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'Textbook writing is politicized in India'
Hemali Chhapia, TNN | May 17, 2013, 03.44 AM IST
MUMBAI: In 2004, the social science textbook of Karnataka created a new world order: Pakistan was an island in the Arabian Sea; China was a part of India; Tibet was in the Bay of Bengal; Saarc members like Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal were a cluster of island-nations.
In Punjab, the social science textbook describes tribal hero and freedom fighter Birsa Munda as a man with divine powers, a 'representative of God'. In the chapter that deals with the 18th century tribal revolt, the Chhota Nagpur area is shown in Bihar. On modern industries, the book says: In the 20th century, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, cotton and silk clothes started being made, because of which the Indian textile industry survived.
Hanuman's birthplace was 'rediscovered ' in Anjanadri in Karnataka's Koppal district, says the state's Class V social science textbook.
For over 10 years, Urdu-medium schools in Gujarat were using a science textbook translated from English by the Gujarat board of school textbooks. The book said calcium could cause cancer and people affected by epidemics should be 'banned'.
How do such errors creep into material that children grow up on?
"The quality of our textbooks is dangerous," sums up Sunanda Sanyal, who was a syllabus committee commentator in West Bengal. "The process of making a textbook is absolutely politicized. After we depoliticize education, we can discuss what went wrong with it. And we will have a lot to discuss."
Most often, say experts, shoddy textbooks are the product of: a weak board of studies that designs books; requests from regional parties to include details about local leaders; and the terrifying pace at which content is written.
"Essentially, the entire batch of (Maharashtra's Class X) geography textbook should be pulped and new content designed. Suresh Jog, a PhD guide who has drawn up the syllabus, has made the text very regional, very narrow in its approach," said Vidyadhar Amrute, who has worked with the textbook panel for years. He pointed out the error of the cartographer who in his sketch handed over Arunachal Pradesh to China.
Excerpt: 'Textbook writing is politicized in India' - The Times of India