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From Our Correspondent
Reputed educationists, intellectuals, historians, representatives of teachers? bodies, students? unions, parents? associations, governing bodies of schools and individuals concerned, who had assembled in New Delhi, unanimously decided to launch a concerted, nation-wide and democratic struggle against the UPA government and its communist backers for falsifying Indian history and brainwashing India'schildren with communist propaganda. The meeting, which was presided over by Professor Sharad Bhand, a retired Vice-Chancellor, resolved to form a new body, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Shri Dinanath Batra was elected coordinator of the Samiti.
The Andolan Samiti has decided to initiate a national debate on history by mobilising people, particularly students, parents and teachers for the purpose of staging demonstrations in not only New Delhi, but also in other cities and even districts. The Chief Ministers of the states, which do not have UPA or communist governments, will be urged to continue with the present NCERT books, rejecting the findings of the special committee. It has also been decided to petition the President of India, Prime Minister, HRD Minister and Education Ministers of all states to prevent the communist takeover of history writing.
Long-drawn national stir planned against de-Indianised distortion of history.
The meeting also resolved to review the textbooks on history prescribed by different state governments, particularly those of West Bengal and Kerala and the SCERT books published by the Delhi SCERT, which have been recommended by the committee as a replacement for the NCERT books. This will be done by reputed historians with a view to educating the people on the factual errors and ideological bias in the books.
The meeting gave a clarion call for mobilisation of all nationalistic and patriotic forces to preserve the true history of India so that the confidence of future generations is not emasculated by communist distortions. The intellectuals were of the opinion that the UPA government was about to destroy the fine tradition already set by the NCERT in instilling such national pride in young minds that would enable India to achieve its goal of becoming a world power in the 21st century. It was recalled that promoting a spirit of self-flagellation and injecting a sense of inferiority complex in young minds are the twin features of Leftist scholarship. This is the principal tenet of communist historiography and the old NCERT textbooks were its vehicle to enter young minds. By reverting to that forgettable tradition, the Congress-communist combine wishes to put the clock back on India'smarch towards its destiny as a world power.
It was noted with alarm that the committee, set up by the HRD Minister to identify and purge alleged ?harmful? and ?communal? passages from the NCERT textbooks, acted in a most poodle-like fashion. The basis for the formation of such a committee was ?detoxification? of textbooks, which is an offensive way of describing the NCERT books. Though, they disagreed with this policy, nationalist scholars were however eager to engage the Leftists in a debate once such allegedly ?offensive? portions are identified by it. Such a debate would have opened a new chapter in the war against pseudo-secularism and dishonest Leftist scholarship. But, no, the committee knew that they could be trapped. Very astutely, they avoided even meeting the authors of the NCERT books and even ignored the point-by-point defence of the contents which form the subject of a book, Fallacies in the IHC Report, which was published by NCERT last year in riposte to the Indian History Congress'sattempt to malign the books. Whereas the committee'sbrief from the ministry was to identify the so-called ?offensive? or ?communal? passages for possible deletion, its members clearly overstepped their brief by announcing a blanket withdrawal of the books from this academic year itself. The meeting termed it ?most regrettable?.
The meeting considered the disastrous effect, which this ongoing, unseemly struggle on the psychology of our children is having. National self-confidence is a casualty. People will begin doubting their own history. No nation can progress unless its youth take pride in their nationhood. School-level history must inspire future generations to emulate the valour, sacrifice and genius of their forebears. They must also inculcate all the valuable lessons from their collective past, so that yesterday'smistakes are not repeated tomorrow. We take pride in our history and this pride forms the core of our cultural nationalism. Therefore, we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that this conspiracy against our nationhood does not succeed.
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