The Hindu : 'Govt. should not attempt to write history textbooks'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 22, 2002

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National

'Govt. should not attempt to write history textbooks'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI OCT. 21. In a democratic set-up, the Government should not attempt to write textbooks on history, M.G.S. Narayanan, Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), said today.

"In other democratic societies, governments lay down syllabi and broad guidelines or norms to be followed. History textbooks are written by independent historians. Schools adopt those books which they find suitable to their requirements," Prof. Narayanan said, delivering a talk on `History in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment' (on the National Curriculum Framework for Secondary Education) in his individual capacity as a historian at a meeting organised by the Centre for Contemporary Studies.

Government was always affiliated to one party or the other and every government would have its own favourite authors, who might not have "professional achievements" to their credit. When a textbook was written against such a backdrop, it would acquire some political colour.

On the controversy over the NCERT textbooks, he said as for the syllabi, there was nothing much objectionable. When the Central Government had framed the draft syllabi, it sought opinions of some historians. Most of the objections expressed by the scholars were accepted. But, the problem arose in the textbooks, which, he said, were now available for sixth and ninth standards.

Regarding revision of the NCERT textbooks, he said there was nothing wrong in the revision per se.

"The previous books were written 30 years ago and however well-written and scholarly they may be, I don't think they must be there for eternity."

Clarifying that he was in no way involved in the writing of the books, he, however, pointed to gross factual errors in the book on ancient history.

He gave an example and said Gangaikondacholapuram, Thanjavur and Tiruchi were all shown as part of the Sangam Age map.

Prof. Narayanan said historians in north India could not be faulted much for not highlighting south Indian history adequately, as not many scholars from south India wrote comprehensive books on the history of the country or participated in national conferences.

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