Move to purge textbooks of communal riots

new delhi — Braj Bihari Kumar, an admirer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is the new chairperson of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) which authorises school text books.

The appointment made earlier this month had been criticised by a section of scholars who questioned his academic credentials. Kumar pays little heed to such criticism as his latest decision shows: he says the recent riots in Indian history should not be taught to children as these are divisive.

“Class 6 textbook of social sciences mention Hindu-Muslim riots, caste riots. The writers want to create social activists rather than students or learners. Do you think anti-Muslim riots should be taught to class 6 or 7 students? Even in class 12, they shouldn’t be taught,”

People who have written history and social sciences books had their own agenda

Braj Bihari Kumar, ICSSR chairperson

Kumar, 76, said in an interview to Hindustan Times. Kumar believes these chapters were written by ‘Marxists’ with a political agenda.

“People who have written history and social sciences books had their own agenda,” he said, in the context of a NCERT move to drop ‘anti-Muslim’ riots from a headline in a class 12 textbook. The NCERT — the National Council of Educational Research And Training — is the brain behind school education.

In the past three years, BJP-ruled states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra have faced allegations of saffronising education by changing or sanitising text books.

Kumar is the founder of Astha Bharati, an NGO promoting ‘national unity and integrity’.

He said atrocities against Dalits are highlighted for no clear reason. According to him, there are many other social unrests, but these do not get proportionate attention. He says the imbalance has to be corrected.

Kumar says it is a ‘colonial myth’ that higher-caste Hindus did not allow the lower castes to acquire education.

“Brahmins are the poorest aristocracy in the world,” he said in defence of the purity of intentions informing Brahmins, “and that is in their value system.” He said the liberals who authored most of the texts are anti-nationals, and antiBrahminical for no clear reason.

He picked out Jawaharlal Nehru University as a hub of “anti-national” activity and said if its students don’t mend their ways, society will be forced to take care of it.

The new chief of the ICSSR believes that textbooks published by the previous governments are responsible for ‘anarchic trends’ in society.

In keeping with these views, the 2002 Gujarat carnage will no longer be called “anti-Muslim riots” in NCERT textbooks and will be instead referred to as the ‘Gujarat riots.’

The change will be made in a Class 12 textbook, published in 2007 during the Congress-led UPA government’s tenure.

According to official estimates, nearly 800 Muslims and more than 250 Hindus were killed in the violence in February-March, 2002.

Kumar took over from the economist S. K. Thorat, a liberal academic.