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TOWARDS A CITIZENS CHARTER AGAINST 
HATE TEACHING

Based on our experience, we present below a few suggestions that could be the starting  point  for teachers, parents, concerned citizens

IDENTIFY THE BLOOMERS
Examine the lay–out of the syllabus contained in the text–book and check if the premises are problematic.

Ancient India is Not Vedic Hindu India: 
For example, we have texts (Gujarat state board — and this is a model being followed at the Centre now) that equate Ancient India with Vedic India. 
This kind of premise has serious implications. It attempts to posit upper caste ‘Hindu’ India as the basis and origin of ‘Indian civilization.’  Both historical knowledge and truth for the student and teacher of history runs contrary to this premise, taking back settlements and civilisation in the Indian sub-continent to periods and times long before the consolidation of the term and culture ‘vedic’ or ‘hindu.’

 A history text–book should not barter hatreds:
Examine the portrayal of different faiths and their arrival on the shores of the Indian sub–continent. Does this portrayal reflect reality, does it do justice to the multiplicity of cultures/faiths/ethnicity that our society contains within it?

For example, in many Indian texts, the description of the invasions by Mahmud of Ghazni become an excuse — for the authors of the texts and the text-book board that okays them — to launch a tirade against Islam itself. Similar is our experience when we analyse the descriptions of rulers like Aurangzeb. Muslims and Christians and Parsees in a text-book of the Gujarat state board are dubbed ‘foreigners’. The Christian clergy is selectively criticised for their ‘corruption and succumbing to sensual pleasures during the Dark Ages.’ But the role of the Brahmanical priesthood that maintained and continues to maintain a stranglehold on learning/teaching, money matters and power over the vast majority of the Indian population does not come up for any critical examination.

History of Religions missing from our text-books:
The birth of different faiths, in the sub-continent and in the world, how they travelled, how they became vehicles for power and control — this is an area that is left unexplored in our texts. Different beliefs and tenets, too, go unexplored.

Glorification of the Varna System: 
Many of our texts, including  those recommended by the ICSE board, describe the varna system as “the most precious gift to mankind.” There is no mention in these texts of the rigid, power-driven stratification that evolved in subsequent years from the Varna system, linking it intrinsically to birth. 

There is no mention of the socio–economic ostracism associated with the premise and notion of untouchability, a notion unique in its cruelty because it means, “so impure as to be untouchable.” There is also no reference to the unspeakably unjust social system that emerged as a result. Sixteen per cent of Indian Dalits live under the conditions dictated by this social and economic ostracism even today.

Ambiguity on Manu  Smruti: 
This book, contains the ‘moral code’ for a minute section  of the  influential, upper caste, Hindu. Hegemony and control has assured that this code dictates the terms of reference and relationships of a majority of the  population. It is this book and the code contained within it that lays down unspeakably  derogatory terms and ‘rules’ for both women and ‘shudras’  (untouchables ). Women are one half of our population, Dalits 16 per cent. 

How should a text–book interpret or explain this text-book within the framework  of a  twenty–first  century educational vision? Most of our text–books deal with this subject uncritically. It is mentioned  ambiguously and often comes in for praise.
The Freedom Struggle is selectively represented: 

Does this representation do regional justice? Does it encompass all the people’s movements that contributed  to the mobilisation against colonial  rule?
Partition dealt with ambiguously and selectively: 

The entire representation of Partition is sketchy and ambiguous, the complex factors that preceded the tragic division are unexplored. The birth of communal tendencies in all sections —  Hindu, Muslim and Sikh — that effectively propelled  the ‘two nation theory’ is selectively addressed. Who is held responsible? Only Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the  Muslim League and by unspoken implication, Muslims.

The singular success of Hindu communal organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Mahasabha in influencing public discourse  is conspicuously missing in Indian texts; they are   thereby spared any blame for divisiveness in the polity. 

As a concrete example, no Indian text-book (most of them gloss over the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in any case) pins the blame on the ideology and thoughts of the assassin, Nathuram Godse, influenced as he was by the RSS and the Mahasabha. 

No People’s History in our texts:
Look out for the over-emphasis on the religious identity of people during various historical periods and try to construct a genuine People’s History. 

What about other human impulses, the insatiable human urge for intellectual  and scientific inquiry? The genius for technological invention? 

The over-arching impulse to conduct exchanges, trade, business, to travel to explore? Power and man and how men have used and played with power over the ages?

If the text does not elaborate on these themes, explore them yourself. Fascinating possibilities for classroom sessions emerge. These could take us, teachers of  history  into the history of numbers, the history of technology, the human propensity for squeezing natural resources and the resultant environmental damage. Each exercise will also contribute to animating the teaching of history and  social studies, today considered a dull and drab subject.

Biases, among other things, are extremely elitist. One statement in an existing Indian text ran thus, “An Egyptian king married a commoner. Though a commoner she was beautiful and intelligent.” (emphasis added). By implication a commoner is rarely so!

TOWARDS A CITIZEN’S CHARTER
1. Make this a discussion issue. Once you have identified the bloomers discuss this/these with other teachers in your school and outside. Within the school, at the Parent-Teacher’s Association, other teacher groups and citizen’s group.

2. Discuss this with your principal and trustees.  You may even find support and agreement there. If not, move on. Build your bridges of support from among other like–minded teachers and parents, even.

3. Create a group of teachers and parents who are concerned and agitated over the issue of, “What kind of education do we want for our children?”

4. Draft a simply-worded Charter. This should be easily understood, should contain and encompass most of our objections to the text-books under scrutiny and discussion.

5. Make this Citizen’s Charter the document around which you mobilise wider opinion.

6. Collect signatures that are significant in number and represent varied persona and interest groups.  They should make a difference to the movement and back the charter.

7. Register your protest on the question by articulating your concerns as an advocacy group of teachers and parents, concerned citizens, through the media.

8. Insist on a dialogue and a response from the state/central educational board authorities. Keep a specific time-frame in mind.

9. It is unlikely that something concrete will happen.

10. If no change is forthcoming as a result of this dialogue, you have an option of approaching the courts and getting the offensive text withdrawn.
At any rate, Action is Better than being silent spectators. And our children, the Victims.