The Hindu : History: Panel to study social sciences textbook

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

History: Panel to study social sciences textbook

By Our Staff Reporter

Bangalore March 11. The Minister of State for Primary Education, B.K.Chandrashekar, today told the Legislative Council that a committee of experts had been constituted to go into social science textbooks up to Standard 10, which created confusion in the minds of students about history.

Replying to G.Madhusudan and K.Balakrishna Bhat (both BJP), the minister referred to social science textbooks for standard 5 and 6 in which there was a reference to studying the Vedas. The minister said the authorities had been advised to replace it with "study religious scriptures". In another lesson, it was said: "There was an ancient temple at the place where Mecca is now situated from where the idols were removed." The authorities had been told to rewrite it to state "there was a place of worship before". Similarly, the minister said it was not right to say that the Ottoman Turks' invasion of India led to the spread of Islam in the country. There was nothing wrong in saying that this invasion led to the death of people, he added. But he did not agree that Timur Lang, who invaded India, was a Muslim. The minister said that Muslims should not be equated with Moghuls. Such an interpretation would only create confusion. At the Education Ministers' Conference convened by the Union Human Resource Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, he had sought an explanation on the factual position about writing history books, but Mr. Joshi did not react.

Mr. Madhusudan wanted to have his say when the minister mentioned the destruction of the famous Nalanda University. But the Chairman, B.L.Shankar, advised him not to stretch the question as Question Hour was coming to an end. But Mr. Bhat questioned the need for printing a colour picture of Isaac Newton on the front page, relegating the pictures of Indian scientists to the back of the book. Should not the Government highlight the achievements of scientists who worked in NASA, ISRO, and those who did research on the detection of the mythological Saraswati River?, he asked. Agreeing with the suggestion, the minister said India produced Narlikar, Nobel Prize winners such as C.V.Raman and Chandrasekhar, and the former Scientific Adviser to the Union Government, C.N.R.Rao, had been short-listed for Nobel Prize.

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