Tamil Nadu   

Council slams proposed changes in history textbook

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The Joint Action Council Against Distortion of History and Forum for Free Thought and Social Justice has urged the Tamil Nadu Government to restore status quo ante with regard to a reference to Nathuram Vinayak Godse, Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, in the history textbook for standard XII.

No attempt should be made to remove the lesson on Justice Party's rule in the history book, they said on Tuesday.

P.Rajaraman, president, and M.F.Khan and S.Balathandapani, secretaries, told reporters here on Tuesday that the Government, in a letter on October 2005, had said that the description of Godse as a "Hindu fanatic and a member of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh" should be amended. Accordingly, it was deleted. This amounted to distortion of history. They said the Education department had yielded to protests from sections of the BJP and the RSS. The status quo ante with regard to the reference should be restored.

Similarly, the Education department had responded to a letter from the Thamizhnadu Brahmin Association seeking the removal of a lesson in the history textbook on Justice Party's rule, "as it was against Brahmins and hurt their feelings and was based on wrong information." It had sent a letter to the author asking him to offer his remarks.

Prof.Rajaraman said history was a mirror of the past. No attempt should be made to black out the truth.

Mr.Balathandapani said the Justice Party was against only Brahminism. But there was a wrong impression that the party was against Brahmins. Based on this impression, a representation had been made that the lesson should be removed.

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