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Censoring history: NCERT lets RSS cat out of the bag : The Indian Express
`Opponents of Bhartiyakaran, the human progeny of the threefold family of Macaulay, Marx and Madrasas, do not want that the contradictions of history be resolved...``
“Opponents of Bhartiyakaran, the human progeny of the threefold family of Macaulay, Marx and Madrasas, do not want that the contradictions of history be resolved...’’
It is one thing when the political opponents of the Government accuse it of communalising education but quite another when the moving spirit of the controversial ‘‘reforms’’, the Chairman of the NCERT, Joginder Singh Rajput, cites a book — which begins with these lines — edited by the general secretary of the education wing of the RSS, Dinanath Batra, as his best defence of the new changes.
The deletion of some passages from NCERT textbooks followed from a circular of the CBSE which cited a notification of the NCERT. Speaking in Chandigarh today, while attending a seminar on educational reforms, Rajput said wherever he goes he is faced with the allegation that the BJP is giving directions to bring about these changes. ‘‘To answer these charges we have come out with a booklet which I hand out free of cost to anybody who asks for it.’’ The book, copies of which were distributed here by the NCERT Chairman, is a compilation edited by Dinanath Batra, Pragya Sadan, Nehru Park. Batra is the Mahamantri of the Vidya Bharti Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Sansthan which has its headquarters at Pragya Sadan. Though the book is silent on the identity of Batra and Rajput didn’t spell it out, copies of the Vidya Bharti Varshika which were also handed out by Rajput, let the cat out of the bag. It began with a ‘‘write up from the pen of mahamantri Dinanath Batra’’. The Vidya Bharti was set up in 1978 with the objective of providing an organisational set-up for the activities of the RSS in the area of education.
In his introduction in the book edited by him, Batra writes, ‘‘The results of what has been done over the past two centuries by the human progeny of the three-fold family of misdirected Macaulay, Marx and Madrasawadis lie before us. This family from the beginning attempted to control educational institutions and the media. As a result they have taken institutions such as the NCERT, ICSSR, various cultural centres and newspapers and magazines under their control...history has been twisted and books have been written on the basis of wrong principles and students have been forced to study these lies over the past several years.’’ Talking of the book, Rajput says: ‘‘It makes an attempt to answer most of the issues that are being raised about the alleged saffronisation of education. It gives a list of as many as 42 instances of ‘distortions’ in the NCERT books. Below each quote, the NCERT’s version has been added, highlighting how the author had got misled.’’
The deletion of some passages from NCERT textbooks followed from a circular of the CBSE which cited a notification of the NCERT. Speaking in Chandigarh today, while attending a seminar on educational reforms, Rajput said wherever he goes he is faced with the allegation that the BJP is giving directions to bring about these changes. ‘‘To answer these charges we have come out with a booklet which I hand out free of cost to anybody who asks for it.’’ The book, copies of which were distributed here by the NCERT Chairman, is a compilation edited by Dinanath Batra, Pragya Sadan, Nehru Park. Batra is the Mahamantri of the Vidya Bharti Akhil Bhartiya Shiksha Sansthan which has its headquarters at Pragya Sadan. Though the book is silent on the identity of Batra and Rajput didn’t spell it out, copies of the Vidya Bharti Varshika which were also handed out by Rajput, let the cat out of the bag. It began with a ‘‘write up from the pen of mahamantri Dinanath Batra’’. The Vidya Bharti was set up in 1978 with the objective of providing an organisational set-up for the activities of the RSS in the area of education.
In his introduction in the book edited by him, Batra writes, ‘‘The results of what has been done over the past two centuries by the human progeny of the three-fold family of misdirected Macaulay, Marx and Madrasawadis lie before us. This family from the beginning attempted to control educational institutions and the media. As a result they have taken institutions such as the NCERT, ICSSR, various cultural centres and newspapers and magazines under their control...history has been twisted and books have been written on the basis of wrong principles and students have been forced to study these lies over the past several years.’’ Talking of the book, Rajput says: ‘‘It makes an attempt to answer most of the issues that are being raised about the alleged saffronisation of education. It gives a list of as many as 42 instances of ‘distortions’ in the NCERT books. Below each quote, the NCERT’s version has been added, highlighting how the author had got misled.’’
The book carries three articles by Rajput himself. In one of these — Why revision of textbooks is a right move — Rajput writes: ‘‘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 NCERT books.’’