Interesting stuff in the Guardian about history textbook battles in India. A change of government there means a change of syllabus:
India's new government is poised to rewrite the history taught to the nation's schoolchildren after a panel of eminent historians recommended scrapping textbooks written by scholars hand-picked by the previous Hindu nationalist administration.Hundreds of thousands of textbooks are likely to be scrapped by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, the central government body that sets the national curriculum for students up to 18.
The move, one of the first made by the new Congress led government, will strongly signal a departure from the programme of its predecessor.
The "saffronisation" of history, say critics of the last government, depicted India's Muslim rulers as barbarous invaders and the medieval period as a dark age of Islamic colonial rule which snuffed out the glories of the Hindu empire that preceded it.
Memorably, one textbook claimed that the Taj Mahal, the Qu'tb Minar and the Red Fort, three of India's outstanding examples of Islamic architecture, were designed and commissioned by Hindus.
Cue Gratuitous Picture of the Taj Mahal:
And a rather good one, I think.
Hi - how much is known really about India and Indian history, for anyone to comment?
Yes, Indian history has been rewritten many times over and it becomes the duty of anyone who comments about it, to investigate the matter THOROUGHLY.
Who wrote Indian history in the past? The invaders? Or the locals? Why must India have a minority touting 'secular' agenda? Why does such a 'secular' government have SEPARATE laws for the Muslims which are unfavorable to Muslim women? Why not have a common legal code for all Indians? Are the so-called 'secularists' capable of implementing that?
Why was the previous government called Nationalist? Are all these 'judgments' of Hindu government or Hindu thought, being dictated by media representations, or by PERSONAL experience of life in India?
And what is the proof that Taj Mahal was NOT built by Hindus? There are rooms in the basement of Taj Mahal that tourists are not allowed to visit - do you know that? Why?
