Yellapragada Sudershan Rao

Yellapragada Sudershan Rao is an Indian historian, who was appointed as the chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) by the Government of India, serving from July 2014 to July 2017. He was formerly a professor of history at Kakatiya University in Telangana, and had previously served as a member of the ICHR. He was a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, an affiliate of the Hindu-nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and the head of its Andhra Pradesh branch.

His appointment to the ICHR was controversial. It was criticized by historians and seen as an effort by the administration of Narendra Modi to fill government institutions with individuals ideologically aligned with the RSS. Rao holds the belief that the Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, are accurate accounts of Indian history and when appointed he promised to prove the historicity of those epics. He has also spoken out in defense of the caste system.