National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the apex organisation that provides advice and support for the improvement of school education, has erred again.
After coming under fire last year for carrying a ‘derogatory’ cartoon in standard XI textbook, NCERT’s social science textbook for standard VII ‘Our Pasts-II’ has little and inadequate information about Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji and the history of Maharashtra.
The council’s last year standard XI textbook, Indian Constitution at Work, included a cartoon which showed Dr BR Ambedkar sitting on a snail, a whip in hand, while country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru standing behind him, also armed with a whip.
Speaking to dna, historian Sadanand More said, “The Maratha Empire ruled from 1674 to 1818. The Marathas are credited for ending the Mughal rule in India. Chhatrapati Shivaji (1627-1680) successfully fought against the Mughal Empire. After Shivaji, Sambhaji, Bajirao I and many other Maratha rulers fought against the Mughals.”
Terming the poor information about Maratha history provided in the textbook as an academic mistake, More said, “NCERT has not only glorified Muslim kings like Alivardi Khan of Bengal, Burhan-ul-Mulk Sa’adat Khan (subadar of Awadh) and others by carrying their pictures, it has given less and inadequate information about the Maratha history.”
He said that the council guides and controls the curriculum of the country in some or the other way and focusing on a particular region is unfair.
The historian said that the textbook rightly gives the history of Sikhs by carrying the picture of their tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, but has mysteriously avoided Chhatrapati Shivaji’s picture.
“The book even does not carry picture of any of the forts conquered by Shivaji. The issue is not about giving space in the textbook, but this is academically wrong. Shivaji was the only king who challenged the Mughals in the peninsula. By giving such inadequate information we are depriving the coming generation of our country’s rich history.”
