The Hindu : National : `ICHR had no role in communalising textbooks'

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Monday, Mar 12, 2007
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`ICHR had no role in communalising textbooks'

Staff Reporter

FEROKE: Historian and former chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) M.G.S. Narayanan has contested Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan's comments that the ICHR had been instrumental in propagating communal interpretation of history. Professor Narayanan, who chaired the ICHR between August 2001 and December 2003, said that neither he nor the historical body had anything to do with communalising history textbooks.

Mr. Achuthanandan, while inaugurating the 67th edition of the Indian History Congress at Farook College here on Saturday, alleged that attempts were made to rewrite textbooks on communal lines and to use institutions like the ICHR for propagating communal interpretation. Professor Narayanan told The Hindu that he, as chairman of the ICHR, had openly criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party Government, which was then in power at the Centre, for re-writing history books. He said it was the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) which tried to implement the RSS agenda through history books.

``As a sister organisation we were never consulted by the NCERT," said Prof. Narayanan.

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