Rewrite panel set up, Left isn’t happy

The Ministry’s brief for the panel is to pinpoint the distorted and communally biased portions in history books, which would then be removed without delay. The panel would also have to suggest replacements for the ‘‘offending’’ portions.

The HRD Ministry pointed out that it would have been difficult to withdraw the books completely at this stage. ‘‘These textbooks have been mostly printed for the current year and in a substantial number of schools, teaching has already started based on these books…It is impractical to withdraw these books at this stage and to replace them with more appropriate books without causing dislocation in the studies of millions of students.’’

There was no denying however, it said, that there were ‘‘communalisation’’ and ‘‘inadequacies’’ in the books. The Ministry, therefore, ‘‘as a short-term measure…considered it necessary…to do a quick review of these books by a panel of eminent historians of impeccable credentials’’.

However, many Left historians like Arjun Dev—who had served as a professor for years with the NCERT—see the move as ‘‘procrastination’’. ‘‘What should have been done was replacing these books with texts that Joshi had replaced. Then, the new books could have been written,’’ was his suggestion. According to Dev, the distortions are such that it is not possible to ‘‘erase paragraphs and insert some new paragraphs in their place’’.

He also pointed out that all three panelists had been part of the exercise to identify errors in NCERT textbooks due to their links with the Indian History Congress. ‘‘They would know how widespread the errors and the biases are,’’ said Dev.

D.N. Jha, a professor of ancient history, agreed with Dev. He said that the list of errors in three books prescribed for Classes VI, IX and XI runs into 130 pages. Neither Jha nor Dev, however, were critical of the panel. ‘‘All three are scholars in their own right,’’ they said.