06-15-2006, 10:05 PM
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
But why did Jharkhand capitulate? ---- The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has notched one more medallion from its political master, the Human Resource Development Ministry. True to the form it struck after the UPA Government's coming to power as a pliant body of school academics, this once proud body has covered itself with infamy for circumventing the spirit of the Constitution. School education is a State subject and the Government of an Indian State is within its rights to decide if a book is fit or unfit for its school system. However, the manner in which the Jharkhand Government was arm-twisted into accepting the controversial NCERT textbooks betrays an agenda beyond building educational capacities. <b>The Jharkhand Education Minister had rejected the pinko history which NCERT revived after the fall of the NDA Government but, tragically, lacked the will to counter them with better books. The contents of these books are not only inaccurate from a historical standpoint, their narrative style constitute unsuitable pedagogy. "Ancient Aryans" (as if they were members of an exclusive ethnic grouping), the dubious author of one of these books for 12-year-olds said with the finality of an auto mechanic diagonising a fuel line disorder, "ate beef". In another book, Guru Tegh Bahadur and the glorious Khalsa Panth, the tenacious Jats and the entire opposition to 'zinda peer' Aurangzeb, have been belittled and mocked. The Jharkhand Education Ministry had decided not to permit the books with the offensive passages and had sought permission to continue with the non-controversial texts. No prizes for guessing why NCERT insisted on doing business on its own terms. The end result was the presentation of India's education as a ludicruous landscape where curricula designed for different eras are officially allowed to co-exist</b>.
The winner writes history and so the Communists are having their day. But why is the BJP, which is in power in Jharkhand, languidly allowing itself to be pushed over? In August 2004, then BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu had announced that States governed by his party would not permit spurious history texts. Yet, the Jharkhand unit failed to make common cause with Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and others BJP-ruled States that have developed their own textbooks. Surely, Jharkhand could have borrowed the texts used in Madhya Pradesh's schools while taking its own time to erect a State satellite of NCERT? It is to be hoped the BJP's central leadership will take a close look at the situation arising from the implementation arm of the party crossing out what the policy arm is doing. If cultural nationalism, the founding crucible of the BJP, is still relevant, is it not time to build up a coordinated response to the apparently disjointed, but actually well orchestrated, intellectual onslaught on India's history?
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The Pioneer Edit Desk
But why did Jharkhand capitulate? ---- The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has notched one more medallion from its political master, the Human Resource Development Ministry. True to the form it struck after the UPA Government's coming to power as a pliant body of school academics, this once proud body has covered itself with infamy for circumventing the spirit of the Constitution. School education is a State subject and the Government of an Indian State is within its rights to decide if a book is fit or unfit for its school system. However, the manner in which the Jharkhand Government was arm-twisted into accepting the controversial NCERT textbooks betrays an agenda beyond building educational capacities. <b>The Jharkhand Education Minister had rejected the pinko history which NCERT revived after the fall of the NDA Government but, tragically, lacked the will to counter them with better books. The contents of these books are not only inaccurate from a historical standpoint, their narrative style constitute unsuitable pedagogy. "Ancient Aryans" (as if they were members of an exclusive ethnic grouping), the dubious author of one of these books for 12-year-olds said with the finality of an auto mechanic diagonising a fuel line disorder, "ate beef". In another book, Guru Tegh Bahadur and the glorious Khalsa Panth, the tenacious Jats and the entire opposition to 'zinda peer' Aurangzeb, have been belittled and mocked. The Jharkhand Education Ministry had decided not to permit the books with the offensive passages and had sought permission to continue with the non-controversial texts. No prizes for guessing why NCERT insisted on doing business on its own terms. The end result was the presentation of India's education as a ludicruous landscape where curricula designed for different eras are officially allowed to co-exist</b>.
The winner writes history and so the Communists are having their day. But why is the BJP, which is in power in Jharkhand, languidly allowing itself to be pushed over? In August 2004, then BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu had announced that States governed by his party would not permit spurious history texts. Yet, the Jharkhand unit failed to make common cause with Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and others BJP-ruled States that have developed their own textbooks. Surely, Jharkhand could have borrowed the texts used in Madhya Pradesh's schools while taking its own time to erect a State satellite of NCERT? It is to be hoped the BJP's central leadership will take a close look at the situation arising from the implementation arm of the party crossing out what the policy arm is doing. If cultural nationalism, the founding crucible of the BJP, is still relevant, is it not time to build up a coordinated response to the apparently disjointed, but actually well orchestrated, intellectual onslaught on India's history?
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