After submission of its report by a curriculum review committee, the Congress government in Rajasthan has embarked on a project to revise school textbooks by removing “adulatory references” to Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh ideologues V.D. Savarkar and Deendayal Upadhyaya. The previous BJP regime had added chapters glorifying the RSS icons in the textbooks.
Minister of State for Education Govind Singh Dotasara said here earlier this week that the review committee had made recommendations on the basis of historical facts, while the previous government had imposed its ideology on the students and neglected the contributions of freedom fighters.
The social science textbook of Class X will be rewritten to include a detailed description on Savarkar’s mercy petitions to the British from the cellular jail, asking for forgiveness and depicting himself as a “prodigal son longing to the parental doors of the government”.
‘Lab of Hindutva’
Mr. Dotasara said the BJP had turned the School Education Department into a “laboratory of Hindutva” and made changes in the school curriculum on the instructions of RSS. “We will teach whatever is in the history, irrespective of what the Sangh Parivar feels today,” he said.
The Minister said the Congress government would remove distortions and ensure that the contribution of leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh were taught in correct perspective. “It is not correct to glorify Savarkar and Upadhyaya and describe them as great leaders,” he said.
Among other changes, a picture of jauhar (self-immolation by women) will be removed from the cover of Class VIII English textbooks. Mr. Dotasara said an outdated practice, which was now prohibited by the law, should not be depicted on the book cover, as it would leave a negative impact on children at an impressionable age.
New academic session
The curriculum review committee, comprising academic experts and historians, was appointed in February this year. It submitted its report, recommending changes in the contents of textbooks, earlier this month. The new textbooks for Classes VIII to XII will be introduced in the 2019-20 academic session, beginning in July.
In the large-scale changes in textbooks made by the BJP regime, the Congress was described as a “nurtured baby of the British” and the result of the Battle of Haldighati of 1576 AD was changed to declare Maharana Pratap victorious. The textbooks also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policy and praised demonetisation as a drive to cleanse the country of black money.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, who was here on Tuesday, protested against the move and said the Congress was afflicted with the mentality of eulogising “one particular family as great”. “Congress is out to insult nationalists. It can go to any extent to glorify a single family and demonstrate [Mughal Emperor] Akbar as great by undermining our role models,” he said.