Hindu right rewriting Indian textbooks

[Donatello]

We shall see, but Hindus as one entity is not divisive for nation but rather will help in its integrity.

Not any more. What about the rural prevalence of the caste system? Will a Brahmin be comfortable with, say, marrying into a Dalit? Then you've got other religion as well. They have to contribute to the society as well.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

Pakistanis are also the ones who are fighting for textbook reform, meanwhile it seems Indians are fighting for textbook regression in their schools.

No. The syllabus is public and online for everyone. There is no regression in progress here. Al Jazeera is just - well Aj Jazeera, that's all.

 

[KingMamba]

No. The syllabus is public and online for everyone. There is no regression in progress here. Al Jazeera is just - well Aj Jazeera, that's all.

So this news is fake? Do you not agree with this move by the people in charge in Gujrat?

 

[pursuit of happiness]

Books by Hindu nationalists merging myth with reality proliferate in PM Modi's home state of Gujarat.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat - You cannot blame Bhavana Vaja, 12, for telling you that the first aeroplane was invented during the mythical Dvapara Yuga, when the Hindu God Ram flew from Sri Lanka to Ayodhya in India with his wife Sita and brother Laxman in a Pushpaka Vimana - a swan-shaped chariot of flowers.

By claiming that they familiarise students with India's ancient heritage, some books printed by the education department of western Gujarat state teach children that aeroplanes existed in India since Lord Ram's era. And that is just a sample of how religious content is included in science, history, environment, and mathematics books.

"Every week we are asked to do projects in our science and social studies classes. We refer to these books then," says Saras Solanki, age 9.

The Gujarat government has introduced nine new books this academic year for classes 1 to 12. These books, written by Hindu nationalist ideologues, have been delivered to 42,000 elementary schools across the state free of cost.

Eight out of the nine books have been penned by Dina Nath Batra, founder of the Hindu nationalist organisation, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Batra was responsible for forcing Pengiun India Publishers towithdraw all copies of Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus in February this year.

Enthused by its success, Batra went on to force two other publishers - Aleph and Orient Blackswan - to withdraw books that he deemed "hurtful to Hindu religious sentiments".

'Supplementary reading'

Taking a leaf from Batra's book, India's prime minister and former chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, last week said that genetic science existed in ancient India.

In fact, Modi wrote a foreword in Batra's books saying his "inspirational literature will inspire students and teachers".

Education in India is the responsibility of both the state governments and the federal government. A state textbook board formulates curriculum based on the guidelines specified by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT). However, these nine books deviate vastly from those guidelines by relying heavily on religious subjects and mythology.

Hence, they have been introduced as "supplementary reading" for the students. These books are stored in the libraries and are made available to students any time they want. Use of these books for extracurricular projects and presentations are encouraged.

"I find that children want to show off their knowledge. More often than not, they are averse to textbooks. Though, they are happy to sit in the library and leaf through other books so their presentation can be better than others in the class," said Jayashree Ben Solanki, a 6th grade teacher at a municipality school in Ahmedabad, the capital city of Gujarat state. "Therefore, these books end up being read more widely than textbooks."

"Gujarat is an experimental ground," said Gaurang Jani, a professor of sociology at Gujarat University. "The BJP and the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] will test their methods in the state and if found successful, will replicate it throughout the country," he told Al Jazeera.

"The move to infuse right-wing ideology in mainstream curriculum has been started by printing books with a religious bias using taxpayers' money. If the books are received without major opposition in Gujarat, they will introduce such books at the national level as well," Jani said.

'Saffronisation'

There is already some talk of changing the school and college curriculum at the national level.

In Indian political context, "saffronisation" is used to refer to the policies of right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations, which, according to critics, are divisive. The term refers to the saffron-coloured robes worn by Hindu sages.

Barely four days after India's new right-wing government was sworn in this May, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, a former TV actress, issued her first statement saying the Vedas, the Upanishads and otherancient Hindu texts should be introduced in the classrooms.

Consequently, in July, a consultative body called The Bharatiya Shiksha Neeti Ayog (Indian Education Policy Commission) was constituted by the Hindu nationalist organisation, RSS and is mandated "to study the present education system and suggest corrective steps to make it Bharat-centric." Bharat is the Hindi word for India.

"The problem is that they are equating India to Hindus. What about the India that houses the Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs and other religions? India's defining character is its diversity - including religious. That will be subtly and efficiently destroyed by introducing religious content in school books," said Sveta Joshi, a former professor at Delhi University who has done extensive work on the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat.

One of the nine books in question urges students to visit Hindu pilgrim places like Jagannath, Badrinath and Rameshwaram to "cleanse themselves".

"Students who are slightly older do question the lack of any Muslim or Christian places of worship," Solanki, the elementary school teacher, said.

"Four of the nine books are titled Prerna Deep, they are meant to have short biographies of 'inspiring Indians'." Dalit, Jain, Sikh, and Buddhist heroes are mentioned prominently. The mention of Muslim and Christian heroes is almost negligible though," said Jani of Gujarat University.

Questioning perspectives

Since 1952, when it founded the first Saraswati Shishu Mandir (nursery school) in Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh state, the RSS, the ruling party BJP's mother organisation, has always had schools that propagate its ideology. In subsequent years, the RSS founded Vidya Bharati, an umbrella body for thousands of educational institutions based on Hindu values, from the nursery to the post-graduate levels.

"Until now, the Hindu system of education was running parallel to the regular NCERT curriculum, which was formed collectively by eminent scholars from all walks of life. But now, the danger is that they want to merge the two," said Jani. "The Sangh ideology is slowly becoming the state ideology," he adds.

"If children are taught from a young age about Hindu supremacy and glory, they will not question it at a later stage in their life," said Lila Visariya, a scholar at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, at a conference organised in Ahmedabad last month.

Achyut Yagnik, founder of the Centre for Social Knowledge and Action, said that the "saffronisation of education" began in Gujarat slowly and subtly since the BJP established power in the late 1990s.

A report by NCERT states: "While communal perspectives have been present in textbooks in earlier periods too, studies done of textbooks rewritten from this perspective, for example in Gujarat, highlight their ready potential to contribute to a culture of divisiveness between religious communities …"

Gujarat was witness to gory religious riots in 2002, which killed about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Religious faultlines in the state, however, go back several centuries.

Last year, the Committee for Resisting Saffronisation of Textbooks protested against the textbooks in another Indian state, Karnataka, which, they said, strengthened stereotypes of Muslims and Christians and subdued the voices of women, Dalits and non-Vedic traditions. The textbooks remain unchanged.

"If anyone has problems with any of the books, I urge them to go to court," said Harshad Patel, the media coordinator for Gujarat BJP. "Let them do what Dinanathji did. Get the court to pass orders to withdraw the books," he told Al Jazeera.

Source:-
Hindu right rewriting Indian textbooks - Features - Al Jazeera English


So it has begun........


@Oscar

--
there is some truth about article ..
---
let it be modi or anyone.. it cant give BS to indians in text books..
indian public is well above all this ..
yes.. BJP have certain thins in mind..
But but but..
indian judiciary and indian people will not allow any BS..
--
f anyone has problems with any of the books, I urge them to go to court," said Harshad Patel, the media coordinator for Gujarat BJP.
--
Indian court make sure spade is called spade . simple ..
--
Long live indian democracy...

 

[Donatello]

No. The syllabus is public and online for everyone. There is no regression in progress here. Al Jazeera is just - well Aj Jazeera, that's all.

But Al Jazeera is the most authentic source for Indians when it comes to Pakistan, why is that the case bhai?

 

[SarthakGanguly]

So this news is fake? Do you not agree with this move by the people in charge in Gujrat?

Here's the interesting part.

1. The news is NOT fake. Therein lies the brilliance.

2. The information mentioned is present in books in the library. Not in history books per se. All kinds of books are there in the library. Even Iqbal's books are there. Does not mean our schools are teaching Two Nation Theory.
Check this -

Hence, they have been introduced as "supplementary reading" for the students. These books are stored in the libraries and are made available to students any time they want.

There are many brown sahibs who are still left in India and are offended by many oriental authors who offer a different viewpoint. They are the ones objecting.

 

[pursuit of happiness]

Books by Hindu nationalists merging myth with reality proliferate in PM Modi's home state of Gujarat.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat - You cannot blame Bhavana Vaja, 12, for telling you that the first aeroplane was invented during the mythical Dvapara Yuga, when the Hindu God Ram flew from Sri Lanka to Ayodhya in India with his wife Sita and brother Laxman in a Pushpaka Vimana - a swan-shaped chariot of flowers.

By claiming that they familiarise students with India's ancient heritage, some books printed by the education department of western Gujarat state teach children that aeroplanes existed in India since Lord Ram's era. And that is just a sample of how religious content is included in science, history, environment, and mathematics books.

"Every week we are asked to do projects in our science and social studies classes. We refer to these books then," says Saras Solanki, age 9.

The Gujarat government has introduced nine new books this academic year for classes 1 to 12. These books, written by Hindu nationalist ideologues, have been delivered to 42,000 elementary schools across the state free of cost.

Eight out of the nine books have been penned by Dina Nath Batra, founder of the Hindu nationalist organisation, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Batra was responsible for forcing Pengiun India Publishers towithdraw all copies of Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus in February this year.

Enthused by its success, Batra went on to force two other publishers - Aleph and Orient Blackswan - to withdraw books that he deemed "hurtful to Hindu religious sentiments".

'Supplementary reading'

Taking a leaf from Batra's book, India's prime minister and former chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, last week said that genetic science existed in ancient India.

In fact, Modi wrote a foreword in Batra's books saying his "inspirational literature will inspire students and teachers".

Education in India is the responsibility of both the state governments and the federal government. A state textbook board formulates curriculum based on the guidelines specified by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT). However, these nine books deviate vastly from those guidelines by relying heavily on religious subjects and mythology.

Hence, they have been introduced as "supplementary reading" for the students. These books are stored in the libraries and are made available to students any time they want. Use of these books for extracurricular projects and presentations are encouraged.

"I find that children want to show off their knowledge. More often than not, they are averse to textbooks. Though, they are happy to sit in the library and leaf through other books so their presentation can be better than others in the class," said Jayashree Ben Solanki, a 6th grade teacher at a municipality school in Ahmedabad, the capital city of Gujarat state. "Therefore, these books end up being read more widely than textbooks."

"Gujarat is an experimental ground," said Gaurang Jani, a professor of sociology at Gujarat University. "The BJP and the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] will test their methods in the state and if found successful, will replicate it throughout the country," he told Al Jazeera.

"The move to infuse right-wing ideology in mainstream curriculum has been started by printing books with a religious bias using taxpayers' money. If the books are received without major opposition in Gujarat, they will introduce such books at the national level as well," Jani said.

'Saffronisation'

There is already some talk of changing the school and college curriculum at the national level.

In Indian political context, "saffronisation" is used to refer to the policies of right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations, which, according to critics, are divisive. The term refers to the saffron-coloured robes worn by Hindu sages.

Barely four days after India's new right-wing government was sworn in this May, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, a former TV actress, issued her first statement saying the Vedas, the Upanishads and otherancient Hindu texts should be introduced in the classrooms.

Consequently, in July, a consultative body called The Bharatiya Shiksha Neeti Ayog (Indian Education Policy Commission) was constituted by the Hindu nationalist organisation, RSS and is mandated "to study the present education system and suggest corrective steps to make it Bharat-centric." Bharat is the Hindi word for India.

"The problem is that they are equating India to Hindus. What about the India that houses the Muslims, Christians, Jains, Sikhs and other religions? India's defining character is its diversity - including religious. That will be subtly and efficiently destroyed by introducing religious content in school books," said Sveta Joshi, a former professor at Delhi University who has done extensive work on the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat.

One of the nine books in question urges students to visit Hindu pilgrim places like Jagannath, Badrinath and Rameshwaram to "cleanse themselves".

"Students who are slightly older do question the lack of any Muslim or Christian places of worship," Solanki, the elementary school teacher, said.

"Four of the nine books are titled Prerna Deep, they are meant to have short biographies of 'inspiring Indians'." Dalit, Jain, Sikh, and Buddhist heroes are mentioned prominently. The mention of Muslim and Christian heroes is almost negligible though," said Jani of Gujarat University.

Questioning perspectives

Since 1952, when it founded the first Saraswati Shishu Mandir (nursery school) in Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh state, the RSS, the ruling party BJP's mother organisation, has always had schools that propagate its ideology. In subsequent years, the RSS founded Vidya Bharati, an umbrella body for thousands of educational institutions based on Hindu values, from the nursery to the post-graduate levels.

"Until now, the Hindu system of education was running parallel to the regular NCERT curriculum, which was formed collectively by eminent scholars from all walks of life. But now, the danger is that they want to merge the two," said Jani. "The Sangh ideology is slowly becoming the state ideology," he adds.

"If children are taught from a young age about Hindu supremacy and glory, they will not question it at a later stage in their life," said Lila Visariya, a scholar at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research, at a conference organised in Ahmedabad last month.

Achyut Yagnik, founder of the Centre for Social Knowledge and Action, said that the "saffronisation of education" began in Gujarat slowly and subtly since the BJP established power in the late 1990s.

A report by NCERT states: "While communal perspectives have been present in textbooks in earlier periods too, studies done of textbooks rewritten from this perspective, for example in Gujarat, highlight their ready potential to contribute to a culture of divisiveness between religious communities …"

Gujarat was witness to gory religious riots in 2002, which killed about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. Religious faultlines in the state, however, go back several centuries.

Last year, the Committee for Resisting Saffronisation of Textbooks protested against the textbooks in another Indian state, Karnataka, which, they said, strengthened stereotypes of Muslims and Christians and subdued the voices of women, Dalits and non-Vedic traditions. The textbooks remain unchanged.

"If anyone has problems with any of the books, I urge them to go to court," said Harshad Patel, the media coordinator for Gujarat BJP. "Let them do what Dinanathji did. Get the court to pass orders to withdraw the books," he told Al Jazeera.

Source:-
Hindu right rewriting Indian textbooks - Features - Al Jazeera English


So it has begun........


@Oscar

--
For you..
SC asks panel to examine TN school books row -The New Indian Express
The Supreme Court on Tuesday set up an expert panel to examine the syllabus and text books for over two crore school children in Tamil Nadu sought to be altered by Jayalalitha government as they reportedly eulogised DMK and its controversial MP Kanimozhi.
--
india workd on Indian Constitituion
not on any ideology ....but on scientific temper
Scientific temper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"To develop scientific temper" is one of the fundamental duties of Indian citizens, according to the Constitution of India.[4]
--
The genesis and development of the idea of scientific temper is connected to ideas expressed earlier by Darwin when he said, "freedom of thought will best be promoted by that gradual enlightenment of human understanding which follows the progress of science. Scientific temper describes an attitude which involves the application oflogic. Discussion, argument and analysis are vital parts of scientific temper. Elements of fairness, equality and democracy are built into it.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

But Al Jazeera is the most authentic source for Indians when it comes to Pakistan, why is that the case bhai?

Can't say about others. I have NEVER quoted Al Jazeera nor have EVER posted ANY article BASHING Pakistan. What happens there does not concern me much. I do get tagged in some conversations but that's it.

 

[pursuit of happiness]

Aeroplanes were invented by Tamils not by Hindus - Sita eloped with Ravan to Lanka , on Ravan's private jet, later the disgraced Ram, using force, took her back on one of Ravan's many planes.

--
ok.. then

 

[SrNair]

Ya man, they are very tolerant people.

Yes andd they should be that is the Sanathana Dharma taught them.

Tamils have nothing to do with ivc.

How can you sure about that?

I am not justifying the one who you replied.
But Proto Elmite people had something to do with IVC and they were Dravidians including Brahui,South Indians.

 

[Guynextdoor2]

But in our history texts,its not like that .You should read that then only you can understand.On one side they spend a lot to describe the glory of Mughals .But on other side they dont have enough for explain Vijayanagar Empire,Chola dynasty ,Ahoms etc.Explanation about Shivaji is reduced in to one page.
In total the kids that I know cant say the difference between Indian Kings and Invaders.For them all of them are Indians like feeling.

Dude, Mughals onwards the modern Indian history comes in. Obviously Mughals, british and modern Indian history will get maximum focus. Not much is known about many of the dynasties you talk about- Vijayanagara for instance was so lost that no one knew about it until it was discovered, even then the details are sketchy.

 

[SrNair]

Dude, Mughals onwards the modern Indian history comes in. Obviously Mughals, british and modern Indian history will get maximum focus. Not much is known about many of the dynasties you talk about- Vijayanagara for instance was so lost that no one knew about it until it was discovered, even then the details are sketchy.

There is no sketchy about that.Lot of scholars,eminent archeologistis researched about Vijayanagar and its capital Hampi.boths Indians and foreigners.After all Thennali Raman was from Vijayanagar.
But our eminent liberal 'secular' scholars and politicians dont want such a history. But Tippu Sultan was a true patriot and national hero .

 

[Guynextdoor2]

There is no sketchy about that.Lot of scholars,eminent archeologistis researched about Vijayanagar and its capital Hampi.boths Indians and foreigners.After all Thennali Raman was from Vijayanagar.
But our eminent liberal 'secular' scholars and politicians dont want such a history. But Tippu Sultan was a true patriot and national hero .

I'm sorry I don't have the time to feed your wallowing self pity.

 

[arp2041]

Shoo

Ya, I know, you are a CHU....

 

[Derolo]

Re-education is the need of the hour to counter the communist propaganda spread in the past decade