They may not have changed textbooks mid-session but an NCERT advisory for history teachers from Class VI-XII is set to create more confusion.
The 11-page note, released today, has detailed instructions for teachers, ranging from why it is wrong to ignore socialists and how the Americans cannot be seen as ``liberators'' of Iraq.
Predictably, the advisory asks teachers not to focus heavily on the Vedic Ages or look at the Islamic period merely as the rule of invaders.
But what's interesting is the attempt by the NCERT's rewrite team_Anita Rampal, Mridula Mukherjee and Chitra Sreenivas_to edit portions that would have dented the image of Communism, nationally and internationally.
For instance, highlighting the book on Contemporary India by Hari Om, the advisory says: ``The whole tenor of the book betrays an ideological slant. There is no explanation of the concept of socialism. The non-participation of the Communist Party during the 1942 movement is highlighted, ignoring the non-participation of the Hindu Mahasabha.''
The HRD Ministry, while deciding
not to change the books last month, went by the NCERT executive council's
decision to consult historians and prepare a detailed advisory. Reason:
the ``flawed and sub- standard textbooks could not be taught as they were''.
Class XII's êiModern Indiaêr by Satish Chandra Mittal has also come under criticism for similar reasons. The advisory says: ``The role of socialists and socialist movements in relation to the national movement has been overlooked.''
Another Class XII text, êiContemporary World Historyêr, has been slammed for its bias against the erstwhile Soviet Union and China. Zeroing in on a section, which suggests that World War II was ``made inevitable by Stalin'', the advisory declares: ``This is incorrect.''
It also takes strong exception to the pro-Israeli stand in the same book. Chapter 9, according to the advisory, has been written from a ``pro-US perspective''.
It says: ``There is no reference to the US support to Israel's policies. The book was published in May 2003 and, therefore, has devoted a lot of space to `Operation Iraq Freedom.' According to the book, `The ordinary Iraqis welcomed the US troops as liberators...' This is a biased view.''
The note also comes down heavily
on Chapter 10, where the Cold War has been viewed from ``the perspective
of the West''.