Lucknow: Vidya Bharti, the educational wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), has sent a letter to the Yogi Adityanath government, seeking changes in the curriculum.
The recommendations, if accepted, will entail a 65 per cent change in the syllabus.
According to Domeshwar Sahu, regional secretary of the Vidya Bharti, “We have sent recommendations to the secondary education department to include work of Indian writers, scientists, and revolutionaries in textbooks. History is distorted in many places and must be corrected.”
He said that, for example, in the history textbook for Class 10, Maratha warrior Chhatrapti Shivaji is shown as being “deceitful” in defeating Afzal Khan in the battle of Pratapgarh.
“Why this can’t be seen as ‘war wisdom’ instead of having a negative connotation?” he asked.
Citing another example, he said that every biology book talks about environment conservation, but not one book mentions the importance of Indian trees like banyan, peepal, neem, babool that give maximum oxygen.
He added that Vidya Bharti wanted that in subjects like physics, chemistry and biology, Indian scientists and Indian research should be included.
“There is no mention of Aryabhatt, Nagarjuna, Charak, Bhaskara, Baudhayan in the textbooks at present and our children grow up believing that Indian scientists made no contribution,” he pointed out.
Vidya Bharti is also pushing for the inclusion of the poem “Haldighati”, written by Shyam Narain Pandey, in the Hindi textbooks.
“The poem was removed from the syllabus. Haldighati battle was an important event in Indian history and students should know about it,” he said.
Mr Sahu said that the idea is to bring an element of “Indianness” in the curriculum.
“We need the increased participation of women in textbooks. At present, representation of women is only about 20 per cent. There have been many women like Durgavati, Avanti Bai Lodhi, Jhalkari Bai whose contributions are not known to the children. They should get their due,” he added.
