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Expose
NCERT denigrates Hindu Dharma
By Himanshu Shekhar Jha
The NCERT’s alleged historians have, however, fixed the date of the writing of the Mahabharata as 1500 years before the common Christian era which is palpably false and misleading. It is equally wrong and mischievous to say that “Like the Mahabharata, this (the Ramayana) was now written down (page 129). The word “now” which occurs in the book mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs is extremely vague and does not make out any sense.
Apart from gross grammatical mistakes, the textbooks published by the NCERT contain several statements which are factually wrong and misleading. Let us take, for example, a textbook in history for Class-VI captioned Our Pasts-I.
There is absolutely no doubt that the NCF (National Curriculum Framework) 2005 was designed not to serve the cause of national education for building up the moral character of school-going children and developing their knowledge and skill, but with the sole and sordid motive of dismantling the foundation of India’s culture on which stands the superstructure of her outstandingly excellent educational ideals. This is evident inter alia, from the highly flawed syllabi framed by the NCERT for schools.
Apart from gross grammatical mistakes, the textbooks published by the NCERT contain several statements which are factually wrong and misleading. Let us take, for example, a textbook in history for Class-VI captioned Our Pasts-I.
The said textbook which opens with the chapter entitled What, Where, How and When carries the photograph of a Muslim girl (page-1) which has no connection to a book of history. The last chapter superscribed Buildings, Paintings And Books gives a summary description about Lord Ram and Sita without their pictures which a book of history for children is expected to carry for various reasons. Lord Ram and Sita were not ordinary mortals, but great historical personages whom millions of Hindus and others worship even today as incarnations of God. The NCERT writers have introduced them to our children merely as a prince and his wife respectively (page 129).
A book of history is not only a record of arid facts but comprises anecdotes which enable readers and others to draw invaluable lessons from them. Children can learn a great deal from books like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, but the NCERT has made no effort in this direction. The said textbook has been stuffed with materials which have no bearing on our past erroneously spelt as “pasts” by the NCERT writers.
Instead of telling schoolchildren why Lord Ram and Sita are greatly loved by countless people all over the world even after the lapse of lakhs of years, the NCERT’s so-called historians tell them that “Rama” (Mark the mistake in the name) was “a Prince of Kosala, who was sent into exile.” (page 129). It will be readily noticed that the usual lexical meaning of the word “exile” is enforced absence from one’s country for a long time as a punishment. Thus construed the meaning of the clause “Ram, a Prince of Kosala….. was sent into exile” would be that Ram, the Prince of Kosala, had been banished from his country as an award of punishment for a crime. Can there be anything historically more incorrect and mischievous than this? It is a universally known fact that Lord Ram had gone to the forest for fourteen years on his own accord to enable his father King Dasaratha to carry out a solemn and binding promise he had made to one of his wives named Kaikeyi at a critical moment. Any historian who writes about Lord Ram and his banishment must state the whole truth with utmost honesty expected from the writer of a book of history which has not been done by the writers of the NCERT textbook.
The textbook in question also contains incorrect and misleading statements about Hindu scriptures. It has been written “Like the Mahabharata, this (the Ramayana) was an old story that was now written down”. (page 129)
Firstly, neither the Mahabharata nor the Ramayana is a “story”. Both the voluminous books are authentic historical accounts related to two distinct periods in human history. It is a historically settled fact that the battle of the Mahabharata took place 5,000 years ago and the epic ‘The Mahabharata’ related thereto was composed by a great sage Sri Krishna Dwaipayana Vyas about the same time. The NCERT’s alleged historians have, however, fixed the date of the writing of the Mahabharata as 1500 years before the common Christian era which is palpably false and misleading. It is equally wrong and mischievous to say that “Like the Mahabharata, this (the Ramayana) was now written down (page 129). The word “now” which occurs in the book mentioned in the foregoing paragraphs is extremely vague and does not make out any sense. If explained with a frame of reference to the time of the composition of the Mahabharata it was written about the same time i.e. 1500 years ago. Thus according to the NCERT writers both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana were written during the same period only 1500 years ago.
The images of the famous Ram Sethu, taken by the NASA, on authentic American space agency reveal that it is a man-made bridge and had been built up 17,500,00 years ago. Coincidently that is the time when the Treta Yuga during which Lord Ram was born, existed. Since Valmiki popularly known as Adi Kavi, i.e. the first poet of the world, was Lord Ram’s contemporary and had written the historic epic ‘the Ramayana’ it is a brazen lie to say that “it was now” i.e. 1500 years before written down.”
It is also important to note that while writing about Islam which is in no way related to India’s past, the NCERT writers have expressed the view that it “laid stress on the equality and unity of all before Allah” (page 120)—a statement to which the events of the world history till date do'not testify. The NCERT writers did not forget to use the words “the sacred book of Islam” for the Kur’an (page 120) which is not free from objectionable verses, but they avoided to use the same expression i.e. “the sacred books of Hinduism” before “the Ramayana” and the Mahabharata”.
The National Curriculum Framework 2005 is a flawed instrument and there is an imperative need to alter it for serving the cause of education in the best possible way.
(The writer who is an Advocate in the Supreme Court of India and can be contacted at:A-207, Kalyani Apartments Sector-06, Vasundhara, Ghaziabad(U.P.))
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