India's new gov't set to cut Hindu bias from history books taught to schoolchildren

[krsna]

India set to cut Hindu bias from history books

By Randeep Ramesh in Delhi

June 28, 2004

 

India's new government is poised to rewrite the history taught to schoolchildren after a panel of eminent historians recommended scrapping textbooks written by scholars hand-picked by the previous Hindu nationalist administration.

 

Hundreds of thousands of textbooks are likely to be dropped by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the central government body that sets the national curriculum for students up to 18.

 

The move, one of the first made by the new Congress-led government, will strongly signal a departure from the program of its predecessor.

 

The "saffronisation" of history, critics of the last government say, depicted India's Muslim rulers as barbarous invaders and the medieval period as a dark age of Islamic colonial rule that snuffed out the glories of the Hindu empire that preceded it.

 

One textbook claimed that the Taj Mahal, the Qu'tb Minar and the Red Fort, three of India's outstanding examples of Islamic architecture, were designed and commissioned by Hindus. Most controversial was the book History of India, by the country's foremost historian, Romila Thapar. This concluded that the "Aryans", venerated by the Hindu right as indigenous geniuses who created the Indus Valley civilisation, were nomadic tribes who spread from the Middle East.

 

Ms Thapar was removed from the Indian Council for Historical Research less than three months after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party took power in 1999.

 

There has also been much criticism of the way that the pernicious effects of the caste system had been played down or simply been erased from history books.

 

The three-member panel of historians examining the "inadequacies" of history textbooks recommended the "discontinuation" of their use in the national syllabus.

 

The Government will decide early next month to what extent it will accept the academics' verdict, but as it has stressed that it will seek to reach out to minorities, it is expected to implement the report in full.

 

Religious revivalists have wanted to emphasise the uniqueness of Hinduism and its resilience to "foreign" invasion. Many on the Hindu right are furious that their revisionist interpretation of history is now being revised, blaming the influence of "leftists and Marxists".

 

The Guardian

 

[Guest guest]

And one that has over the past decades been continually revised, and possibly discredited? So Romila Thapar who is propagating the Aryan Invasion theory SHOULD have been removed from her post.

 

Also, if the Muslims weren't invaders then WHAT were they? It seems like the new government is seeking to ease the Hindu-Muslim tensions by emphasizing the Mulsims "aren't all bad".

 

If there's evidence that points to the Taj Mahal and other Islamic structures actually being Hindu in origin, then WHY would the new government try to hide this? Surely, there's some basis for the reasoning that they're Hindu in origin.

 

I think it's a shame that this new government's goals are to reach out to the minorities first and foremost. In an effort to please the minorities, they're going to deprive Hindus of their own cultural heritage by whitewashing everything that has happened in India's past.

 

I'm not saying the previous government was right either, though. New textbooks probably should be issued, but what should be done is have an HONEST representation of Indian history. Not something that has the goal of reaching out to minorities.

[xxvvii]

This concluded that the "Aryans", venerated by the Hindu right as indigenous geniuses who created the Indus Valley civilisation, were nomadic tribes who spread from the Middle East.

-----------

From sheer subjective angle, I like initiative races rather than conservative ones. Here, in my view, "indigenous" is the synonym of "conservative".

[Guest guest]

for the Aryan Invasion Theory. So why is it still being pushed?

 

And why do you think it's better that the Aryans were invaders rather than peaceful, actually spiritual people?

[xxvvii]

There's no BASIS for the Aryan Invasion Theory. So why is it still being pushed?

------------

I have said "subjective".

 

And why do you think it's better that the Aryans were invaders rather than peaceful, actually spiritual people?

------------

I haven't say whether they're spiritual or not.

 

I repeat my word, "No one can obstruct a future winner, & no one can rescue a future loser". This process is ensured by dharma to push history ahead.

 

Luk19

19:16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

19:17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

19:18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.

19:19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

19:20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:

19:21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.

19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:

19:23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

19:24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.

19:25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.)

19:26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

[Guest guest]

the Mahabharata as history? Ramayana?

 

What about Rama and Krishna as avatars? You don't consider them to be those either?

 

And the very idea of a forceful invasion by Aryans upon India IS OPPOSITE of spiritual or peaceful. The Aryan Invasion has to do with imposition of a certain culture and it has the implications of the Aryans being racists and cultural imperialists. That is not at all what a spiritual group of people should be.

 

I think your desire to see the Aryans as invaders is pretty pathetic.

[Guest guest]

Ramanayana and Mahabaratha are myths. Indians need to learn real history, which is basically islamic history because hindus have never really achieved anything worthwhile.

[Avinash]

What kind of achievement will you consider as worthwhile?

[Guest guest]

And the very idea of a forceful invasion by Aryans upon India IS OPPOSITE of spiritual or peaceful. The Aryan Invasion has to do with imposition of a certain culture and it has the implications of the Aryans being racists and cultural imperialists. That is not at all what a spiritual group of people should be.

-----------

This is a world with peace & war in turn. War will break out when imbalance cumulates to a certain limit, & peace will dominate afterwards when wealth is consumed & balance is reached. I attend to reality more. Eternal peace can only exist in heaven.

[Avinash]

Indians need to learn real history, which is basically islamic history because hindus have never really achieved anything worthwhile.

 

So, you are saying that Islamic history tells us what is worthwhile achievement.Can you expand on it further?

[krsna]

New Government Set to Rewrite India's History Books

Christian Science Monitor

 

DELHI, INDIA, July 19, 2004: This report from the Christian Science

Monitor is rather more balanced than most circulating these days about

the rewrite of India's school textbooks. We produce it in full:

 

In the past five years, Indian schoolchildren of all faiths have

learned quite a bit about the culture of the Hindu majority. With the

pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party in charge, history textbooks were

rewritten to extol the virtues of Indian kings like Shivaji and the

Mauriyan and Vijayanagar empires. Hindu values were openly promoted in

school, and ancient subjects like Hindu astrology, Ayurvedic medicine,

and even the system of mental calculations known as Vedic mathematics

were taught alongside more modern subjects such as astronomy,

chemistry, and accounting.

 

Last week, the allies of the newly elected Congress government, the

Communist Party of India, called for yet another rewrite of Indian

history, this time with a broader view of India's many cultures instead

of focusing on the religion of the majority.

 

The root of this historical conflict runs deep into the very definition

of India itself. Is India essentially a secular country, where many

religions and cultures coexist and blend? Or is India a nation formed

on Hindu values, where non-Hindu religions must conform to Hindu values

and traditions? It is this core question has unwittingly turned Indian

schoolrooms into a cultural battleground.

 

"If these academics did things in a quiet manner, it would be better so

that you don't arouse latent emotions," says Dipankar Gupta, an

anthropologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. "Most

people in India believe in what the RSS (a militant pro-Hindu group)

wanted to put into the textbooks, so if you say that is wrong, it

wouldn't go down so well."

 

"From an educational point of view, it's pointless" to change textbooks

in the middle of the year, Mr. Gupta adds. "Students basically learn

these things to pass the exams. They won't be confused by a change in

curriculum," he says, and they won't bother thinking much about it

after the exams, either.

 

But most historians welcome these changes -- indeed some change was

almost inevitable. The BJP-promoted textbooks were full of factual

errors, according to a panel of historians, and they diminished the

impact of nearly a millennium of Islamic and British conquerors.

 

"The old textbooks were full of errors of fact, which children don't

deserve to be made to read," says Barun De, a historian from the

Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Studies in Calcutta, who wrote a

scathing report of the BJP's textbooks in 2000. "No government ideology

should be imposed on children."

 

What Mr. De and other historians found in the BJP's textbooks was a

narrative that relied heavily on "traditional thought and mythology up

to the first millennium, and then the second millennium was a

retrogression and a perversion because of foreign conquests from the

West."

 

While he has no desire to diminish the merits of Indian history before

the arrival of Western conquerors, he adds, "I would like to see a

multiplex character of India to be represented, as it used to be in our

history. But that multiplicity was whittled down and the Hindu side

emphasized. This is an attempt to bring in chauvinism, and one of the

more fundamentalist elements of religion. "

 

Not so, says Devenanda Swarup, a former professor of history at Delhi

University. Mr. Swarup says that it is the Congress Party that is

taking an ideological view of history, promoting a Marxist view that

diminishes the importance of India's founding culture, Hinduism.

 

"This is an exercise which may launch a struggle for the national ethos

of the country, and Marxist ideology, which has been outdated, cannot

withstand it, " says Swarup. "Every country tries to inculcate its

values to children, a spirit of patriotism, a concept of unity, and

higher moral values. But these people," he says, speaking of

left-leaning historians, "they want to talk about the struggle of

revolution."

 

Unless the Congress bucks the pressure of its Communist allies, Swarup

warns, "there is a possibility of this becoming a major campaign of

struggle." The leftist academics "have no following, their whole

influence is the news media. All organized forces will participate,

from parents, from students, from different groups that are dedicated

to the Indian nation."

 

Meanwhile, the new government is sending mixed signals on whether it

wants to take on this fight so early in its reign. Communist Party

officials, who support the Congress government within parliament but

are not members of the governing coalition, are pushing for immediate

removal of BJP-sponsored textbooks. But Congress government spokesman

Salman Khursheed told journalists last week that the Congress Party is

working on a different time frame.

 

"If the Left agrees with some of the steps we take, that's wonderful,"

he told the Kerala-based magazine The Week. "But it should be

remembered that we are believers, while they are not. Our ideal is

Mahatma Gandhi, who was into religion; theirs is Karl Marx."

 

[krsna]

History Textbook Controversy Roils Indian School Systems

http://www.keralanext.com/news/index.asp?id=44323&pg=1

 

NEW DELHI, INDIA, August 12, 2004: How old is the Indian civilization?

If a student in Rajasthan says 6000 bce and another in Delhi says 2500

bce - both are correct, thanks to vastly different textbooks resulting

out of rival regimes. ( The 6000 bce date is the result of

recent scholarship; that of 2500 bce a date set by 19th century

historians.) This is a scenario depicting the confusion arising out of

Indian children learning different versions of history -- depending on

the political party in charge in their respective regions.

 

Bitter political rivalry between the ideologically opposed Congress,

the communists and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has led to a deeply

confusing state of affairs whereby different states will teach

different textbooks. While the Congress-led ruling United Progressive

Alliance (UPA) is determined to remove the new textbooks issued by the

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under the

previous BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime during

1998-2004, BJP-ruled states have vowed to defy the move and retain the

books.

 

The new books (meaning the ones brought in under the BJP, not the

replacement texts now being instituted) have brought sweeping changes

in content as well as interpretations: The independence movement

according to the new books is not as grand and widespread, informs the

BJP-inspired course. The British pulled out of India due to their

internal weaknesses and external pressures. The BJP believes that the

Indian civilization has an 8,000-year history dating back to the

Neolithic era, although the Congress-prescribed course dates the Indus

Valley civilization at 2500-2000 B.C. The new textbooks mention the

mythical Hindu paradise and abode of the gods "Vaikuntha" as a

geographical entity. They also project the Sultanate era of Delhi

(which ruled nearly all of India) as one of "unparalleled exploitation"

although leftist historians who wrote the previous books say there was

no proof the exploitation was less than before.

[Guest guest]

Why would Hindus be ashamed to let their children learn more about their great civilization, culture and religion? What are they hoping to achieve with this riciculous move? After years of misinformation, people all over the world have started realizing that Hindus are an ancient/great people, and theirs is the cradle of civilization and that India is the mother of all nations. In short, like Einstein said, the whole world should take pride in this, and be indebted to India for her contributions. Instead, we find Indians virtually neglecting their own greatness and praising someone else, even lesser known civilizations??? I don't get this at all.