More than three years after he created a controversy asking the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to revise their books, Dina Nath Batra has struck again.
In the latest set of recommendations, the RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, headed by Batra, has asked that some Urdu and Arabic words, a paragraph saying the Ram temple movement was “linked with the growth of the BJP and politics of Hindutva” and a Ghalib couplet be removed from the books, The Indian Express reported on Monday.
The rationale?
Atul Kothari, secretary of the Nyas, told The Indian Express that several things in these books are “baseless” and “biased.” “There is an attempt to insult members of a community. There is also an appeasement… how can you inspire children by teaching them about riots? The history of valour, of great personalities like Shivaji, Maharana Pratap, Vivekananda and Subhas Chandra Bose find no place,” he told the paper. The Nyas had earlier demanded that AK Ramanujan’s essay Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation be removed from from Delhi University’s undergraduate syllabus and that Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus. Three Hundred Ramayana be withdrawn.
Here are some of the other things that the five pages of recommendations demands the removal of:
Objections to Paragraph on 1984 Riots, Ram Temple Movement
In the class 12 political science textbook, the outfit wants that a paragraph on the 1984 riots that ends with Manmohan Singh’s Parliament speech in 2005 expressing regret over the “bloodshed” and seeking an apology be removed, The Indian Express reported. It also wants a paragraph asserting that the Ram Mandir movement was “linked with the growth of BJP and politics of Hindutva” be removed. They also want a sentence that reads “Babri mosque was built by Mir Baqi… Some Hindus believe that it was built at the birthplace of Ram by destroying a Ram temple” deleted from the book.
Removal of Ghalib Couplets and Extracts From MF Husain’s Autobiography
Words including betartib, poshaak, taakat, kambakht, badmaash, luchche-lafange, chamaar, bhangiyon should be removed from Hindi textbooks, the Nyasa demands, according to The Indian Express. A Ghalib couplet and some of the excerpts from MF Husain’s autobiography should also be removed.
Omissions Across History Books
The recommendations across history books include omission of an extract from activist Tarabai Shinde’s book A Comparison Between Women and Men, which attacks patriarchy, a chapter on the Mughal era that says that “the rulers had an extremely liberal policy towards people… All Mughal rulers gave grants for the construction and maintenance of places of worship. Even when the temples were destroyed during battles, grants for their repair work were released later,” and the mention of a “chain of justice” in Jehangir’s “memoirs”.
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