The Indian Consulate in Canada is receiving criticism over social media for inviting controversial ‘historians’ Devdutt Pattanaik and William Dalrymple to the three-day JLF Toronto Literary fest scheduled for November 27 to 29, 2020.
Consulate General of India to Canada took to their official Twitter handle and informed about the details of the event, mentioning that Pattanaik will be speaking on “Mahabharat: Adapting Ancient Myth for Modern Theatre” on November 29.
The decision has evoked a lot of criticism from social media users for the Indian Consulate in Canada for providing a platform to individuals who have often abused people on social media. They have shared Pattanaik’s problematic approach to mythology. One of the predominant blemishes in his approach is he is less interested in social engineering and more in self-promotion.
While one of the Twitter user said that Devdutt is one of the most abusive “experts” she had ever interacted with, the other one calls out the government for inviting Anti-Hindu Mythologists like Devdutt to talk about Mahabharata.
Devdutt Patnaik is infamous for his petty fights over social media in which the self-proclaimed historian has crossed his boundaries and abused netizens.
Apart from his atrocious conduct on social media, his work has been criticized heavily for errors, manipulations, and outright lies. He has been accused of misinterpreting Sanskrit texts and many believe he does so on purpose to peddle a particular version of Leftist political ideology.
His work is filled with distortions that come across as a deliberate attempt to twist Hinduism to further a particular political agenda that aligns with the Left
According to Nityanand Mishra, an IIM graduate working in the finance industry, Devdutt has been inventing his own stories and selling them as Hindu mythology.
Besides Pattnaik, the Indian government’s invitation to another controversial figure William Dalrymple in the Literary festival has also made the social media furious. William Dalrymple is the same who has opposed the abolition of Article 370 and CAA. He is also accused of playing a vital role in getting the book on Delhi riots titled ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ banned. Islamist Aatish Taseer himself informed on Twitter that it was William who had prevented the book from being published.
The book ‘Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story’ is authored by Monika Arora, Sonali Chitalkar, and Prerna Malhotra. The book, which is a factual account based on investigation and interviews conducted by the authors, was to be released in September.
