Author:
Publication: The Deccan
Chronicle
Date: June 22, 2000
"The Aryans wrote long
poems about their kings and heroes, about their bravery and the battles
which they fought. These poems were later collected and became the
two epics of ancient India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharat."
This is a passage from
a textbook published by the National Council of Education Research and
Training for Class VI, written by the noted historian Romila Thapar.The
Class IX Social Studies textbook states that Aurangzeb's empire extended
all over Bharat and Afghanistan except Kerala and northern hilly regions
of Uttar Pradesh, Nepal, Bihar and Assam.
In reality, Aurangazeb
could not defeat the Hindu kingdom established by Shivaji and could not
proceed south beyond Golconda. The rest of Andhra, Tamil Nadu and
southern Karnataka were not touched by him, says D Visweswaram, former
professor of Andhra University and national general secretary of the Bharatiya
Sikshan Mandal.
"The contents in the
textbooks are totally misleading," he said.The Mandal has the self-professed
aim of promoting academic excellence through research and discussions.
It strongly resented
the "distortion of facts" in history text books published by NCERT.The
BSM has launched a campaign to counter the "distortion," he said.
Visweswaram also appealed to academicians to raise their voice against
such distortions.
He also decried the Left
campaign about the "saffronisation" of education.
