recognizing Historical Wrongs:
  • It is important to acknowledge past mistakes, but using them to justify violence or reclaim lost territories only creates more conflict.
• Risks of Using History for Political Goals:
  • When history is used to fuel political conflicts, it prevents progress and keeps societies trapped in a cycle of revenge and division.

Twentieth century examples

1. Nazi Germany

• Adolf Hitler's Ideology: Focused on reclaiming the glory of the German Reich.
  • Wanted to correct the "humiliation" caused by the Treaty of Versailles.
  • Used a manipulated version of history to support the Aryan past, the "stab in the back" theory, and the need for Lebensraum (living space).
• Outcome: The effort to reverse the First World War results led to World War II and the Holocaust.
  • This tragic chapter showed the dangers of trying to reshape history through conquest and genocide.

2. Partition of India (1947)

• Competing Narratives: Hindu and Muslim nationalists used historical grievances to justify their cause.
  • The struggle was rooted in selective versions of history from past rulers.
• Outcome: What should have been a peaceful division into two sovereign states resulted in one of the worst communal violence in history.
  • Over 1 million deaths and more than 10 million displaced people.

3. Israel-Palestine Conflict

• Historical Grievances: Both Israelis and Palestinians claim historical rights, often based on deeply emotional and irreconcilableversions of the past.
• Outcome: Efforts to reverse history, through territorial claims, settlements, or denying nationhood, have kept the conflict going.
  • The conflict cannot be solved by only appealing to the past.

4. Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (2022)

• Historical Justification: Russia justified the invasion with claims about the historical unity of Russian and Ukrainian people and the invalidity of Ukraine's post-Soviet independence.
• Outcome: Attempting to reverse post-Cold War borders has caused massive human suffering, economic crises, and instability across the region.

Examples of Revisionism in History

Conclusion: History as a teacher

History should serve as a guide, not a blueprint. We study past mistakes to make sure they don't happen again, not to seek revenge by repeating the same conflicts. Focusing too much on returning to a so-called golden past stops people and nations from seeing the opportunities of today and the potential of tomorrow. As philosopher George Santayana wisely said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” However, it is just as harmful to remember the past only to relive it, trying to fix things by undoing what happened instead of finding peace. The best way to honor history is not by changing it, but by learning from it with humility.