Whenever I read a book on Indian politics or watch a movie that has patriotic undertones, I remember one thing- my days in junior and high school. I was in an ICSE school run by missionaries till my 10th standard. For one thing, the history taught to us through he recommended in our curriculum had a strong Anglican(British) bias, especially with regard to Indian history. (That also reminds me of a particularly nasty midget who taught us. She had asked me for a "parent call" because she though I was over smart because I had the audacity to ask questions like where are the Polynesian islands, who had great sailors, that are talked to of in the books.)
My tryst with NCERT books or other history books dealt with in BA courses has been very recent and brief, so I wouldn't like to comment much on them. But still I would like to make a point. There has been very little said about the revolutionary freedom fighters. I deliberately avoided the term militant nationalists as since a long term it didn't appeal to me and seemed derogatory. On top the terms insurgents, terrorists and militants are often spoke of in the same breath. Due to reading these words mainly in newspaper columns, many assume these as same. However, a look at the dictionary will reveal the true nature of these words that are markedly different.
It is true that their contribution has been limited, partly because of their short life spans but they represent a school of thought & most importantly laid down their lives for their freedom. It is often said that history is written by the victors. Also history is what actually happened & not what might have happened. But just for these reasons do we write them off totally. We don't have a few pages dedicated to each of these revolutionary freedom fighters. Only some of them are thought worthy of a detailed history for the school students. The rest are just mentioned in very brief and concise words.
Even when there has been drastic revision or tampering as to say in the BJP government, the focus was on saffronising the books rather than put an Indian focus to our history. Are we satisfied to be remembering them just through stray movies or do we atleast now demand to have a proper history be taught to the young. Or have we just forgotten their sacrifice? A mentioned in the movie Rang de Basanti, do we think that these people were foolish to die for their motherland?? Just because we are cowards, do we want no brave person to be glorified?!
My tryst with NCERT books or other history books dealt with in BA courses has been very recent and brief, so I wouldn't like to comment much on them. But still I would like to make a point. There has been very little said about the revolutionary freedom fighters. I deliberately avoided the term militant nationalists as since a long term it didn't appeal to me and seemed derogatory. On top the terms insurgents, terrorists and militants are often spoke of in the same breath. Due to reading these words mainly in newspaper columns, many assume these as same. However, a look at the dictionary will reveal the true nature of these words that are markedly different.
It is true that their contribution has been limited, partly because of their short life spans but they represent a school of thought & most importantly laid down their lives for their freedom. It is often said that history is written by the victors. Also history is what actually happened & not what might have happened. But just for these reasons do we write them off totally. We don't have a few pages dedicated to each of these revolutionary freedom fighters. Only some of them are thought worthy of a detailed history for the school students. The rest are just mentioned in very brief and concise words.
Even when there has been drastic revision or tampering as to say in the BJP government, the focus was on saffronising the books rather than put an Indian focus to our history. Are we satisfied to be remembering them just through stray movies or do we atleast now demand to have a proper history be taught to the young. Or have we just forgotten their sacrifice? A mentioned in the movie Rang de Basanti, do we think that these people were foolish to die for their motherland?? Just because we are cowards, do we want no brave person to be glorified?!
No comments:
Post a Comment