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www.sacw.net
17 January 2007
Textbooks are back in news. This time it is
the turn of the Social Sciences book for Class
x students prepared by the Rajasthan Madhyamik
Shiksha Board, Ajmer. One needs to remember
that this book results from the decision of
the Rajasthan government to reject the new National
Curriculum Framework for School Education 2005
evolved by the National Council of Educational
Research and Training (NCERT). All bjp-ruled
states had declared that they would prepare
their own textbooks as the books prepared by
the NCERT were biased according to them. It
would be interesting to see, therefore as to
how they fight out the bias of the NCERT books
in the books prepared by their own objective
teams.
This is how the Rajasthan social sciences experts
do it. The first chapter of the book seeks to
introduce the students to the basics of the
Indian Culture: Our culture is known as Arya
sanskriti, Bharatiya sanskriti and Hindu sanskriti.
Lest there be any confusion in the minds of
the readers, the book explains it further: in
fact these three nomenclatures are synonyms.
What happens to the non-Aryans then? Where would
the Adivasis, dalits go? The book does not forget
them. Adivasis are called Vanya Jatis who were
once organised and reformed by none less than
Ramchandraji himself. Elsewhere you find Baba
Ramdeo (a folk guru of Rajasthan) inculcating
good habits in them. The assumption is that
they are essentially backward and repository
of many ills and they need one Ramchandra or
Ramdeo to be cured of these ailments. After
extolling the virtues of Bharatiya sanskriti
in great detail, which you know is nothing but
Hindu and Arya sankriti, it goes on to ask the
students to answer these questions:
* (Choose any one) The ultimate goal of human
life is: 1. Dharma, 2. Artha, 3. Moksha, 4.
Kaam;
* Write the names of the four Ashramas;
* Write the definition of Bharat and Bharatiya
on the basis of Vishnu Puran.
Uzma Mohsin
India is superior to other countries (or nations)
because elsewhere they have only two-three seasons,
whereas in India we have six of them. India
is great because, can there be any doubt, astronomy,
mathematics, medical science, surgery and even
plastic surgery originated here only (Don't
you remember the famous case of the head of
an elephant transplanted on Ganesh?). Biology,
metallurgy, name any science or branch of knowledge,
we had everything here before any other nation
or culture, that is what makes us a great nation
and culture. Since everything was already here,
how can trade unionism be something we learnt
from the West? The book informs its readers
that workers revered Vishwakarma and exploitation
was always fought with organisation.
Since the book has this "objective"
view of what actually constitutes Indianness,
in all the chapters it seeks to give the students
an overdose of Hindu religion. Description of
Hindu Gods and Goddesses, religious festivals,
places of pilgrimage cover three-fourths of
the book. If you ask as to how and why it should
be called a Social Sciences book at all, you
would be labelled as anti-Bharat.
The writers of the book have no ambiguity about
the enemies of Bharat. On more than one occasion
they are identified as a Samudaya Vishesh (a
particular community) which lives on the borders
of Rajasthan, pampered by both Pakistan and
India, who keep going (where?) and coming back.
This Samudaya Vishesh has been encouraging infiltration
and there was also rampant trafficking of cows
and minor girls before the good Seema Jan Kalyan
Samiti (SJS) informed Rajiv Gandhi about the
irregular allocation of land to the illegal
infiltrators who then got them cancelled. sjs,
incidentally, is one the many RSS outfits. Readers
are informed that the people who live on the
international borders are poor, uneducated,
and superstitious owing to their dharmic shraddha.
But Hindus can never be superstitious as Hindu
religion is very scientific. Is it difficult
then to guess who form this Samudaya Vishesh?
When the chairman of the Board was told by a
journalist that Muslims were very upset with
this description, he retorted that the book
had never named them and if they felt upset
then it is what you say in Hindi: Chor ki daadhi
mein tinka.
The book violates the basic principles of the
Constitution and can't be allowed to be inflicted
as school knowledge on the defenceless children
of Rajasthan. Some of us who have been trivialising
the debate on textbooks need to take a hard
look at it The book also suggests that the growth
in population of this community needs to be
monitored closely, steps be taken to stop conversion
and its appeasement.
The book dwells at length on the problem of
terrorism. It states that in Jammu and Kashmir
(J&K) there are more than 100 terrorist
organisations (Do not ask for the source of
the data, it is more a matter of astha). It
goes on to claim, without batting an eyelid
that the J&K government works under pressure
from terrorists and some leaders are in league
with them which is why the Rehabilitation Act
got passed (do not ask what exactly the "Act"
is called), a temporary provision in the form
of Article 370 was made in the Constitution
which is being kept alive under the policy of
appeasement. It says that there is an imbalance
in the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats
allocated to the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh.
The book actually makes a prescription for abolishing
terrorism. It asks for tough laws to prevent
religious conversion and infiltration, to abolish
all kinds of appeasement, political vested interests
(whatever that means). It calls for the destruction
of the bases of organisations like the United
Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
and removal of the names of infiltrators from
electoral rolls, among other things.
After seeking an immediate repeal of Article
370, it demands poori chhut for the armed forces
to finish off terrorism. And you thought that
there are populations fighting for the repeal
of Acts like the Armed Forces Special Powers
Act, 1958 and Unlawful Activities Prevention
Act. It calls for an end to the discrimination
against the Jammu and Ladakh regions and suggests
that we need to talk to Pakistan in a language
of power.
While discussing political philosophies, it
is stated that fascism is significant as it
removes the deficiencies of democracy, spreads
the spirit of patriotism, allows a leader of
strong will to take firm decision immediately
without any hesitation.
Somebody said that this book is a crude copy
of an rss pamphlet and need not be taken seriously.
Written in a pedestrian language and full of
howlers on almost every page, this book does
need to be taken seriously as it is going to
be imparted as the official and final knowledge
to lakhs of students of Rajasthan who do not
have the resources to go for any source of knowledge
other than this State-sponsored textbook. It
has been written in a very offensive manner
belittling Adivasis, dalits and casts aspersion
on the governments of J&K and Muslims. Its
approach is militarist and it seeks to realise
the project of an upper paste Hindu male nationalism.
It violates the basic principles of the Constitution
and cannot be allowed to be inflicted as a respectable
school knowledge item on the defenceless school
children of Rajasthan. Some of us who have been
trivialising the debate on school textbooks
by asserting that all governments seek to propagate
their ideologies through textbooks need to take
a hard look at the Class x Samajik Vigyan book
discussed above. Parliamentarians, civil rights
activists need to ask for its immediate withdrawal.
Courts of the land need to take suo motu cognisance
of this blatant violation of the right of an
average Indian to live in dignity by the Rajasthan
Madhyamik Shiksha Board and hold them accountable.
Let us not allow ourselves to suffer from textbook
controversy fatigue and keep talking about it.
* Apoorvanand teaches at the Delhi University
[Reproduced from: Tehelka, 20 January 2007 |
Copyright - tehelka.com]
