<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->NCERT taken to court for messing with Indian historyÂ
On Tuesday, December 12, Krishna Kumar, director of the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), will make a personal appearance in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in the latest twist to the "history textbooks" saga.
Kumar has been summoned to Chandigarh by the High Court following NCERT's "highly casual" approach in response to a petition filed by one RK Sethi against the re-introduction of historian Bipan Chandra's Modern India for class XII pupils. <span style='color:red'>In its order asking the director to make a personal appearance, the court said: "There is no denial to the fact that the 'Book' in question contains highly objectionable and distorted version of Indian history."
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In a separate case before the Delhi High Court - resulting from a petition filed by educationist Dinanath Batra of Vidya Bharti - NCERT had, in November 2006, committed itself to removing from its prescribed history textbooks all 75 passages that the petitioner has held objectionable.
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Forty-six passages have already been removed, the Court order of November 11, quoted NCERT as saying: "It is also stated that 21 objectionable passages will be removed from the textbooks with effect from 1.4.2007 in view of new curriculum introduced and the remaining eight passages shall also be taken out from the texts with effect from 1.4.2008."
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The story of the history textbook war actually goes back to 2000, when the Delhi Assembly passed a resolution calling for the removal of an NCERT textbook that allegedly made offensive remarks about Guru Tegh Bahadur.
Following a scrutiny of history books from classes VI to XII, then NCERT director JS Rajput recommended the deletion of nine passages that were deemed deliberately hurtful. These books had been prescribed under the curriculum of 1988. Over 2000-02, NCERT devised a new curriculum and syllabus, and commissioned new social science textbooks.
This was challenged in the Supreme Court by activist Aruna Roy and journalist BG Verghese, who alleged that the new books taught a "communal" history. They called for the old textbooks to be retained. The Supreme Court, in September 2002, upheld NCERT's right to bring in a new syllabus and new books.
When the UPA came to power in 2004, HRD Minister Arjun Singh began a "detoxification" drive. NCERT devised a new curriculum and pending its total implementation - over a three-year period - brought back the "secular" history textbooks.
These reintroduced textbooks were challenged by social organisations in at least four courts - the high courts in Chandigarh, Delhi and Allahabad, and a local court in Alwar. In a verdict earlier this year, the Alwar court asked NCERT to remove passages that disparaged Lord Mahavira and had been objected to by Jain groups.
<span style='color:red'>Now NCERT has told the Delhi High Court that it is ready to remove not just the nine paragraphs Rajput had excised in 2000, but 66 others as well. </span>This includes the passage on Jats (detailed above), which was blue-pencilled following a meeting between Haryana's Chief Minister BS Hooda and Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh in late October. Hooda is a well-known Jat leader.
<span style='color:blue'>As a senior official, who worked with National Democratic Alliance-era Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, puts it, "It is amazing that intellectuals who were upset by the removal of nine paragraphs in 2000, calling it political censorship, are not reacting to the erasure of 75 passages today, including some under political pressure." For Joshi and Rajput, it must seem a vindication. </span>
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=2
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On Tuesday, December 12, Krishna Kumar, director of the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), will make a personal appearance in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, in the latest twist to the "history textbooks" saga.
Kumar has been summoned to Chandigarh by the High Court following NCERT's "highly casual" approach in response to a petition filed by one RK Sethi against the re-introduction of historian Bipan Chandra's Modern India for class XII pupils. <span style='color:red'>In its order asking the director to make a personal appearance, the court said: "There is no denial to the fact that the 'Book' in question contains highly objectionable and distorted version of Indian history."
Â
In a separate case before the Delhi High Court - resulting from a petition filed by educationist Dinanath Batra of Vidya Bharti - NCERT had, in November 2006, committed itself to removing from its prescribed history textbooks all 75 passages that the petitioner has held objectionable.
</span>
Forty-six passages have already been removed, the Court order of November 11, quoted NCERT as saying: "It is also stated that 21 objectionable passages will be removed from the textbooks with effect from 1.4.2007 in view of new curriculum introduced and the remaining eight passages shall also be taken out from the texts with effect from 1.4.2008."
Â
The story of the history textbook war actually goes back to 2000, when the Delhi Assembly passed a resolution calling for the removal of an NCERT textbook that allegedly made offensive remarks about Guru Tegh Bahadur.
Following a scrutiny of history books from classes VI to XII, then NCERT director JS Rajput recommended the deletion of nine passages that were deemed deliberately hurtful. These books had been prescribed under the curriculum of 1988. Over 2000-02, NCERT devised a new curriculum and syllabus, and commissioned new social science textbooks.
This was challenged in the Supreme Court by activist Aruna Roy and journalist BG Verghese, who alleged that the new books taught a "communal" history. They called for the old textbooks to be retained. The Supreme Court, in September 2002, upheld NCERT's right to bring in a new syllabus and new books.
When the UPA came to power in 2004, HRD Minister Arjun Singh began a "detoxification" drive. NCERT devised a new curriculum and pending its total implementation - over a three-year period - brought back the "secular" history textbooks.
These reintroduced textbooks were challenged by social organisations in at least four courts - the high courts in Chandigarh, Delhi and Allahabad, and a local court in Alwar. In a verdict earlier this year, the Alwar court asked NCERT to remove passages that disparaged Lord Mahavira and had been objected to by Jain groups.
<span style='color:red'>Now NCERT has told the Delhi High Court that it is ready to remove not just the nine paragraphs Rajput had excised in 2000, but 66 others as well. </span>This includes the passage on Jats (detailed above), which was blue-pencilled following a meeting between Haryana's Chief Minister BS Hooda and Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh in late October. Hooda is a well-known Jat leader.
<span style='color:blue'>As a senior official, who worked with National Democratic Alliance-era Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, puts it, "It is amazing that intellectuals who were upset by the removal of nine paragraphs in 2000, calling it political censorship, are not reacting to the erasure of 75 passages today, including some under political pressure." For Joshi and Rajput, it must seem a vindication. </span>
http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=2
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