Given Gujarat government's past records, the Dinanath Batra books issue is no new trend
On a chilly yet warm December afternoon, I with my other two colleagues stepped inside the premises of Prashant to meet Father Cedricks Prakash, a Jesuit Priest and a civil society activist to interview him for our documentary The Gujarat Promise. Over coffee and some wonderful Shrewsbury cookies brought from Pune, he took us through a set of history textbooks prescribed by the Gujarat government and it was for the first time that we were witnessed to the kind of saffronization that was taking place in lieu of imparting knowledge on history. The history books as he showed us had chapters on Hindu fables and characters from the Vedic age such as Luv-Kush, Shabri, Eklavya etc. Now the point being made rightly by Father Prakash was that there is no problem if you call them mythology or fables but calling it history is highly unfair.
It was only recently after a verdict of the Gujarat High Court that changes were made to the history textbooks in Gujarat which taught kids that people from all other religions except Hinduism are foreigners. Such kind of absurdity and bizarre statements are nothing but outrightly silly. But hey, are our kids smart enough to make such informed choices? Surely kids these days are much more smarter and informed but the mind of a 10 year old is too fertile to be sown with such insensitive teachings. Keeping in mind the popular saying that what you sow, shall you reap, fundamentalists across the globe have always tried to tweak the pages of history to serve their propaganda and to an extent have been hugely successful too. The latest fiasco about the Dinanath Batra textbooks introduced in schools being one of the point in case.
Ever since Shri Narendra Modi has taken charge as the Prime Minister of the country and Anandiben Patel being elevated to the post of the Chief Minister of Gujarat, nothing much seemed to have changed as far as Gujarat government's propaganda in the state is concerned. Apart from buying herself a 100 crore chartered plane as soon as became CM, Anandiben Patel hasn't yet been seen as taking big, bold decisions albeit the latest circular issued to schools which made the inclusion of Shri Dinanath Batra's books in the syllabus as a mandatory reading. What is then the big deal about the entire thing? The furore has stemmed from the sheer absurdity that the content propagates which eventually would be read and to a huge extent also believed by students.
The Gujarat government recently published nine books in March this year and made it mandatory through a circular to include them in the supplementary reading for the primary and secondary students. In a series titled Prernadeep consisting of four books put together anecdotes about how Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan told the British that Indians were "rotis cooked right by God". Yes you heard it right! It's that absurd. But the list doesn't end there. It professes use of words like 'acharya' instead of professor as the latter is believed to be a British legacy. It also tells how a 'Bal Narendra' hid behind a bunch of plantains waiting for Hunuman. I was choked to death as I laughed my lungs out after reading this.
The unchallenged and genius mastermind behind penning down eight of these amazing books is Shri Dinanath Batra, National Executive of the RSS Education Wing, Vidya Bharti. The books published by the Gujarat State School Textbook Board carry a full page bio of the author along with messages from then Chief Minister and now the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and education ministers Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Nanubhai Vanani and Vasuben Trivedi. Well, this tells us a lot about the thinking that must have gone before introducing these books as compulsory reading in schools. What worries me most is the kind of impact that it'll have on the innocent minds who would be reading them and the kind of ideologies that they'll carry with them.
While those in the Gujarat government find nothing wrong in it for obvious reasons, it is on the other hand setting a very dangerous precedence which could be well replicated across India if latest news of RSS officials meeting Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, is to be believed. In that case, a much bigger threat is posed on the future generations of our country who are going to be tomorrow's guardians of our country's image across the globe. Till the time we don't raise our concerns, nothing will change and those in power will continue with their propaganda and ruin the mindset of our future generations.
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