|
Home
Search
Subscribe Online
Archives
About
Us
Cartoons
Online
Book Store
E-Greetings
Jobs @ MG
Advertise
on MG
Our
Team
Contact Us
Muslim
Matrimonials
Our Advertisers
| |
Saffronization of education
By AN Shibli
 In
yet another attempt to saffronize education and pollute the minds of young
children on communal lines the Bharatiya Janata Party government in
Gujarat has ordered all secondary and senior secondary schools in the
state to subscribe to Sadhana, roughly a Gujarati version of the RSS
weekly mouthpiece Panchjanya. A circular by the state school commissioner
describes Sadhna as ‘refined well-cultured and very good.’
This is a well-known fact that Panchjanya and its sister publication
Organizer in English are published with the sole objective of spreading
the ideology of Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh and propagate Hindutva. Every
issue of Panchjanya and Organizer contain distorted stories to defame
minorities specially Muslims and Christian.
This is not the first time when a BJP led government in a state has tried
to use academic institutions to spread Hindu ideology and hatred against
minorities particularly among Muslims children.
A book on social studies meant for class IX in Gujarat is said to contain
the following excerpts: ‘Mahmud (of Ghazni) destroyed ten thousand
temples at Kannauj, killed its inhabitants and seized their wealth. Why
these atrocities? Because Islam teaches only atrocities. Apart from
Muslims, even Christian, Parsis and some others are recognized as
minority. Yet in some states Hindus are in minority and Muslims,
Christians and Sikhs are in majority. Islam teaches only atrocities. Have
not Islamic invaders perpetrated this wherever they have gone, be it
India, Africa or Europe?’
The Sanskrit course teaches: ‘Thousands of opponents of idol, the
followers of Islam, go to the pilgrimage centre of the Islamic community
at the Ka’ba to worship the Shivalingam.’. Some questions with answers
in the very same book are as follow:
‘Why is the Babri Masjid not a mosque?’ ‘Because Muslims till today
have never offered Namaz there.’ ‘Between 1528 and 1914, how many
devotees of Rama laid down their lives to liberate the Ram temple?’
‘Three lakh fifty thousand.’ Other questions of the book include, when
did Ramabhakta Karsewaks unfurl the saffron flag on the Shri Ram
Janambhoomi, and mention the name of the boys who laid down their lives
while unfurling the saffron flag.
The schools all over the country, sponsored by Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh (RSS)
are twisting history to suit their ideology. The curriculum is well
stocked with the details of how the Ram temple belonged to the Hindus and
how Muslims demolished it. A book, which is compulsory for students in
over 14,000 schools run by the Vidya Bharatiya Akhil Bharatiya Siksha
Sansthan, has a question and answer series on Ram Janamabhoomi.
The book is a question bank for the Akhil Bharatiya Sanskrit Gyaan
Pariksha, which is being taught to class VII students in Lucknow. The
first chapter of the book has a map of Akhand Bharat, which includes
Pakistan and Bangladesh. Even Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s name has been
changed to Dr Bhim Rao Upadhya Babasaheb Ramji Ambedkar.
Some distorted questions and answers of the book are:
Question: How many Ram Bhakts laid down their lives to get the Ram Mandir
free from 1528 to 1992? Answer: Three lakh forty thousand. Question: When
did the District Judge, Mr KM Pandey order opening of the locks of the Ram
Temple? Answer: On February 01, 1986. Question: When did the Shila Poojan
for the construction of Ram Temple begin? Answer: September 30, 1989.
Question: Who first constructed a temple at the birthplace of Lord Sri
Ram? Answer: Son of Sri Ram, King Kush. Question: Which Mughal invader
demolished Ram Mandir in 1528? Answer: Babar. Question: When did the
Muslims decide to willingly hand over Ram Temple to Hindu? Answer: in
1857.
The new curriculum framework drawn up by NCERT has sparked off a fierce
debate among the academicians. The new curriculum stresses on
spirituality, education about religion, value-based education, teaching of
Sanskrit and emphasizes on the traditional social order. Majority of
academicians have criticized the new curriculum of the NCERT. Anil
Sadgopal, eminent educationists and head of the department of education,
University of Delhi said that while Sanskrit is important and should be
taught to those pursuing subjects where knowledge of Sanskrit is relevant,
it should not be made compulsory. Criticizing the NCERT’s attempts to
introduce spiritual values and value education he said, ‘it is a tactful
manner of introducing the Brahminical value system. Values are derived
from humanism, ‘insaniyat’, whereas the assumption of NCERT is that
all values are derived from religion.
Former MP and editor of Urdu Weekly Akhbar-e-Nau, M. Afzal told The Milli
Gazette that Joshi and Company are trying to hijack the multi-religious
and multi-lingual identity of India. Raising the issue of Babri Masjid
they are diverting the attention of Muslims from their hidden agenda. On
asking about the role of Shahnawaz Hussain, a central minister, he said
‘What do you expect from a person who has not seen even a single file
related to his ministry in the last two or three months. He has no work
there. It is a direct insult to a person who is an elected member.
Considering his insult he should resign.
At UGC office not even a single person was ready to talk to this writer on
the topic. On repeated requests, an official on anonymity said, ‘There
is no such attempt in higher education. It may be on school level or in
the curriculum of NCERT but I am not aware of it.
Recently inaugurating the last annual session of the Indian History
Congress (IHC) in Calcutta the Nobel Laureate, Dr Amartya Sen said,
‘there was an organized attempt in India to write a history manoeuvered
to suit a slanted agenda in contemporary politics. Such an attempt was
being made with arbitrary augmentation of a narrowly sectarian view of
India’s past, along with undermining its magnificently multi-religious
history.’ Former Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu also
criticized the attempt to rewrite history and saffronization of education.
He said, ‘unfortunately, today, some religious fanatics under the guise
of historians, are using history as a tool to take us backward. Basu
criticized those schools which according to him are ‘RSS paid schools
and which have drawn a new map of India in their own textbooks, where
Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan and part of Nepal are shown to be a part of
India.
It will not be wrong to say that ever since Murli Manohar Joshi joined the
Human Resource Development ministry(HRD) it has changed into Hindutva
Revival Department. He appointed the persons of saffron mind on higher
posts in academic institutes like ICHR and NCERT. His major attempt to
saffronize education was seen during the conference of Education Ministers
in Delhi in 1998, where he had tried to start the conference with
Saraswati Vandana. Joshi’s devilish attempt was halted with the walkout
of education ministers of 12 states when Saraswati Vandana was included as
a part of inaugural session. The walkout was supported not only by the
states, which were ruled by Congress, Janata Dal, Rashtriya Janata Dal but
also by BJP allies like Akali Dal, AIDMK, Telugu Desham Party and Trinamul
Congress. After powerful agitation from the education ministers of
different states not only he withdrew the objectionable portion of the
agenda but also cancelled the presentation of Purshottamdas Chatlangia.
Everybody knows that Chitlangia, a Calcutta based industrialist is the
president of educational institutions. Due to the powerful criticism by
Education Ministers the following agenda was dropped from the conference:
Reforming the curriculum by indianizing, nationalizing and spiritualizing
it, devoting 10-25 percent of the course content to essentials of Indian
culture at all levels, making Sanskrit compulsory from class III to X and
setting up a Sanskrit University, incorporating a course on Indian
philosophy in all higher education and introducing a moral and spiritual
education at all stages and in all schools are aimed at saffronization of
education.
Despite a lot of proofs, evidences and criticism from noted educationist
Joshi never accepted that there is anything wrong in his style of working.
In a television interview to the editor of the Pioneer, Chandan Mitra on
DD News Joshi refuted allegations that the educational system was being
saffronized. He also denied that he appointed only those people who are
ideologically close to the BJP and the RSS.
It is the responsibility of secular forces and noted educationist of
secular mind to remain alert and united so that education is not
saffronized and history is not rewritten or distorted. q |
Subscribe
Now
|
