My History or Our History? Historical Revisionism and Entitlement to Lead

Ongoing, spirited debates from around the globe over statues, street names, symbols, and textbooks call for a greater understanding of the political effects of different historical representations. In this paper, we theorize that inclusive (exclusive) historical representations can increase (decrease) marginalized group members' perceived centrality to the nation, entitlement to speak on its behalf, and likelihood of becoming leaders. In an online experiment in India (N=1,592), we randomly assign participants exercises sourced from official state textbooks that contain either an exclusive, inclusive, or a neutral representation of history. We subsequently assess the supply of and demand for Muslim leadership using both an original, incentivized game and additional survey and behavioral measures. Consistent with our theory, we find that inclusive historical narratives increase Muslim participants' perceived centrality and entitlement, and their willingness to lead. Our findings indicate that battles over history may carry consequences for the descriptive representation of marginalized groups.