ENGLISH EDUCATION TO DESTROY TIMELESS BHARAT’S NATIONAL HINDU IDENTITY-VIII

V.SUNDARAM I.A.S.

I have already observed that Post-Independence decades in India have only seen further progressive consolidation of the Macaulay system of education in India, totally divorced from the cultural and spiritual roots of India. I fully endorse the view of Professor Makkhan Lal when he says that in post-independent India, political ideologies, insensate bureaucrats and vested interests are doing everything possible within their might to perpetuate a status quo, continue with the same self-hate and nation-hate system of colonial education that defiles almost every bit of Indianness and distorts all its traditions and traditional glories and gains. Social scientists and historians professing Marxist ideology have come to dominate the Indian academia and they have been brazenly—no less adamantly—advocating the continuation of the colonial system of education. The shameful practice of denigration and distortions of the Hindu past of India has been carried forward to absurd limits after the Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-baiting UPA Government of Sonia Gandhi came to power in May 2004. How Sonia Gandhi’s political stooge and national betrayer Arjun Singh gave a death blow in 2004 to the new and carefully prepared balanced NCERT text books brought out during the preceding NDA regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee strictly with reference to the NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION-2000 (NCFSE-2000) drawn up by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

Front cover of the book

How shamelessly low and vulgar party politics can play its part in producing substandard textbooks completely divorced from the life-giving traditional spirit of national life has been brilliantly brought out by Professor Makkhan Lal and Professor Rajendra Dixit in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 of their book. The NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION-2000 (NCFSE-2000) drawn up by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) during the NDA regime in 2000 was upheld by the Supreme Court on their judgment in September 12, 2002. Soon after this date the first two Social Science textbooks containing the history component, for Classes VI and IX and prepared strictly in accordance with the NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION-2000 (NCFSE-2000) were published. The publication of these NCERT textbooks on Social Science was, like in the case of the ‘Curriculum Framework’ and the ‘Syllabi’ made into a political circus event rather than an academic one. 

The books were released on October 3, 2002. The very next day at 5 PM a Press Conference was addressed by some ‘Eminent Historians’ and professional pallbearers of anti- Hindu ‘Secularism’, not from an academic forum but from a political platform. The known anti-Hindu Sonia Congressmen, the known Hindu-hating anti-National traitorous Communist historians and such vicious men wholly involved in promoting the ‘National Thuggee’ of soul-destroying ‘Secularism’ participated in this sordid drama. The most friendly and obliging reporters (fortified with a stiff dose of freely supplied whisky), newspaper owners and editors came out the next day, (i.e 5-10-2002), with headlines that suggested that the academic world, especially the discipline of History, had been made to stand on its head. Some of the screaming headlines were, ‘

· ‘Bloomers galore in NCERT texts’ (Hindustan Times)

· ‘Historians point to errors in new NCERT books’ (Times of India)

· ‘Errors galore in NCERT texts’ (The Hindu)

· ‘Errors cloud on NCERT texts’ (The Telegraph)

· ‘Rewrite, Delete, Error?’ (Indian Express)

It is remarkable that this entire campaign was run by just a handful of historians and activists associated with the CPI (M). The nondescript evangelical Sonia Congress Government under a surrogate Prime Minister and Rasputin-like Human Resource Destruction (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh lent its full official support and political patronage to the gangsters of CPI(M). The newspapers were only too eager to lap up this absurdity and publish it without verifying the facts or without realizing what impact such insidious and false reporting would have on our National society and culture.

Our mean and irresponsible men in the mass-media blatantly violated all the known canons of ethical journalism when they launched a baselessly blistering attack on the two new textbooks on Social Science brought out by NCERT in 2002.

What is ethical journalism all about? On a working, finite level it is the effort to achieve bold and illuminating candour in print and to strip away cant. It is the effort to do this not only in high matters of State, diplomacy and politics but also in every smaller aspect of life that touches that most imponderable thing called Public Interest — in short anything that engages proper public curiosity. In short it refers to the pursuit of truth and the effort to state the truth without fear or favour. The pursuit of truth and the fearless articulation of it, is the most delicate, hazardous, exacting and inexact of all tasks. Playwright-journalist-diplomat Clare Boothe Luce has said that responsible journalism involves the pursuit of truth, dissemination of exact information and energetic propagation of enlightenment. The whole time job of our machinating, menacing men in the media seems to lie in the pursuit of contrived falsehood, dissemination of fraudulent information and energetic propagation of politically guided public ignorance!

With the full official support of the Government of India — the authors of the two NCERT textbooks for Classes VI and IX were first ‘honoured’ with choicest abuses and invectives like ‘suffering from slavish mentality’, ‘academically bankrupt’, ‘communal’, ‘biased’’ and ‘ignorant of facts and research methodology’. Next the books were condemned as an example of ‘academic bankruptcy’, ‘unbelievably ridiculous nature of writing’, ‘plagiarized’, ‘shoddy‘ etc.

Since Professor Makkhan Lal had jointly authored the section on ‘People and Society in the Ancient Period’ in the Class VI book on Social Science, he considers it his duty to the nation to respond to the above wild, wholly political and hopelessly un-academic allegations stemming from the dangerous combination of unprovoked hatred, flagrant political arrogance and supreme proletarian right to colossal Marxist ignorance. It is interesting to note that the alleged ‘Eminent Historians’ who give press statements and interviews at the drop of a Soviet/Chinese hat backed out in a cowardly manner from a live debate on the NCERT textbooks organized by several TV channels. The same nervous attitude was shown by all the brazen Sonia Congress and Communist castigators of the new textbooks.

Professor Makkhan Lal has dealt with in detail the following ‘mistakes’ in the Class VI textbook which were specially highlighted by political parties like CPI (M) and the Sonia Congress and  bandied about freely in the obliging anti-Hindu and anti-national media.

a) ‘Sedentary living began in the Neolithic period. (“Housing Societies” began in Neolithic period, as sarcastically reported by one newspaper.)

b) Zero was known in the Vedic period’.
c) The cow was considered sacred and not to be hurt. (Aghnya), much less killed and eaten in the Vedic period.

d) Female terracotta figurines using vermillion have been found from several sites belonging to the Harappan civilization.
e) Swastikas, Shivalingas , Kamandalas, havana kundas, etc have been found from Harappan sites.
f) Brihadratha, the last Mauryan King, was the only king in Ancient India who was slain in full view of the army.
g) The Egyptian calendar was lunar.

THE ABOVE FACTS, WHICH WERE DELIBERATELY EXCLUDED FROM THE EARLIER NCERT TEXTBOOKS, AND NOW INCLUDED, CAME AS A REAL SHOCK TO THE BLISSFULLY IGNORANT EDUCATED WORLD. These facts, which were well known in the world of Higher Research for several decades, came as a surprise even to a large number of academics.  Professor Makkhan Lal and Professor Rajendra Dixit are absolutely right when they say that the main reason for this deliberate exclusion was the politically-motivated conscious effort of the earlier textbook writers not to mention such facts as would be inconvenient to their professed ideology of Marxism and its flagrant denial of Hindu heritage constituting the bedrock of our Nation.

In an instant reaction to the facts — like the worship of shivalingas, the use of vermillion by married women in their hair-parting, the existence of Havana-kundas and the findings of horse bones from several Har appan sites — these self-proclaimed experts and ‘Eminent Historians’ showed their Marxist disbelief and the relevant photographs published in the book were propagated as ‘Communal Products’ of computer simulation (in the jihadi ‘al-Taqquiya’ style).

The most disgraceful part of this was that some of the ‘Eminent Historians’ kept themselves incognito behind this game so that they were not branded as totally ignorant and out-of-tune with the latest research. For this purpose they politically recruited primary and secondary school teachers and some degree college teachers who probably have never seen a journal or a research publication in their life, much less being aware of the latest researches in the field.  The media did not even bother to check the facts from the authors. For our mean men in the media, facts can be FREE or FLUID, so long as their ideological comments are treated as solid, sacred and sacrosanct by their clueless readers whom they treat with the utmost contempt.

Even after the clear and categorical verdict given by the Supreme Court of India in their judgement on September 12, 2002, completely upholding the NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOL EDUCATION 2000 (NCFSE 2000), the so called ‘Eminent Historians’ (Marxist intellectual prostitutes hired by Maulana Jawaharlal University and the Sonia Congress mercenaries --- all fellow travellers engaged in the National Thuggee of anti-Hindu Secularism) continued to launch their vitriolic tirade against the new textbooks of NCERT prepared with meticulous care by professional educators of repute, strictly in accordance with NCFSE 2000. The political platform of CPI(M) was shamelessly used by these ‘Eminent Historians’ till the NDA Government was in power. After May 2004 when the Sonia Congress UPA Government came to power, these intellectual gangsters had no difficulty at all in using the NCERT as their private fiefdom because the UPA Government --- Sonia Congress and CPI(M) consolidated combine---acted together under the leadership of HRD (Human Resource Destruction!!!) Minister Arjun Singh, to give a decent burial to the NCFSE 2000.

I have already referred to the fact that 2 new textbooks prepared with reference to NCFSE 2000 were released on October 2002 in New Delhi. The very next day on October 4, 2002, a press conference was hurriedly called up by the ‘Eminent Historians’ at New Delhi to run down the new Social Science textbooks of Class VI and IX brought out by NCERT. These ‘Eminent Historians’, came out with certain stupid and baseless objections against these 2 textbooks deriving their inspiration from the Marxist dictum, ‘nothing succeeds like the excess of unabashed falsehood’. One of the authors of the concerned textbook was Professor Makkhan Lal, a truly spirited and bold scholar. When he tried to counter the arguments of ‘Eminent Historians’ he was deliberately ignored by the media. Undeterred by the cold anti-Hindu indifference of the media, Professor Makkhan Lal decided to present his point of view in the form of a small book titled ‘The NCERT Social Science Books: False Propaganda, Political Agenda and the Eminent Historians’. This book contained systematic refutation of each and every objection raised by the ‘Eminent Historians’ and their coterie.

 I am briefly presenting below the so-called mistakes pointed out by the ‘Eminent Historians’ which engaged the media for almost three months from October 2002.

 A. Housing Societies in the Neolithic Period:

Professor Makkhan Lal had not used the term ‘Housing Societies’ at all in his textbook. He had only referred to the fact of existence of house building activities during the Neolithic Period. The whole world knows that the Neolithic Phase of human march to civilization was marked by the beginning of agriculture, domestication of animals and sedentary life (which automatically implies building of houses). Professor Makkhan Lal is absolutely right when he asks the question: “Could there be a settled life without houses to live in?” The ‘Eminent Historians’ behaved like third-grade street-level politicians when they alleged that Professor Makkhan Lal had stated that ‘Housing Societies’ existed in the Neolithic period. All that Professor Makkhan Lal had said was that the Neolithic people had come to lead a settled life.

 B. Zero in the Vedic Period:

The Marxist historians, completely following the footsteps of the British Colonial Historians, have always denied the contribution of India to the realm of science, mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. For them and the pseudo-secular historians, the Vedic society remains a pastoral and illiterate society. They deny the fact that the concept of ZERO was known in the Vedic times. This is despite the fact that Rig Veda refers to the price of a statue of Lord Indra as 10 cows or 100 nishka. Rig Veda also mentions that the hall of Indra contained 1000 pillars. Professor Makkhan Lal challenges the ‘Eminent Historians’ by raising this pertinent question: “How can 10 or 100 or 1000 be imagined with out a Zero, because 10 itself was the basic unit?”

Professor Makkhan Lal gives an even more smashing rejoinder to the ‘Eminent Historians’ by quoting from VAJASANEYI (XVII.2): “Oh Agni! May these bricks be mine own milch kine: one, and ten hundreds, a thousand, and ten thousands myriad, and a hundred thousand, and a million, and a hundred millions, and an ocean middle and end, and a hundred thousand millions, and a billion.” He also says that from Sulvasutras we come to know about the use of the decimal system. While talking of Kalinga war in Rock Edict XIII, it is mentioned:” One hundred and fifty thousand were carried off as prisoners. One Hundred Thousand who were dead. … Therefore, even one hundredth or one thousandth of those who were slain, died, or were made prisoners in the State of Kalinga, is now considered serious by the ‘Beloved of the Gods’”. Professor Makkhan Lal says that Ashoka is talking in terms of fractions. How can ‘Eminent Historians’ say that the concept of Zero did not exist in Ancient India?

 C. The ‘Cow Eating’ in the Vedic Period:

Professor Makkhan Lal says that from the Rig Veda and the Atharvaveda we know that some of the domestic animals like the Cow were treated as ‘aghnya’ (not to be killed or injured). The Vedic texts prescribe death or banishment from the kingdom to those who kill or injure the cow. The Rule of the Vedas  that Cow is ‘aghnya’, has been constantly and consistently repeated in the Sanskrit literature.

The ‘Eminent Historians’ would love to refer to the word ‘Goghna’, the interpretation of which has added to confusion. Professor Makkhan Lal is right when he says that it was Pundit Taranath and his VACHASPATYAM published in 1863 AD which created the confusion. This Sanskrit Dictionary of Pundit Taranath was commissioned by the East India Company in order to give legitimacy to the writings of people like Max Mueller. He was a poor Pundit and was lured by the offer of payment of a princely sum of Rs 10,000 as remuneration in 1863 AD for producing this politically/culturally doctored dictionary from the English Colonial Christian point of view. Thus Pandit Taranath was the 19^th century intellectual precursor of Eminent Historians of today like Professor Romilla Thapar, Professor Ifran Habib, Professor Sharma and other Marxist Historians of Maulana Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Taranath deliberately misinterpreted certain crucial words in the Rig Veda just in order to please his colonical masters. He artfully corrupted the meaning of certain Vedic words. ‘Goghna’ is one of them. Taranath interpreted it as ‘Killer of cows’, in direct contradiction of the real meaning given by PANINI, according to whom the word meant, “the donee guest who receives a cow”. By changing this meaning to suit his masters in the East India Company, Taranath imposed on the Hindus the pre-contrived position that they ate cows, in order to provide legitimacy to his cow-eating Christian masters. The pseudo-secular Anti-Hindu pseudo-scholars of today are still using this Dictionary born out of colonial politics as their Holy Bible for reference and political research today!

We can clearly see why the ‘Eminent Historians’ are so fond of a sham-scholar like Pundit Taranath. By accepting Taranath’s position that the Hindus were cow-eaters, they can give total legitimacy to all the cow-eating Christians and Muslims of India today!!! Here the essential requirements of minority vote-banks politics of both CPI (M) and Sonia Congress can meet each other on a level playing ground, to the complete electoral political satisfaction of both.

In these days of pseudo-secular anti-Hindu India, being actively promoted by the Government of India, scholarship only means being at home with what is written by the Western scholars, who have during the last 250 years, continuously discredited the antiquity of the glory and grandeur of Indian culture and tried their very best to bring down the dates to suit their colonial, Christian and political purposes. For example, if we carefully look into the works of the Englishmen and Europeans published during the 167 years of uninterrupted English rule from Warren Hastings in 1772 to the beginning of World War II, we can clearly see that hundreds of books were published relating to the topics of Indian religion, history and culture. In nearly all of them we can find malicious falsification and manipulation of history according to a definite political plan as desired by the British Colonial Government. William Jones laid the foundation in 1784 AD for the ‘Western’ History of Ancient India. He deliberately created the problem of the two (2) Chandra Guptas and thus reduced the chronology of India by a span of 1200 years to fall in line with the chronology of the Bible. This pattern of distortion was continued and perfected by Lord Macaulay, who financed Max Muller (1823-1900) to translate the Rig Veda in a way that would destroy the beliefs of the newly English-educated Indians in their ancient literature so as to further the cause of Christianity and facilitate the process of Christian conversion of India.

Like the British Government of Colonial India, we find that the anti-Hindu evangelical Firangi Memsahib UPA Government of India today is equally engaged in actively and openly manipulating the pro-Islamic and pro-Christian NCERT Textbooks.