Detoxification and other Policies Of The New Govt

03-22-2005, 06:25 AM

QUOTE(rajesh_g @ Mar 21 2005, 04:36 PM) http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1288040,0008.htm

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTEDon't spread fantasy in name of history: Irfan Habib

Manish Chand (Indo-Asian News Service)
Aligarh, March 20, 2005|11:41 IST
Â Â "There is no affirmative action for women. It is a regrettable lapse of the Constitution. Let's make it real," says Habib, in the tone of a romantic revolutionary who never gives up.

</div>
Mr Habib, How about lobbying for a common civil code for all in India, with affirmitive action for women being the core of the reforms. Will you please lead the agitation for such a change? You will no doubt agree that women of all relegions should be empowered, right?

03-24-2005, 07:03 AM

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story....t_id=67076 <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /> <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' />

QUOTEReport lands Arjun in secular trap
He shelves Joshi panel report on new IITs, may rub own CMs wrong way
DIPTOSH MAJUMDARÂ
Posted online: Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 0209 hours IST

Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh NEW DELHI, MARCH 23: Union HRD Minister Arjun Singhâs pathological dislike for anything that bears his predecessor Murli Manohar Joshiâs stamp may cost Kolkata and its suburbs two new IITs.

Also losing out will be two engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh, one in Kerala, the technological institute in Benares Hindu University campus and the Aligarh Muslim Universityâs engineering college. All these colleges could have got the IIT label in an upgradation exercise.

In its report submitted earlier this month, the S K Joshi committee, appointed by Murli Manohar Joshi, suggested that these seven existing engineering colleges could be upgraded to IIT status. Now the HRD Ministry, known to be allergic to everything initiated by the earlier BJP regime, is wondering whether it should pay any attention to the report at all.

The seven institutes recommended by the committee are: Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur (near Kolkata in Howrah), Jadavpur Engineering College in Jadavpur University (Kolkata), Institute of Technology in Benares Hindu University, Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology in Aligarh Muslim University, University College of Technology and University College of Engineering in Osmania University (Hyderabad), Andhra University College of Engineering in Vishakhapatnam and Cochin University of Science and Technology in Kerala.

If he had his way, Arjun Singh would have put this report in cold storage. But what has caused problems for him are the very names and locations of some of the recommended institutions. As one bureaucrat pointed out, the S K Joshi committee may have been appointed by the BJP regime but his recommendations ââbenefit UPA constituenciesââ.

The HRD Minister will find it difficult to inform his Bengal comrades that he is turning down a recommendation which says Bengal is ready to run two more IITs apart from the one already functioning in Kharagpur. His comrades in Kerala will also be upset because his own partymen from the State have petitioned him in the past about at least one IIT.

Andhra Chief Minister Y S R Reddy is desperate to prove that he is continuing with the regime of technological development that his predecessor, N Chandrababu Naidu, claimed to have ushered in. He would not be amused if Singh decided to sit on these recommendations indefinitely.

Aligarh Muslim University is Arjun Singhâs own constituency, especially since the minister has been going out of the way to woo minorities.

But the bureaucrats are not showing primary interest in the report. Some say that going by regional considerations, its acceptance could mean disaster. A senior IAS officer said what the ministry could do was accept two or three recommendations and simultaneously suggest some greenfield IIT projects, and not just upgrade existing technological institutes.

It was former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who had announced the setting up of five new IITs to add to the existing seven, in his Independence Day speech of 2003. Subsequently, the then HRD Minister, Joshi, had convinced him that it would be difficult to create new IITs. Instead, the better technological institutes with the right infrastructure could be upgraded.

Accordingly, this committee under the chairmanship of Dr S K Joshi, a former director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, was set up. But its report was considerably delayed, being handed over to the ministry only recently.

03-24-2005, 09:55 AM

QUOTENCERT peddles old history in old bottles

Sonia Sarkar/ New Delhi

After trashing the books published during the NDA regime and declaring that it would introduce new textbooks in the academic session 2005-06, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has had to climb down considerably and fall back on pre-2002 textbooks, which NCERT Director Prof Krishna Kumar had once termed "frustrating".Â Â Â

Soon after the UPA Government came to power, Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh had said that a new set of textbooks would be printed and introduced in the schools from the academic year 2005-06. But the NCERT has failed to meet the deadline and the new books are yet to be written.

Under the circumstances, the NCERT director has now decided to bring back the pre-2002 texts, which he himself had once run down as "frustrating experience for students".

The Council now states that new textbooks would only be introduced after the National Steering Committee submits its report. The report will be tabled in the Central Advisory Board of Education, which will later pass on the approved report back to the NCERT. The NCERT will then form a panel of authors to write a new set of history texts. This whole process would need at least another year, something, which the minister obviously did not take into account while making his tall claims in 2004.

A senior NCERT official said: "The Council did not have much time in hand last year to select a new panel of authors and then publish a new set of history textbooks as the decision to introduce new textbooks was made in late July 2004. Meanwhile, the National Steering Committee was set up in November 2004, so the Council decided to introduce the new set of textbooks following the recommendations of the steering committee."

Talking to The Pioneer, Savita Sinha, Head, Department of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities said: "The pre-2002 history textbooks are to be introduced as we are short of time to select authors to write a new book for the academic year-2005."

Incidentally, Prof Yashpal who had coined the word "Talibanisa-tion" while campaigning against texts published by the NCERT during the regime of JS Rajput heads the Steering committee. In its enthusiasm to undo the work of the earlier regime, NCERT sources said, the panel of authors to be selected is likely to be the Left-wingers. "It's the Ministers way of keeping his benefactors in the Left parties in good humour," said sources.

Sources said that the move to introduce books of the Left-wing historians of the pre-2002 era, which has once been run down by the Yashpal-Kumar duo, has been initiated at the behest of the HRD Ministry to appease the Left apparatchiks. "While the Geography and Civics portions from the social sciences textbook of Rajput regime would continue to be taught, the 40-odd pages of history would be replaced by a full textbook turning students into beasts of burden," said an NCERT official.

In his report titled 'Learning Without Burden', published in 1993, Kumar and Yashpal had said, "The aim of teaching history is defeated because children are not enabled to relate to their own heritage. Traditionally, it requires children to form an overall picture of the 'whole' of India's known history, from ancient to modern times, during the three years from Classes VI to VIII."

They had also criticised the style of writing saying, "The synoptic style forces the child into 'accepting' whatever is narrated. The sheer volume of text (which is supposed to cover all of India's history in three years) forces the child (and the teacher) to 'take in' as much text as possible without wasting time in studying or constructing an argument."

04-13-2005, 09:22 PM

QUOTEArjun Singh's detoxification leaves Urdu students booklessÂ
Udayan Namboodiri/ New Delhi

HRD Minister Arjun Singh's "detoxification" drive has hit the very people it was meant to protect from the arguable onslaught of "saffronisation" - the Muslims!

Thousands of students in the country's Urdu medium schools have begun the new academic year with empty school bags as the NCERT has failed to roll out "secular" Urdu textbooks for all subjects.

Says Akhtar uz-Zama, principal of the capital's Anglo-Arabic Senior Secondary School: "We have more than 1,200 students in our Urdu medium department. For classes 9-12, we rely on NCERT's textbooks because they are the only ones covering the CBSE syllabus in the language. Our students have no books whether in history or science or mathematics".

At Fathepuri Muslim Boys' Senior Secondary School, a teacher said: "We have never encountered a problem like this before. Imagine the plight of students of Classes X and XII. Every day is valuable to them because there is a huge syllabus to complete. Now we have already lost a fortnight and there is no hope in the horizon because the NCERT is not giving any assurance."
....
But then, Moniuddin is something of a "special case". An old-time CPI activist, his appointment contraries the claim often made by the Leftist politicians that they are dispensing "responsibility without power". 
......
While gallivanting across the country attending seminars and workshops, Arjun Singh's secularist brigade forgot about the poor, Urdu-medium school-goers. While waiting for the long-delayed secularist books, they are making to do with the much-thumbed, "saffron" texts from the Rajput era which, thanks to the Indian Muslim's survival instincts, are, somehow, still in circulation.

04-28-2005, 07:01 AM

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050425/asp/...ory_4657722.asp

QUOTEWhat crisis? asks Sonal
OUR CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, April 24: A day after theatre artiste K.N. Panicker resigned as vice-chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi protesting against chairperson Sonal Mansingh, the danseuse today said there was no crisis in the organisation and declared that she would not step down.

âWhat is the big crisis? We had a meeting all day yesterday in which we very animatedly discussed the calendar of events of the Akademi and finalised the budget allocation. I do not know what happened in three hours after the meeting for Mr Panicker to resign,â Mansingh said.

She met Union information and broadcasting minister S. Jaipal Reddy this evening. âWe have placed concrete facts before the minister about the situation and it is now up to him to decide (the) course of action,â she said after the meeting that lasted about 40 minutes.

Panicker had put in his papers last night in protest against the âunconstitutional, unethical functioning of the Akademi under her (Mansingh)â and also to express solidarity with Carnatic maestro Balamuralikrishna, who had earlier quit the executive board of the organisation.

Mansingh said: âA handful of people are vocal in criticising me but they were unable to give a single thread of evidence.â

Had she made any mistakes, she would not have hesitated to apologise, the danseuse added. âThe artistes, who are now speaking against me are the ones who had been enjoying advantages before my time. I stopped these practices,â she said, adding this was the main reason behind the vilification campaign against her.

Dancer Raja Reddy, who is spearheading the campaign against Mansingh, said the resignation by the two noted artistes from the executive board had made it clear that the mandate was not in her (Mansinghâs) favour and âshe should now gracefully resignâ.

In Thiruvananthapuram, Panicker today said he had been kept in the dark on important developments in the Akademi, including the resignation of Balamuralikrishna from the executive board.

âIt is almost one month since he resigned. As vice-chairman, I should have been told. At least the executive should have been informed. I came to know about it from Jaipal Reddyâs office,â Panicker said.

On alleged political leanings of Mansingh, he said: âI did not say anything on that but some organisations in Delhi had reportedly made such complaints. Criticism is that she works for the BJP. I donât know to which party she belongs. My feeling is that when a person occupies an important position, he or she cannot work for any political party.â

04-28-2005, 08:57 PM

Good to see this Pannikar leave <img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rocker.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='rocker.gif' /> if it's the same Dr. K.N. Panikkar - hack working as a historician. Was throughly exposed by Arun Shourie and M V Kamat.

05-23-2005, 09:39 PM

History School Books Controversy

**acharya** · 05-23-2005, 09:44 PM

"Ever since the French revolution, we have been trying to remake the world. Gender equality is a promising area of action," says Habib, his faith in a more humane world intact.

07-07-2005, 06:29 AM

QUOTE"Ancient India bias in ICHR projects" 
Anita Joshua

Committee slams arbitrariness in awarding projects, "blatant racism," "bigoted view" "Ministry encouraged an attempt to establish the unchangeable nature of the ancient Indian civilisation, to show modern India as an uninterrupted continuum of the past"

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance Government used three premier autonomous institutions under the Human Resource Development Ministry to develop a "homogenous, hegemonistic, dominant unified culture and civilisation of India," says a one-man review committee.

According to the panel looking into the functioning of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) and the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS), Shimla, for five years from 1998-99, these two institutions along with the Indian Council of Philosophical Research (ICPR) were used to build "the theoretical, philosophical, archaeological, linguistic cultural base of a glorious ancient Indian identity and personality of an immutable character."

The committee came to this conclusion on the basis of the "ancient India bias" in the ICHR while awarding projects. Of the 13 special projects sanctioned during this period for Rs. 1.5 crore, only one each related to medieval and modern India.

Around the same time, the IIAS set in motion the process for establishing the "Centre for the Study of Indian Civilisation" at an estimated cost of Rs. 69 lakhs.

"Ignoring changes"

On the ICPR project, "History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilisation," the committee said that with "direct encouragement from the Ministry," an attempt was made to establish the unchangeable nature of the ancient Indian civilisation "to show modern India as an uninterrupted continuum of the past ignoring whatever changes which occurred in the medieval and modern periods of Indian history."

The committee, in its interim report on "Research Projects and Special Projects of ICHR," found that rules were flouted to award these fully government-funded projects arbitrarily. One private institution, Indian Archaeological Society, "which openly propagated the Hindutva ideology," bagged six of the 13 projects constituting 50.2 per cent of the amount sanctioned.

The "Atlas of the Indus-Saraswati Civilisation," a Rs. 20-lakh special project awarded to the society, was primarily aimed at establishing that there were more Harappan civilisation sites than the Indus system along the Saraswati, to deal with the RSS lament over Pakistan getting the bulk of the Indus Valley civilisation sites. The project proposal should not have been entertained as the World Archaeological Congress and the Indian History Congress did not recognise the theory of Saraswati civilisation, the committee said.

A project titled "A Documentation of British Census Policy 1871-1941" to unravel "the true nature of British policies put into operation to justify their Aryan theory ..." also came in for adverse remark. While project managers said the census was used to support the "wrong European belief that the Aryans â a superior and civilised race â had come from outside [India]," the review committee said it was a "case of blatant racism which the Nazis put into practice in Germany," because the study sought to support the "bigoted view that the Aryans constituted a superior race and that their original homeland is in India."
www.hindu.com/2005/07/05/...301200.htm

07-11-2005, 12:28 AM

QUOTESchool loses recognition for draining funds 
Staff Reporter/ New Delhi
The Directorate of Education (DE) has decided to derecognise the Arvind Gupta DAV Centenary Public School, Outram Lines, Dr Mukherjee Nagar from academic session 2006-07 for draining off school funds to its managing committee.

The derecognition order came after an inquiry into the financial frauds by the Directorate of Education (DE) following an order of the Delhi High Court in May 2004.

Meanwhile, Directorate of Education, Vijay Kumar, has issued a letter asking the DAV management committee to submit an audit reports of its 28 schools immediately. A special audit team was constituted for the purpose.

The DE said that students admitted in Xth and XIIth in the current academic session would be allowed to appear in the Board examination in March 2007. On inspection, a special team of directorate found discrepancies and issued a show cause notice to the school. The directorate also detected that school had misused its funds in DAV Managing Committee which was violation of rules 176 and 177 of Delhi School Education Rules 1973.

The order said: "It appears that the management of the school is violating the directions (DE/Act/Duggal Committee/ 203/99/23039-23988, dated December 15, 1999).Â 
Why targeting DAV not any Christian or Madarsa schools?

Sunder · 07-20-2005, 08:49 PM

Arrest for Prophet Mohammad image
Police in India's Uttar Pradesh state have arrested a publisher for a sketch of the Prophet Mohammad in a book.

They said the drawing was likely to cause outrage among the Muslim community as images of the Prophet are considered blasphemy in Islam.

The publisher, Amit Agrawal, was arrested in the city of Merrut, 80km (50 miles) east of Delhi.

In 2001, Time magazine apologised to Muslims after an image of the Prophet Mohammad sparked riots in Kashmir.

A court remanded Mr Agrawal in custody on Tuesday for 14 days.

Hussain's paintings however can't be blasphemous because....?

If we are talking about "Hurting community sentiments", then the Kolkata Quran petition should be brought up again.

07-20-2005, 09:04 PM

Sunder,
Here is Link

Indian media made it as Sangh issue.

07-26-2005, 10:03 PM

QUOTE JNU doors reopen for madarsa pupils 

New Delhi, July 25: The Jawaharlal Nehru University has taken back its controversial decision to reject admission to madarsa students.

The university administration said the decision, taken on Friday, was a âmistake and had also been âmisinterpretedâ. âWe have been admitting madarsa students for over 15 years. There has been no change in admission policy or procedure,â said Harjit Singh, JNUâs director of admissions.

Most, however, see the turnaround as a result of the demand of the powerful studentsâ and teachersâ unions to maintain the varsityâs âsecular imageâ.

An equivalence committee scans madarsa degrees of admission seekers every year to check if their education matches that of the Class XII degree. The committee is believed to have recommended this year that madarsa students be denied admission.

Several students from madarsas apply to JNU for religious studies and languages after having studied for a year in Aligarh Muslim University or Jamia Milia Islamia. This year, some were apparently told âto go backâ as their Amiliyat Fazeelat madarsa degrees âwere not adequateâ.

While some teachers and students feel todayâs announcement may have come too late to prevent JNUâs secular credentials from being tarnished, madarsa students heaved a sigh of relief.

âI am so relieved to find out that I can study here,â said Faiz-ur-Rehman, who has applied for the German studies undergraduate programme.

The madarsa students cannot fathom why the controversy arose at all. âWhen the departments we had applied to recommended us for admission, why should the equivalence committee suddenly find a problem?â asked Rehman.

Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy, of the JNU Teachersâ Association, said: âIt is really sad that the students had to go through the trauma of not knowing if they were eligible to study here.â

He added: âThe equivalence committee never found problems with madarsa students before. JNUâs secular image has definitely been tainted.â

According to university officials, the Association of Indian Universities (AIU), which recognises all central and state boards, had this year written to them, advising them against accepting madarsa degrees. âThe AIU does not recognise madarsa education as equivalent to a 12th class degree. However, since AMU and Jamia are central universities of repute, we will accept their students,â said Singh.

The administration clarified that the initial decision to ban madarsa students was ânot due to political considerationsâ. âSecular education is the hallmark of JNU,â said acting studentsâ dean V.K. Jain.

www.telegraphindia.com/10...034965.asp 
Its 'secular' or 'communal' education?

Madrasas can only breed fanatics

09-14-2005, 09:34 AM

QUOTENafisa Ali to head CFSI 
Tuesday, September 13, 2005: (New Delhi):
Social Activist Nafisa Ali was today appointed chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI).

She succeeds Bollywood actress Ravina Tondon who resigned from the post recently citing personal reasons.

Tandon, who was appointed to the post in 2003 during the previous National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime, was accused in November of not attending a single meeting of the CFSI.

10-20-2005, 02:26 AM

Govt plans to track all textbooksQUOTEIn an attempt to regulate education in madrasas and missionary, RSS-run and private schools, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to set up a Textbook Regulatory Council. The council will also review books prescribed by independent boards like the ICSE.

The decision comes in the wake of educationist Zoya Hassanâs report on textbooks outside the government system
...............
It was found that the Darul Uloom Deoband and Nadvat-ul-Ulema publish their own religious textbooks â and that the state government has no control over them (though these institutions are affiliated to state boards). Similarly, RSS-run Shishu Mandirs have their own textbooks on subjects like vedic mathematics and Sanskrit.
Once the NCERT circulates the draft legislation on the working and role of the council, it will have to be approved by state governments and Parliament. States where the UPA is not in power may oppose the Bill

Commie brainwash will continue for ever.

10-27-2005, 08:47 AM

http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?m...t&counter_img=6

QUOTEHistory books court controversy again

Abraham Thomas / New Delhi

Reference to plundering Jats, beef-eating Brahmins hurts sentiments-------- The Delhi High Court has asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to explain why its history textbooks be not withdrawn for carrying objectionable content against the Brahmin and Jat community of the country.

The issue came up for consideration after the Arya Jat Mahasabha and former deputy mayor Mahesh Chandra Sharma filed separate applications in a public interest litigation pending before court.

The petitioners alleged that the history textbooks introduced by NCERT for Class VI-XII sought to show the Brahmin and Jat communities in a bad light. While Jats were depicted as plunderers, Brahmins were shown sacrificing cows and being beef eaters.

In his application, Mr Sharma alleged that in the Class XI history textbook, written by Ram Sharan Sharma, there was a specific reference to the Brahmin community who were accused of sacrificing cows on a large scale. Further in a Class VI history book, authored by historian Romila

Thapar it was written that Aryans and Brahmins offered beef to guests as a mark of honour. This had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus for whom the cow is a sacred animal.

The Division Bench of Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Rekha Sharma while taking cognizance of these facts asked the NCERT to respond within four weeks. The court had earlier issued notices to NCERT, the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Union Ministry for Human Resources Development, after a petition was filed by five persons who challenged the NCERT's decisions to come out with revised textbooks.

The petitioners, represented by senior counsel RP Bansal told the court that in 2000, a National Curriculum Framework of Secondary

Education (NCFSE) was framed and implemented by NCERT based on which a syllabus was prepared. When the same was challenged in Supreme Court, NCERT gave an undertaking that owing to objectionable remarks against certain communities in the textbooks available in schools, the same would be withdrawn and fresh textbooks issued in accordance with the NCFSE-2000. But NCERT came out with the old textbooks yet again.

The Arya Jat Mahasabha claimed that the Class XII history textbooks contained derogatory remarks against the Jat community. Annexing portions of the text, the Jat Mahasabha stated, that school children were taught that Jats were plunderers and changed sides to suit their advantage, Taking objection to the same, the Jats demanded the deletion of the said portions. The court referred their matter to NCERT asking them to prepare a detailed response by December 7, the next date of hearing.

11-26-2005, 02:05 AM

QUOTEJholawallahs junk our past, add reams without rhyme 
Udayan Namboodiri/ New Delhi
Mr Krishna Kumar's much-hyped "load reduction" scheme, which was used to push NCERT's Curriculum Framework-2005, has evidently been torn apart by HRD Minister Arjun Singh's jholawallah brigade which was recruited to draw up the History component of the Social Science pedagogy.Â Â
Maratha block-buster

The new syllabus, which will come into effect from March 2005, imposes 11 chapters under the History "unit" alone for Class VI students. After that, the child of 11 has got to cover six chapters under Geography followed by some half a dozen chapters on "diversity" and "government".

Then, in Class VII, the students would have "Our Pasts II" (sic) which covers 10 chapters, "Our Environment" with seven and at least 10 more on "Why Democracy" and "State Government". This torment continues in Class VIII where "Our Pasts-III" (sic) comes with 13, "Our Environment with seven and a huge section taking under its sweep virtually everything from traditional economics to 'understanding media'."

To call this anything less than punishment in the name of education would call for skills in mental gymnastics. Far from a general smattering of information, the syllabus is pretty extensive without really teaching the child anything.

Take a sample. "The Nationalist Movement" is Chapter 12 for Class VII. It has three components - a) Overview of the nationalist movement from the 1870s to the 1940s; b) Diverse trends within the movement and different social groups involved, and, c) Links with constitutional changes.

Class VII students have a chapter called "The Creation of an Empire" where everything about all the Mughal kings, their relations with other rulers, administration and the court, agrarian relations and a "case study of Akbar" is mentioned. It is followed by a chapter on architecture and another "case study" - this time on Shah Jehan.

Meanwhile, the old Marxist tactic of discriminating against the challengers of Islamic hegemony is amply evident. Under "New political formations in the 18th Century", the Marathas make up only a "case study". There is no mention of Shivaji or Rana Pratap. 

The greatest injustice is meted out to the Sikhs. Under "Popular beliefs and religious debates", a chapter for Class VII, there is no mention of Guru Nanak at all though Kabir is a "case study". The Khalsa Panth did not happen. Guru Govind Singh and Guru Teg Bahadur, who were insulted repeatedly by Marxist Satish Chandra have been simply ignored this time. As for the great Banda Bahadur, he too did not exist. The valiant Jats are given short shrift as well. 

So, despite the humungous sweep of the syllabus, the panel of historians recruited by HRD Minister Arjun Singh has taken care to whitewash any trace of the genie of nationalism. This follows from the jholawallah-Marxist theory that before British rule, the Indian people did not have a conception of nationhood. The textbook writers - whoever they are is a top secret even to NCERT's own Social Science department - have been given the latitude to depict the Tughlaqs and Mughals as "Indians" and whoever resisted their pillage as inconsequential.

Is it possible to read Indian history without Mahmud of Ghazni's plunders ? NCERT seems to think so. Prithviraj Chauhan ? Irrelevant. Even Kautilya, the author of the Arthashastra, one of the world's most famous works on politics and statecraft, is obliterated from the study on ancient India. Adi Shankaracharya, who united India by setting up the four mathas and preaching Advaita is found undeserving of mention. Moving to the modern era, one finds the Brahmo Samaj and its founder, Raja Rammohan Roy, given the quiet ignore. Doubtless, Roy's name would be packed in during a discussion on "debates around sati" (Chapter 7 for Class VIII) but what about his profound views on the Upanishads? 

The list historic personalities, their contributions and events left out and the caricature of is long enough to be a national shame. It is as if the collective memory of India has undergone a silent implosion. No government anywhere has done so much to massacre its own past.Â

Bharatvarsh · 11-26-2005, 07:59 AM

There was a previous part of the above article which I am posting here:

QUOTEJholawallah obscurantism replaces Marxist poppycock

Udayan Namboodiri/ New Delhi

What is so earthshaking about the "nationalist movement in Indo-China" that it should be represented with greater emphasis before India's 14-year-olds than their own freedom struggle? And, that too in a textbook titled India and the Contemporary World?Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Ho Chi Minh: Indian Idol?

Now, who on earth was Nguyen Ai Quoc? More on this shadowy character later, but, why, pray, is it necessary for India's school-goers to know more about the "ideas" of Guiseppe Mazzinni, Phan Dinh Phung and Phan Boi Chau than Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose?

The Social Science textbook for Class X students that NCERT's "detoxification" specialists are seeking to introduce from the next academic year based on a syllabus released recently, seems to be based on the premise that India's new generation would be better off with an understanding of "Nationalism in Europe" (mostly Italy) and knowledge of "Indo-China" than their own.

In fact, this seems to be the rule of thumb for the writers of the upcoming set of books that would be on the market to replace the present lot authored by Marxist historians who were guilty of even worse falsification. But while the Marxists pursued an agenda of distortion without withholding primary information from the public domain, the new lot have another scheme in mind - black out Indian history from Indians. This is seen in the syllabi for all classes. In The third -and last-"unit" on history in the Class X Social Sciences syllabus, "Nationalism in India: Civil Disobedience Movement" is number three on the list after Europe and "Indo-China". In it, India has four sub-themes compared to five for "Indo-China". While all those foreigners are specially named, our own Mahatma and Netaji do not even merit mention in the syllabus document.

Ninety per cent of those who finish Class X will never pick up a book on History again. They will pursue the sciences or commerce in pursuit of more lucrative careers. Of the remaining 10 per cent, less than half would take up History in the Plus-Two stage. Even fewer will take up History at the University level. So, instead of using the school years for spreading maximum awareness of India's 9,000-year-old past, NCERT has effectively decided to deny Gen-Next their own history.

The obsession with "Indo-China" and "Nguyen Ai Quoc" (misspelt Nguyen Ac Quoc in the document) is Minister Arjun Singh's thank-you gift to the Communist bloc which propped him up as HRD Minister. Firstly, "Indo-China" is a term that has long vanished from public usage. Westerners used it to describe the region now comprising three separate nations -Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

At any rate, the NCERT syllabus has focussed only on Vietnam. The exclusive emphasis on the "second Indo-China war" (an euphemism for the Vietnam war of 1954-75) is nothing but an excuse for a lot of America bashing. The silence on Cambodia, where Communists under Pol Pot killed three million innocent people, screams.

Finally, "Nguyen Ai Quoc". This is only one of the ten aliases used by a man who is generally believed to have been born as Nguyen Tat Thanh. The most famous one was Ho Chi Minh, a great favourite of India's Communists. But the life and "ideas" of this leader of the Vietcong in its war (called "glorious" by Indian Reds) against America are under scrutiny today in his own country. Whatever little is known about him has come from Communist hacks.

According to an authoritative book in Vietnamese, "Unmasking Ho Chi Minh" by Huy Phong and Yen Anh (US edition, 1989), this man, apart from being a successful general, was an infamous mass murderer, barely literate, and, in true Communist style, betrayed Phan Boi Chau (the other hero recommended by NCERT) to the French police for $ 10,000.

Virtually all the basic data for the hagiographic books, which India's Red-Jholawalla brigade venerate, can be traced directly or indirectly to a book entitled Stories of President Ho's Active Life by Tran Dan Tien, first published in 1948 by Van Hoc Publishing. It was apparently intended as a biography but was presented in the form of an interview with Ho Chi Minh. Later, it turned out that the "interviewer", Tran Dan Tien, was "Nguyen Ai Quoc" or Ho himself. Only one other leader in world history has "created" his own biography - Joseph Stalin.

Asked what the children of India did to deserve this, sources in the NCERT's Social Science department deny any role. It turns out that Director Kumar had "outsourced" the entire exercise, from syllabus development through textbook writing, to a group of jholawallah scholars who Arjun Singh, like Nurul Hasan before him, had selected to commit larceny with the truth.

These include Hari Vasudevan of Kolkata University, Niladri Bhattacharya of JNU, Narayani Gupta of Jamia Millia Islamia and Chitra Srinivasan, a teacher of Sardar Patel School. In fact, the "committee" had started its work even before the Central Advisory Board on Education had approved NCERT's new Curriculum Framework.

(To be concluded)

01-11-2006, 06:34 PM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' />

QUOTEUnion Government has finally decided to Ban The Famous Song " Yeh
Mati Sabhi ke kahani kahe gi from the Popular Film Navrang from the
late 60's. The Song was Sung by Mahendra Kapoor.
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Speaking to media persons, HRD Minister Arjun Singh said "It hurt the
setiments of the Minority community as well as Seculars Think tank.
He further quoted that " In the last Election the BJP used it as a Poll
Plank against Sonia Gandhi and her Family Members in Abroad and
now the Shiv Sena is using the same song against Sunjay Nirupam,
Narayan Rane and 3 other Former Shiv Sena MLA's.

01-11-2006, 09:59 PM

Can't believe it, now they have started banning song, What next, force everyone to marry minorities just to prove secular credential?

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