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The epithet of "saffronisation" hurled incessantly in the past few months, by what Prof. Rakesh Sinha has termed the "Red-Green Brigade", is yet another reminder, if reminders are needed, that not only is the Indian education system still ensnared in the old Macaulayite, pre-Independence pattern, and the imported values of Europe, but also that the "architects" of this anti-Indian system are loathe to acknowledge the crimes against knowledge acquisition they have committed in the past fifty years of an independent India. The media barrage, the orchestrated public protests, the visits to US universities and cities by the leaders of the Red-Green brigade are indicative of the fact that these are well-entrenched forces who have no qualms in lying, besmirching, quoting of context, and belittling their own cultural past.
Why are they doing this? There is no doubt that it is part of their war strategy to reassert their proprietorship of the intellectual and political space they have squatted on for the past fifty years.
As part of their strategy, many of the usual suspects have been visiting US universities these past three years to accuse the BJP-led government of trying to re-write Indian history, and to saffronise education. Visits to the US are, by those who claim to be secular and modern, sponsored mostly by a caucus of anti-Hindu groups. For example, late in September 2001 there was to be a group of the Left-Secular combine descending on Chicago. For what purpose? On August 17, 2001, one Dr. Rahul Deepankar convened a symposium under the auspices of New Republic India International at Chicago. K.N. Panikkar delivered the keynote address. Prof. Panikkar, if you don’t know, is currently the vice-chancellor of the Sree Shankaracharya Sanskrit University, in Kaladi, Kerala. He does not know Sanskrit, has written regularly for the CPI (M) party mouthpiece, and has been one of the "stalwarts" at Jawaharlal Nehru University who for more than three decades blocked the teaching of Sanskrit in that university. The Marxist led government of Kerala thought it fit to needle the Central Govt by foisting on the Shankaracharya University an avowed Marxist who hates Sanskrit! Welcome to Indian higher education.
Dr. Deepankar described how "an atmosphere of fear and intimidation" had been created in India, which had demoralized "Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Dalit masses". He declared that all these groups and "Hindu liberals" would follow Dalits in demanding and achieving "equality and dignity for all citizens".
Dr. Deepankar then announced the September 30 meeting. The chief participants would be former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, Kuldip Nayyar, and the Rev. Robert Thompson, Chairperson of the Parliament of the World Religions. But then there were the events of September 11, and the frequent fliers who have made their life goal to thwart Hindu resurgence, had to cool their heels at home, and shout hoarse from Delhi rooftops, which they did on November 6. According to a newspaper report, the "eminent" and not so eminent historians blamed the government and the NCERT for toeing the RSS-take on Indian history. This, they said, would lead to "communalisation of young minds". They accused the NCERT of erasing Muslim rule and role as well as Dravidian importance in Indian history: "Muslims have no place in Indian history. But the RSS brigade is also anti-Dravidian. Is it promoting national integration? So it is not a question of history alone but that of the country’s future," the historian-politician and thesis director of plagiarized works (read Arun Shourie on the matter of one of Habib’s students presenting an eminent but deceased historian’s work as his own), Prof. Irfan Habib warned.
The historians, in their joint statement, said: "The scant regard for historical evidence and rational argumentation would communalise young minds and thereby contribute to an undermining of the secular foundations of our polity." And at the day-long seminar on "Communalism and History," these historians lined up to voice their apprehensions about the contents of the NCERT history syllabus. Let us see if their accusations and allegations have any merit. Disclaimer |
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