The NDA government has set the ball rolling to correct the “errors” in NCERT history textbooks introduced by the UPA.
Historians from the Indian Council of Historical Research and elsewhere perused the textbooks from classes 8 to 12 in a review meeting held by the NCERT recently.
Some recommendations that were made include adding Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s role in history and omitting a picture of a Frenchman smoking a cigar on page 44 of the Class 10 book. There were concerns over Class 9 book giving ‘greater prominence’ to cricket than the French Revolution.
The NCERT will take a call on the numerous recommendations made by the participants, who divided themselves on the basis of their specializations in ancient, medieval and modern history.
The present textbooks replaced the ones introduced by the Vajpayee government. BJP’s ideological fountainhead RSS sees rewriting of history as crucial, as ideologies legitimize their present on the basis of the past. They believe that Marxists and other “secular” historians had written histories in ways that denied Hindus pride in their past.
Many in Sangh-related circles aren’t happy, however. “If new books are commissioned, they will take two to three years. Do we have the time for that, with the government already in the second year?” said an insider. “Minor rectification will achieve little.”
{{/usCountry}}Many in Sangh-related circles aren’t happy, however. “If new books are commissioned, they will take two to three years. Do we have the time for that, with the government already in the second year?” said an insider. “Minor rectification will achieve little.”
{{/usCountry}}Critics, however, say the Hindutva agenda is to communalise history and to seek to bolster the cultural pride of Hindus through exaggerated accounts.
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