The Singh Government Wants to Cleanse School Textbooks of Hindu Nationalism
The Singh Government Wants to Cleanse School Textbooks of Hindu Nationalism
Mumbai (AsiaNews) Arjun Singh, Human Resource Development (HRD) minister pledged to change how school textbooks are written. Hitherto their content had been too closely tied to Hindu nationalism. A three-member panel set up by the HRD minister to review the history textbooks is seeking ways to replace "objectionable portions, distortions and factual errors with historical facts".
The three historians come from well-known Indians universities and their task is to "desaffronise" the textbooks, saffron being the colour of Hindu ascetics.
One example stands out among the many. According to Hindu tradition, the Lord Rama is said to have taken place in 2000 B.C in Ayodhya. However, archaeological research has not found any evidence of human settlement in the area from that period. Yet Hindu groups were able to have scientific claims and archaeological data contrary to Hindu traditions removed from the textbooks. It is this claim that Lord Rama was born in Ayodhya that led to clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 causing the death of about 2,000 Muslims.
In the Union Capital, the Delhi State Council of Educational Research and Training has hired a private agency, the Ratan Tata Trust, assisted by Oxford University scholars, in order to review the textbooks. This is the first time that a private agency and foreign scholars are called upon to review school textbooks. Jean Aichison, from Oxford University's Department of Linguistics, and Teresa Smith, from its Department of Social Policy, are to visit New Delhi schools where they can suggest and, if necessary, make the required changes to the textbooks. The three-person panel will review all textbooks in English, Hindi, Math and History. The goal is to make history textbooks free of any political and ideological manipulation. The new textbooks will be available next year.
The new government and especially HRD minister Arjun Singh want to change the cultural and educational policies of the former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. Former HRD minister Joshi, the man behind the "saffronisation" of educational policies, recently stated that he and the BJP would vigorously oppose any changes in education. "We shall not allow that in the name of 'detoxifying' school education falsehoods are allowed to spread and future generations pushed onto the island of ignorance"
Justifying changes that he made in the school curricula, Joshi added that they were in accordance with Parliament's recommendations in favour of a values-based education in which religion would play an important role. He went on to accuse the Singh government of 'commercialising education'.
Monsignor Percival Fernandez, General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India and in charge of education for the Mumbai archdiocese had in the past expressed concerns about the "saffronisation" of school textbooks under the BJP government. AsiaNews interviewed him to know his views about the changes announced by the new (Manmohan) Singh government.
What do you think of the "detoxification" of the school system announced by the new HRD minister Arjun Singh?
I think that there is no place for political interference in the writing of history because politics and education should not mix. Therefore, I think that what the minister is doing is very positive. He has selected expert historians who can study school textbooks and offer suggestions. From what I read in the papers, their first impressions are that the textbooks contain many errors that ought to be corrected.
Former minister Joshi says that the changes he introduced where justified and good . . .It seems to me that the criticism directed at the former minister was backed by evidence. Anyhow, my opinion is clear: We have to teach our children History, not tell them stories! (NC)
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