Tripura textbook slashes national icons, features Gandhi’s views on cricket

Indian history books barely feature any content post independence, and yet, we see more and more such content getting slashed in history textbooks around the country. The Left-front government in Tripura has altogether removed the history of India from the state’s class 9 history textbooks.

The ruling came soon after Rajasthan’s BJP-ruled government removed the name of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. 

The textbook is authored by Kalyan Choudhury, the former head of the history department in Maharaja Manindra Chandra College, Kolkata.

Here’s what the class 9 history book consists of:

• National icons do not feature in the book apart from Mahatma Gandhi. However, even he is mentioned not for his contribution is India’s freedom struggle but due to his views on cricket

• Information on the birth of cricket in England is included

• The Santhal rebellion has a chapter to itself, including information on how the tribal people who were dependent on the forest economy were deprived during the British rule

• The Russian and French revolutions are included in the book, as is Hitler and the rise of Nazism

• The history of agriculture is also included in the book

Officials speak:

• According to an HT report, officials at the Tripura Board of Secondary Education denied Chief Minister Manik Sarkar’s involvement in getting the textbook published with the backing of his communist government. Non-Left parties labelled the history textbook as “flawed”

• “The Left Front wants to paint everything red, even if it means destroying the education system. They are brainwashing students with Marx and communism. This is a recipe for disaster,” said Tripura’s BJP leader Biplab Deb, according to HT

• A teacher, requesting anonymity, also reportedly said, “Students are taught Karl Marx and Hitler but (there is) nothing about Indian freedom fighters.” The book could be revised in the next academic session, added the teacher

•  “We followed NCERT guidelines for the new history syllabus. Class 9 students used to study Indian history earlier,” said Mihir Deb, the president of Tripura education board.

Source : India Today