Often accused by the Sangh Parivar of being “Marx’s and Macaulay’s children,” the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has countered the charge by stating that “if at all there are any progenies of Macaulay surviving in India, they belong to the RSS and the BJP” as these organisations, like the British, divide Indian history into the ‘Hindu period’ and the ‘Muslim period.’
This assertion was made by the CPI(M) in a party booklet ‘Stop Communalisation of Education’ that not only draws attention to the threats posed by “saffronisation” of education but also seeks to address the Sangh Parivar’s criticism of Marxist historians ignoring ancient Indian history.
Urging people to join the struggle to resist attempts to distort history and indoctrinate children, the CPI(M) said “this struggle is not over textbooks and education only, it is for our present and our future.”
Flagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim about Lord Ganesh being a product of plastic surgery, and his endorsement of books written by RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas head Dinanath Batra, the CPI(M) said if the Sangh Parivar wants to project ancient India’s contribution to the world, they should speak about the great rationalist traditions of the time.
“For example, in ancient India, we had the great proponent of medical sciences, Susruta, who advocated surgery to cure various illness and deformities. We also had Varahamihira and Brahmagupta, two famous astronomers who found out the true cause of lunar and solar eclipses. The RSS and the BJP do not want to project these people and their achievements as a contribution to world civilisation because they had propagated rationalist philosophy and in the process went against many ancient Brahminical law texts.”
Referring to the RSS and the BJP bid to project untouchability as a product of “Islamic atrocities,” the CPI(M) booklet delves into Jaiminiya Brahmana to “counter the slander propagated by the RSS/BJP lie-factory.” The Jaiminiya Brahmana — a Vedic text dated between 1000 and 500 B.C. — stated that “sudra is created from the feet of Prajapati without any god and therefore the lords of the house are his gods and he is to earn his living by washing their feet.”
The booklet also draws attention to Mr. Batra’s insistence on reforming the language used in textbooks. Quoting from a memorandum submitted by him to the Union Human Resource Development Minister, the CPI(M) noted that Mr. Batra wants to replace Urdu words like mushkil, dost, gussa, shararat, khabardar, gayab, saal and mauka with Sanskrit.
