Capt govt puts on hold release of Class-12 history book
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Tuesday decided to put on hold the release of the Class-12 history book till the newly constituted oversight committee examines it and decides on the way forward.
“Following chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s decision to set up the six-member oversight committee headed by eminent historian professor Kirpal Singh, it is felt it will be better for the newly constituted panel to review the book before its further release,” a Punjab government spokesperson said here.
The Punjab School Education Board has also been directed to facilitate the committee to complete this task at the earliest.
The panel, set up on Monday, has been asked to examine the contents of the text books prescribed for Classes 11 and 12 and to suggest corrections for factual and other errors, if any, and to align, as may be practicably possible, the history syllabus with that prescribed by the NCERT.
Welcoming the move, former MP Tarlochan Singh, in a statement said, the NCERT too should set up a committee of experts to review the content in its books on Sikh history.
The SAD said on Tuesday that its stand on the deletion of Sikh history from Class-12 syllabus has been “fully vindicated” by the setting up of the six-member panel. The party said the Amarinder Singh government’s decision was a “correct, though belated step in the right direction”. “This is precisely what we have been demanding all along. This is just the step which former CM Parkash Singh Badal had urged Amarinder to take. Had the government listened to him then, the entire controversy could have been avoided,” SAD spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said in a statement here.
THE MOVE COMES A DAY AFTER THE STATE GOVT SET UP A 6MEMBER OVERSIGHT PANEL TO EXAMINE THE CONTENT OF TEXTBOOKS
CHANDIGARH: A day after Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh constituted a six-member oversight committee to examine history syllabus of the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), the panel head, Prof Kirpal Singh, 94, on Tuesday said discrepancies in Class-12 book were intentional.
The committee was set up after the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alleged that a major portion of Sikh history was removed from the Class-12 book. The committee comprises JS Grewal, former vice-chancellor Guru Nanak Dev University, Prithipal Singh Kapur, former pro-vc of the GNDU, and Indu Banga, emeritus professor, history, at Panjab University, besides two historians to be nominated by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
Talking to HT, the nonagenarian said: “How can one write Sikh history without having the knowledge of Persian language? The writer of a book to be prescribed to students is crucial. Also, who is writing the book, what’s his background and use of vocabulary is important,” said Prof Singh, adding that he cannot write a book on the history of Marathas and South India.
Refusing to elaborate much, Prof Singh said: “My work is academics and I will not plunge into politics (over the Class-12 history book).” Having penned 50 books on history of Punjab, Prof Singh has also written on Baba Ala Singh, who founded the Patiala royal dynasty in 1763. His book was reprinted by Guru Nanak Dev University in 2002. Born in 1924 at Gujranwala in Pakistan Punjab, Prof Singh did his PHD on “Partition of Punjab”. He remained head of historical studies department, Punjabi University, Patiala.