Japan nuked US during World War II: Gujarat textbook
AHMEDABAD: The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated on October 30, 1948. And it was Japan that nuked US during World War II! These are just two of the 'nuggets of wisdom' out of an inexhaustible mine of factual errors in Social Science English medium textbook for Standard 8 published by the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training ( GCERT). In this information age, when the answer to any question is just a mouse click away, such errors are unacceptable.
The textbook, which is being studied by more than 50,000 children in the English medium schools of Gujarat board, even suggests that leaders like Dadabhai Navroji, Surendranath Bannerjee and Gopal Krishna Gokhale were among leaders considered 'extremists' within the Congress during the Indian freedom movement. (They were, in fact, the moderate faces of the party.) The textbook also teaches impressionable minds that after Partition in 1947, a new nation was born called, 'Islamic Islamabad', and that its capital was Khyber Ghat in the Hindukush mountains.
Two chapters of the textbook are dedicated to Gandhiji. In these sections, the authors and reviewers of the social science textbook ratify that the Mahatma set up his first Satyagraha Ashram at Kochrab in Ahmedabad in May 1925 (instead of 1915). If children are expected to treat their textbooks as gospel truth, they would be committing blasphemy every time they leaf through the social science book prescribed for them. A cursory glance through the textbook of 124 pages reveals 59 shocking factual errors that have the potential of turning history on its head, apart from more than 100 spelling errors, including names of reformers and revolutionaries and their works.
Worst of all, the first chapter of this textbook on 'Socio-Religious Awakening' identifies just seven reformers in the country. Under the contributions of Raja Rammohan Roy, the book mentions that he fought against the 'evil practices of Sati' and 'dudhpiti' without explaining what these practices were. Names like Ishwarchand Vidyasagar, Pandita Rambai, Veerasalingam Pantulu, Henry Derozio, Keshub Chandrasen and EV Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyaar) have been conveniently ignored.
"I have been told that there are many errors. We are trying to bring out an errors list and publish it on the internet. We cannot recall the books at this stage. But we give an assurance that we will correct the mistakes," said executive president, Gujarat state board of school textbooks, Nitin Pethani. Till then, one only hopes that the teachers or the students are smart enough to spot the errors and rectify them for themselves. Otherwise, one whole class would end up misguided and misled.
