After years of incessant demands from the general public asking the central government to rewrite the History books using authentic sources and evidence without adulterating them with the propaganda of some ill-motivated individuals, the centre has finally started the long-overdue exercise.
The Government of India on Wednesday (June 30) invited suggestions via email from the public for removing distortions in Indian History from the school textbooks. The deadline for sending suggestions to the government is July 15. Students, teachers, domain experts, or anyone having cogent knowledge about any particular subject of Indian history can submit their work in English or Hindi to rsc_hrd@sansad.nic.in
GOI invites Suggestions For Removing Distortion in Our History Books pic.twitter.com/JJBdMdK1S2
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) June 30, 2021
“The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education. Women, Children, Youth and Sports has taken up for examination and consideration the subject “Reforms in the Content and Design of School Text Books,” the circular stated.
The three main points that the government stated in the circular were as follows:
- Removing references to un-historical facts and distortions about our national heroes from the textbooks;
- Ensuring equal or proportionate references to all periods of Indian
- Highlighting the role of great historic women heroes, including Gargi, Maitreyi, or rulers like Rani of Jhansi, Rani Channamma, Chand Bibi, Zalkari Bai, etc.
The school history books currently in circulation across the country are replete with innumerable botched stories regarding the rich history of Bharat. There are several kingdoms and kings whose reigns are barely mentioned in the books. Freedom fighters who died giving their lives for the motherland are reduced to caricaturist figures while the likes of cruel, blood-hungry rulers like Tipu Sultan are glorified as the apostle of patriotism.
Reported extensively by TFI, the erstwhile ruler of Mysuru, Tipu Sultan massacred more than 700 Mandyam Iyengar families in Melukote, including women and children during his rule. The town, to this day, does not celebrate Diwali and mourns the death and destruction that the horrendous Tipu Sultan wrecked over the holy town. Tipu’s cauldron of barbarity included the blood of thousands of Hindus, and yet he was the ‘Tiger of Mysuru’ for some Marxist and left historians.
Our history books, written by distortion artists like ‘Romila Thapar’ made us believe all throughout our childhood and teenage years that Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and became a pacifist after the Kalinga war where he was overcome with grief after seeing the bloodshed and thousands of dead bodies. However, as surprising as it may sound, Emperor Ashoka converted to Buddhism and became a pacifist almost four years prior to the Kalinga war as the pillar edicts, Mahavamsa and Divyavadana suggest.
Read More: No, Romila Thapar, Ashoka never considered renunciation. In fact he was far from it
“When Ashoka became Buddhist: 4th year of his rule. When he invaded Kalinga: 8th year. Ashoka was a BUDDHIST when he waged Kalinga war. After war, he killed 18,000 Non-Buddhists who allegedly “insulted Buddhism”. Whom do they finally blame? Yes, Hindus and Hinduism,” popular history distortionist-slayer True Indology had posted on his now suspended Twitter account.
Reported recently by TFI, the NCERT history textbook for class 12, titled ‘Themes of Indian History’, falsely claimed in one of the paragraphs, “All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the building and maintenance of places of worship. Even when temples were destroyed during the war, grants were later issued for their repair – as we know from the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb.”
This coupled with the fact that NCERT had no evidence to back its assertion, invited massive outrage on social media. As a result, a Parliamentary Standing Committee met with Representatives of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-linked Bharatiya Shiksha Mandal and Shiksha Sanskriti Nyas, and educationists JS Rajput and Shankar Sharan, to discuss the revision of history textbooks.
The NCERT and various boards of education are currently in the process of revamping their curricula across subjects and streams to bring the same in sync with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2020. The exercise of seeking suggestions from the public is additionally going to help the government in bringing the real and unabridged history of the country to the present as well as the future generations.