The Hindu : Karnataka News : Textbooks had only cursory references to Savarkar: S. Settar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 29, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Textbooks had only cursory references to Savarkar: S. Settar

By Our Special Correspondent

HUBLI, SEPT. 28. S. Settar, renowned historian and former Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, has termed the controversy over the changes made in history textbooks for schools needless and meaningless.

In a telephonic interview to The Hindu , he said the criticism over the deletion of names of some freedom fighters, including Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Kittur Chennamma, betrayed the ignorance of the work done.

Complaints

Dr. Settar said the previous Government had received a number of complaints that the history textbooks had become burdensome and unwieldy. An advisory committee was constituted under the chairmanship of U.R. Ananthamurthy to look into the issue. He (Mr. Settar) was made Chairman of a subcommittee to revise the history textbooks prescribed for students of classes 5 to 10. It was decided that rewriting the textbooks was easier than revising them.

Accordingly, new textbooks were prepared.

For instance, the size of the seventh standard book had been brought down from over 240 pages to half its size, he said. About the controversy over the removal of the names of Savarkar and Chandrashekar Azad in the standard VII textbook, Dr. Settar said that in the old textbooks only the names had been mentioned. The emphasis should be on events to be followed by personalities rather than vice-versa, Prof. Settar said.

On Page 81 of the old textbook, it had been said that Chandrashekar Azad fought like an "Abhimanyu" only to be followed by the next sentence that said that he shot himself dead. It implied that he committed a cowardly act.

The old textbook had only highlighted the violent acts of the Chaphekar brothers, Khudiram Bose, and Bhagat Singh, with no mention about the philosophy they pursued.

The three questions asked at the end of the lesson, "Who are Chaphekars?", "Why did the armed revolution take place?", and "Philosophy of the revolution" had not been provided with answers in the text.

References

As far as Savarkar was concerned, Prof. Settar said no attempt had been made to give his philosophy. But if Savarkar had to be presented as a patriot, in view of the present controversy, the study should be done at a higher level and all aspects of Savarkar's life should be presented, he said.

About Rani Chennamma, he said that in the old textbook she had been described in one sentence as the one "who opposed the British dominance in 1824." The information given about others who fought in the national movement was cursory and arbitrary. "We decided that some of the leaders such as Rani Chennamma and Mundargi Bhimarao had to be properly placed in the historical movement and it could be taken up for study in class 10," Dr. Settar said.

It would contain the history of the freedom movement, starting with rulers such as Rani Chennamma and ending with the mass movement of Mahatma Gandhi in a chapter, he said.

Prof. Settar said one should not forget the fact that local history hardly had any place in the textbook for standard VII, which started with the Renaissance and reformation in Europe. "Nowhere do we have the scope to present peninsular India, the Deccan or Karnataka."

Without creating a separate space for highlighting regional history, "we thought it would be inadvisable to give it as an appendage to the national movement for class 7 students," he said.

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