PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2006 ID-2916
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4.5.06 .
,, r-...
....... .
.
n .
Exploring .
NCERT Text Books Controversy .
.
Educating A Nation : Debates Over Text Book Writing Tapti Mess Prof. Neeladri Bhattacharya, CHS, JNU.
Speakers:.
29.8.06 (Tonight) .
9.30pm Yogendra Yadav, noted social scientist. csos Prof. K. C. Suri,Nagarjun Univ., Guntur .
NCERT Textbooks and BJP's Agenda .
' (Most dangerous of all is the death of .
·Sabse khatarnak hota hai hamare sapnon ka mar jana.
.
L-.: our dreams) -AvtarSingh Pash, killed byKhalistani terrorists in 1988. .
I ! Is this what we want to teach our .
.
"Pash'spoem says, ·Police ki maar sabse khatarnak nahin hoti' 's poem in.
f .
children?" -BJP MP Ravishankar !Jrasad in Parliament, objecting to the inclusion of PashI a NCERT Hindi textbook. .
For Pash, it was only a constant stri1ling to achieve the dreams of an egalitarian society that made .
life worth living -to allow the fear of~c:ice brutality to silence us and kill those dreams; to make our .
peace with an unjust system, was more dangerous than death itself. For the communal fascist BJP, .
what could be a worse nightmare than the dreams that Pash died to keep alive -the dreams that they .
are committed to kill? .
"People/male and female/ blush when a : loth covering their shame/comes loose... .
When all the world is the eye of t he lord/onlooking everywhere, what can you/ cover and .
.
conceal?" 's .
"To the shameless girl/ wearing the White Jasmine Lord's/ light of morning/you fool,/where.
the need for cover and jewel?" -Akka Mahadevi, 12rh century woman poet-saint. .
.
women from wearing jeans and For the BJP and ABVP, whose self-appointed task it is to 'ban' .
. .
impose various dress codes , no wonder it is difficult to digestAkka Mahadevi, who scorned all social .
customs including even clothes. Rather than recognize the social radicalism of Akka Mahadevi, they would like to retrospectively clothe her defiant nakedness in saffron robes and turn her into a version ~ of Sadhvi Rithambara! Unable to come up with any political initiatives and issues in the entire Monsoon session .
ofParliament, the BJP finally resorted to their pet staples oftextbooks and Vande Mataram! .
Their objections to the NCERT textbooks expose their own politics all too well. .
At the sheer level of facts, the BJP proves to be false-in Biptn Chandra's textbook Modern .
India, for example, freedom fighters like Bipin Chandra Pal and Tilak have been described. r' in contrast to the 'moderates'..
not as 'terrorists', but as 'extremists.
In the history of India, the Gujarat riots and the the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the Emergency, are ?.
.
f.
enormous political events-that a Class XII student will read about in newspapers and see on .
h.
TV, even if they are wiped out of textbooks. He or she will encounter casteist language and .
ll gender injustice daily-in the family, society, and street. The real question is: will schools and a ct.
textbooks equip a Class XII student with the tools to form opinions about such events, will it .
Cl!.
teach him/her to internalize the values of defending democracy, resisting communalism. .
of.
casteism, or gender injustice? Orwill the textbook and teacher maintain silence on these issues, .
tia.
allowing a student on the threshold ofadulthood to believe that what is learnt in the classroom ~. has no value or applicability in real life? 's .
It is ridiculous to suggest that a student who reads Premchand's Doodh ka Daam or a DhoomilMachi Ram or a story by Om Prakash Valmiki, is likely to ''s speeches ,)\lf abuse against dalits! It is like saying that someone who reads Martin Luther King.
pick up the habit' of using casteist .
will become racist! The works of these writers seethe with the pam and anger agamst caste .
abuse; a student who reads them is far more likely to realize how inhuman such practices are, .
~ P.T.O. .
-.
r<\\ [ .
,. .
·I ..., \ .
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2006 ID-2916
.
··~·---.
..... -= ~ ...Q. ¥~;=a::. Ht -;; . -&: .
.
' ., .
...,.,_ .,' .-. .
-· .
:~ I .. .
1.~;~ 1r..
'' . " .
·'.
li " .
~ .
. ' .
4.5.06 .
,, r-...
....... .
.
n .
Exploring .
NCERT Text Books Controversy .
.
Educating A Nation : Debates Over Text Book Writing Tapti Mess Prof. Neeladri Bhattacharya, CHS, JNU.
Speakers:.
29.8.06 (Tonight) .
9.30pm Yogendra Yadav, noted social scientist. csos Prof. K. C. Suri,Nagarjun Univ., Guntur .
NCERT Textbooks and BJP's Agenda .
' (Most dangerous of all is the death of .
·Sabse khatarnak hota hai hamare sapnon ka mar jana.
.
L-.: our dreams) -AvtarSingh Pash, killed byKhalistani terrorists in 1988. .
I ! Is this what we want to teach our .
.
"Pash'spoem says, ·Police ki maar sabse khatarnak nahin hoti' 's poem in.
f .
children?" -BJP MP Ravishankar !Jrasad in Parliament, objecting to the inclusion of PashI a NCERT Hindi textbook. .
For Pash, it was only a constant stri1ling to achieve the dreams of an egalitarian society that made .
life worth living -to allow the fear of~c:ice brutality to silence us and kill those dreams; to make our .
peace with an unjust system, was more dangerous than death itself. For the communal fascist BJP, .
what could be a worse nightmare than the dreams that Pash died to keep alive -the dreams that they .
are committed to kill? .
"People/male and female/ blush when a : loth covering their shame/comes loose... .
When all the world is the eye of t he lord/onlooking everywhere, what can you/ cover and .
.
conceal?" 's .
"To the shameless girl/ wearing the White Jasmine Lord's/ light of morning/you fool,/where.
the need for cover and jewel?" -Akka Mahadevi, 12rh century woman poet-saint. .
.
women from wearing jeans and For the BJP and ABVP, whose self-appointed task it is to 'ban' .
. .
impose various dress codes , no wonder it is difficult to digestAkka Mahadevi, who scorned all social .
customs including even clothes. Rather than recognize the social radicalism of Akka Mahadevi, they would like to retrospectively clothe her defiant nakedness in saffron robes and turn her into a version ~ of Sadhvi Rithambara! Unable to come up with any political initiatives and issues in the entire Monsoon session .
ofParliament, the BJP finally resorted to their pet staples oftextbooks and Vande Mataram! .
Their objections to the NCERT textbooks expose their own politics all too well. .
At the sheer level of facts, the BJP proves to be false-in Biptn Chandra's textbook Modern .
India, for example, freedom fighters like Bipin Chandra Pal and Tilak have been described. r' in contrast to the 'moderates'..
not as 'terrorists', but as 'extremists.
In the history of India, the Gujarat riots and the the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the Emergency, are ?.
.
f.
enormous political events-that a Class XII student will read about in newspapers and see on .
h.
TV, even if they are wiped out of textbooks. He or she will encounter casteist language and .
ll gender injustice daily-in the family, society, and street. The real question is: will schools and a ct.
textbooks equip a Class XII student with the tools to form opinions about such events, will it .
Cl!.
teach him/her to internalize the values of defending democracy, resisting communalism. .
of.
casteism, or gender injustice? Orwill the textbook and teacher maintain silence on these issues, .
tia.
allowing a student on the threshold ofadulthood to believe that what is learnt in the classroom ~. has no value or applicability in real life? 's .
It is ridiculous to suggest that a student who reads Premchand's Doodh ka Daam or a DhoomilMachi Ram or a story by Om Prakash Valmiki, is likely to ''s speeches ,)\lf abuse against dalits! It is like saying that someone who reads Martin Luther King.
pick up the habit' of using casteist .
will become racist! The works of these writers seethe with the pam and anger agamst caste .
abuse; a student who reads them is far more likely to realize how inhuman such practices are, .
~ P.T.O. .
-.
r<\\ [ .
,. .
·I ..., \ .
.