NEW DELHI, March 25 -- The supreme iconoclast, Howard Zinn, observed that there is no such thing as impartial history. Even the most conscientious historians are partial in two ways; they pick and choose from the bewildering array of happenings from the past, and their interpretation is influenced by their worldview and the times they live in. Yet no serious historian will disagree that the sanctity of facts is fundamental to any historical endeavour. The first commandment for any student of history is to say it like it is, to distinguish between established fact and fiction. Arguably, the greatest historian of our age, Eric Hobsbawm, put it blandly: "Without the distinction of what is and what is not so, there can be no history."

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