Author: J S Rajput
Publication: The Times of India,
New Delhi
Date: May 25, 2001
History is in the news. So is the
National Council for Educational Research and Training. (NCERT). Great
historians are deeply disturbed about what is happening in NCERT" Some
stalwarts are being said to have been dropped out of the NCERT panel of
historians' at the 'behest of the Ministry of Human Resources Development'!
A picture of grave concern is being painted that could damage national
interests in various ways. Statements of facts do not deter the aggrieved
from voicing their apprehensions from the rooftop. That there is no permanent
panel of historians in NCERT is a fact they ignore. That there are no panels
with life membership is also a fact. Each time NCERT prepares new textbooks
it has a right to constitute new panels of experts. In a country of more
than one billion people, can only a couple of persons claim their personal
suzerainty in areas of their expertise for all the times? Scholarship,
expertise and knowledge are no longer a preserve of a few alone. Everyone
must prepare to fade out gracefully to give a chance to others.
The author has neither the training
nor the credibility to comment on the history books. Several facts are
regularly brought to the notice of the NCERT by those really concerned
with the children, the future of the Indian society, the need for social
cohesion and the criticality of learning to live together with the due
respect to pluralities, and multiplicities of various kinds which in an
unique fashion are the corner stones of the Indian nation.
NCERT is an advisory body set up
by the Government of India as a body of professionals to advise the government
on all matters of school education. The Council has achieved credibility
and respect amongst the teachers, teacher educators and educationists of
the country through hard and sustained work of its professionals ... Ask
any IAS Officer who entered the services during the three decades and he
would testify the credibility and quality of NCERT books.
It does not mean that NCERT books
have not been criticised or have not been improved upon on the suggestions
of users. The area which has resisted moderation, revision and modification
is history. NCERT has been fighting court cases against certain communities
which have felt hurt by some of the contents in history books. NCERT has
been approached by various, groups and sections of people to ensure that
there are no biased and hurtful statements in the NCERT books. A couple
of examples alone could perhaps elaborate and illustrate the point. Greatness
of Akbar is elaborated in Class VII textbooks of history, Medieval India:
"Akbar was keen to have friendly
relations with the Rajputs. One of the ways in which lie did this to enter
into marriage alliance between his family and various Rajput royal families.
He himself married a number of Rajput princes." (Romila Thapar, Medieval
India, Class VII. P. 86)
There are those who find that this
was a one sided policy which Akbar continued and which really caused great
humiliation to other communities who were never allowed to do what Akbar
was doing to them.
This very book refers to the 'execution'
of Guru Teg Bahadur in the following manner:
"After the death of the seventh
guru, Aurangzeb tried to take advantage of the differences over the succession
of the next guru. Meanwhile the power of Sikhs was increasing. In order
to curb this power, the Mughal administration ordered the execution of
Guru Teg Bahadur in 1675." (ibid, p. 107)
Certain organizations filed a court
case against NCERT for hurting the sentiments of the community. Was it
the faceless Mughal administration which ordered the execution of the great
guru? Was it indeed execution or Phansi? Will any child develop respect
for the great Guru after reading the above sentence? Not only this, in
textbook for Class XI, Medieval India, the story continues in the same
spirit:
"According to Sikh tradition, the
execution was done, to the intrigues of some members of his family who
disputed his succession, and by other who had joined them." (Satish Chandra,
Medieval India, Class XI, p.237)
The author of this textbook subsequently
comments upon Guru Gobind Singh and probably cautions in the following
words:
"It also showed how an egalitarian
religious movement could, under certain circumstances, rum into a political
and militaristic movement and subtly move towards regional independence."
(ibid, p.238)
NCERT textbooks have also succeeded
in creating an avoidable controversy on beef eating and pork eating through
its history textbooks for Class XI, Ancient India. The author of the book
is certain that people ate beef but is doubtful about pork and states these
in following terms: "People certainly ate beef, but they did not take pork
on any considerable scale." (R S Sharma, Ancient India, Class XI, p.45)
It further deals with the non-availability, of bullocks: "Enough bullocks
could not be available because of cattle slaughter in sacrifices," (ibid,
p-80) This book attempts to 'expose their efforts to give antiquity to
Jainism':
"But since most of the earliest
teachers, up to the fifteenth one, were supposed to have been horn in eastern
Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, their historicity is extremely doubtful. No part
of the middle Ganga plains was settled on any scale until the sixth century
B C. Obviously the mythology of the tirthankaras, most of whom were born
in the middle Ganga basin and attained nirvana in Bihar, seems to have
been created to give antiquity, to Jainism." (ibid. p.92).
The historical description under
the title 'Vardhmana, Mahavira and Jainism' proceeds to record:
"He kept on wandering for 12 years
from place to place. He would not stay for more than a day in a village
and for more than five days in a town. During the course of his long journey,
it is said, he never changed his clothes for 12 years, and abandoned them
altogether at the age of 42 when he attained omniscience." (ibid)
The great Bhakti movement has been
'historically' analyzed. The relationship between the teachers and the
lord has been compared with the complete dependence of tenants on the land
owners:
"From the seventh century A.D. onwards
the Bhakti cult spread throughout the country, and especially in the south.
Bhakti meant that people made all kinds of offerings to the god in return
for which they received the prasada or the favour of the god. It meant
that the devotees completely surrendered to their God. Ibis practice can
be compared to the complete dependence of the tenants on the land-owners."
(ibid, p.232)
Strangely enough those who mixed
mythology and history as is evident above arc now accusing NCERT of having
discarded 'eminent historians' and proclaiming NCERT guilty of planning
to merge history and mythology. The issue is - should biased history be
allowed to continue at the cost of national interests? NCERT respects all
those who helped NCERT in creating a place for itself in the educational
system of the country. It is a professional organization and over the last
four decades hundreds of professionals have devoted their life time to
build this organization. Those working in NCERT at present are the recipients
of the fruits of the earlier toil and devotion along with affection of
the community of scholars, teachers and educators.
None can any one claim to be infallible.
This may apply to even the most eminent of educators, authors and researchers.
Incidentally, after taking over as the Director of the NCERT, I called
on several eminent authors and educationists with a request to help NCERT.
I can't resist recounting one of such encounters when I was clearly told,
"I would be willing to help you but I can't sit with the school teachers
and write books for the NCERT."
In NCERT, we consider it a privilege
to sit with school teachers, listen to them and learn from them.
(The author is director, NCERT)
