History according to UP textbook — Bhagat Singh’s a terrorist, voting age 21 yr

LUCKNOW, JANUARY 23: “With the passage of time, necessary amendments and changes are made in the books with the sole motive that contents of these books should not only sharpen knowledge of students but also help inculcate values among them so that they can become valuable citizens of the country.” That’s the prologue of the history and civics textbook for class VIII students in Uttar Pradesh.

So far, so good. But a glance at the contents of the amended Hamara Ithihas Aur Nagarik Jeevan book gives an insight into what the Uttar Pradesh government means when it wants to “turn students into valuable citizens”. According to the textbook, Chandrashekhar Azad and Bhagat Singh founded a terrorist outfit, the voting age in India is 21 years; the Sixth Five Year plan is in progress and Bangladesh is ruled by military rulers. And ever since the constitution came into existence, India has seen seven general elections, not 13 as the rest of India thought.

The 192-page textbook, with a one lakh print run, has compounded the confusion by giving contradictory information in separate chapters. While page 120 of the book says voting age is 21 years, the correct information lies 20 pages later.

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Officials of the education department — M.C. Pant, Director and G.P. Dinkar, Additional Director, Basic Shiksha — could not be contacted despite several attempts.

“This is not just a distortion of history, it’s an unpardonable sin to pollute our younger generation with wrong information and facts,” remarked Dr Ramesh Dixit, a school teacher and state chief of the Nationalist Congress Party.