From: DXA4@PSUVM.PSU.EDU (Dinesh Argawal)
Subject: India - Distortions in History Syllabus in U.P. Schools Purged
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 23:15:31 GMT


From: Dinesh Agrawal
Source: Times of India, August 9, 1992
Country: India

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Lucknow: The BJP government in the state is busy "rewriting history" not
figuratively but literally. The revised high school history syllabus, which
has been introduced from this academic session, advocates the theory that the
Aryans were natives of India and that they did not come from across the
Himalayas as is believed.

Unlike the old edition, where only a small portion of a chapter entitled,
"Some important civilizations of the ancient world," was devoted to the advent
of Aryans, the new edition contains an entire chapter on "Aryan-Vedic period,".
This 12-page section devotes considerable attention to the origin of the Aryans
and their political, social and economic conditions.

In the portion dealing with the origin of Aryans various theories in circula-
tion have been discussed.

While the Indo-European, Indo-German and Indo-Iranian schools of thought about
theadvent of Aryans have been discussed, the portion concludes with the summary
that an increasing number of historians in India and abroad are now convinced
that India was the native place of Aryans.

INSUFFICIENT PROOF: The previous three theories, which are based on the simila-
rity between Sanskrit and European languages like German and Persian, have been
dismissed on the ground of insufficient proof. It goes on to argue that it
might have been possible that the Aryans, who were natives of India, had spread
out all over the world thousands of years before Rig Veda was written.
The chapter discusses in detail the political institutions of that time, how
the republic had already come into existence during Vedic period, and how the
Varna system had already evolved. It also says that the term Shudra had been
mentioned  for the first time in the Rig Veda but that Shudra were not untouch-
ables at that time.

The chapter also describes in detail the Vedas, Upnishads, Brahmins, god worsh-
ip, and religious rituals. Though all this fairly known considering it is part
of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus,
it has been introduced for the first time in the state.

Explaining the motive behind it, Mr. B.P.Khandelwal, director, education, who
is also the chairman of Secondary Education Council, was at pains to eleborate
that it was to instil a sense of pride in the students about their glorious
culture. This, he said, would also be helpful in building national character
which was the need of the hour.

The writers engaged by the council in the task of rewriting history  are Dr.
Shail Nath Chaturvedi, Dr. Om Prakash, Prof. K.K.Thaplial, Mr. Avyakyaram
Mishra, Mr. Rasik Bihari Dixit, Mr. Gauri Shankar Singh Kedaria, Mr. Kishori
Lal Sharma and Mr. Raghuraj Singh. Those who reviewed the contents included
Mr. Vanshraj Singh, Mr. Rajpati Pandey, Dr. Asharfilal Srivastava and Mr.Ram-
das Prasad.

OTHER SUBJECTS: Besides history, the other subjects which have been reshaped
are Hindi poetry and mathematics. While much has already been written about
introduction of Vedic mathematics, in HIndi a Vir Ras poem by Shyam Narayan
Pandey, "Haldighati" has been added. The poem describing  the famous Haldighati
battle between Rana Pratap and Mughal forces led by Man Singh, begins with an
invocation to Lord Ganapati and Godesses Chandi, Durga and Kali. It descibes
how, after invoking the gods and godesses, Rana Pratap heads towards Haldighati
and camps on the Aravali hills where he plants his 'kesaria' flag.

It vividly describes how, amidst ferocious fighting, the Rana seeks out Man
Singh, who is described as 'Mughlon ka abhimaan' (pride of Mughals) and how
Man Singh hides in his 'hauda' on the elephant before being killed. The poem,
which was in the syllabus till 1975, was thereafter withdrawn, apparently beca-
use of its strong Hindu overtones.

VEDIC MATHEMATICS: About the introduction of Vedic math, Mr. Khandelwal says
it has been done in order to make students aware that modern mathematics is the
gift of ancient Indian saints only, and that it has been derived from the Rig
Veda.

In the Vedic period, when everything was taught orally, simple formulae had
been devised by the sages to add, subtract, and to find out square root values
of complicated numbers, and the students will merely be made aware of these.

In geometry, the Pythagorous theorem, which is derivative of the ancient theory
of Bodhayam, will now be called Bodhayam theorem.


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