Jaipur: The State Board textbooks of Rajasthan for this academic year overshadows Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and talks more about a Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar.
One textbook says that Congress leaders originated from big cities who did not have a connection with the masses. The revised textbooks for classes 10, 11 and 12 also contain topics such as the Uniform Civil Code, Hindi as the country’s contact language and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign policies, especially with reference to Pakistan, HT reports.
The revised edition even edge out Jawahar Lal Nehru from the social science textbook of Class 10 and minimises Mahatma Gandhi to a mere reference. Education experts are calling these history “revisions” as Hinduisation of the country’s freedom struggle.
India’s first PM was erased from class 8th textbook last year. “Every hero can’t be included in every book,” says Vasudev Devnani, state education minister while defending the move.
The Class 10 social science textbook says that Congress wanted to prolong British rule in India because they felt the latter’s exit will lead to lawlessness in the country.
Now, this goes even further in Class 11 political science textbook. Here, the Congress party is described as a ‘nurtured baby’ of the British, and that it was established by the capitalists and representatives of the upper middle class.
In the Class 10 book, Savarkar has been described as a great revolutionary, a great patriot, and a great ‘sangathanwaadi’ (organisation man). “The lifelong sacrifices he made for the country’s independence is beyond words,” says the textbook.