India, June 7 -- The core issue raised by the Pashupati Seal debate is the ongoing challenge of defining India's civilizational identity through the interpretation of ancient artifacts.

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history." - George Orwell

History writing requires navigating between objectivity and the subjectivity with which facts are selected, interpreted, and presented. Rather than being neutral, history writing, however, often involves interpretation and selection from incomplete and biased evidence. This complexity underscores that history writing is not purely objective or "scientific." It is often contested, subject to revision, and deeply influenced by curr...