Course in Hindutva for Delhi's School children
George Iype
Can Hindutva help lift the sagging moral values of thousands of children in
Delhi's schools?
Yes, thinks the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Delhi headed by Chief
Minister Sahib Singh Verma.
In an effort to inculcate the spirit of moral values among students, the
BJP regime is launching a pro-Hindu values education programme in the
city's government-run schools.
The first part of the two-pronged programme is in the form of a calender
called Sukriti.
Sukriti's checklists include several dos and dont's, tips on healthy
living, manners, respect for the elderly, care for the environment, good
reading habits, traffic rules and tables manners.
For instance, in April a primary child is asked to assess himself with the
following queries: Did you wish your parents in the morning? Did you
exercise in the morning? Did you teach a word to an illiterate today? Did
you read a religious book? Did you water the plants? Did you pray before
going off to sleep?
"Moral values in Delhi schools have fallen drastically. Therefore, we have
decided to distribute nearly one million Sukriti calenders in schools
across the city," says Delhi Education Minister Harsh Vardhan, the
mastermind behind the BJP's programme.
According to Dr Vardhan, the new moral education programme will augment the
values lying dormant in the child, without disturbing his studies.
"We have also decided to revise the entire curricula to inculcate lofty
Indian values in school children and make them more healthier and balanced
individuals," the minister told Rediff On The NeT.
Therefore, the value education programme's second segment will include
drastic amendments in the syllabus. The new list of subjects is now being
fine-tuned by BJP ideologues led by Rajya Sabha member of Parliament
Professor V K Malhotra.
Thus, mantras, shlokas, ayatas, bhajans and kirtans from the Vedas and the
Bhagwad Gita will echo in numerous schools in Delhi when the BJP government
starts implementing the curricula from the forthcoming academic year
onwards.
BJP sources said changes in text books will be made to "Indianise history
and show the real picture of India" to the younger generation.
With this intention, a new chapter, 'Religious Policies of Babar,' will be
added in the sixth standard history book. It will explain that Babar, a
Muslim ruler of the 16th century, built a mosque over the Ram temple at
Ayodhya after demolishing it.
The BJP government also plans to delete chapters on Mahatma Gandhi and
Abraham Lincoln in the 9th and 10th standards and instead add chapters on
Keshavrao Baliram Hedgewar, the founder of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
The new chapters in the school history books will reject the theory that
the Aryans, who form the major ethnic group in the country, were invaders
who displaced and enslaved Dravidians and tribals, the country's original
inhabitants.
Disseminating ideology through textbooks was a phenomenon initiated by the
BJP government headed by Kalyan Singh in Uttar Pradesh in 1991. Singh
altered history books in UP schools to help children understand the "real
Hindutva truth."
But the BJP government's efforts to re-write history under the guise of
moral education is likely to meet a controversial end in Delhi as a number
of private schools have taken up cudgels against the proposed changes in
the curricula.
Sensing that the BJP government will twist the school syllabus to
disseminate the party's Hindutva ideology to the students, two prominent
schools in Delhi have complained to the Union human resource development
ministry.
"We feel the government's moral education programme in schools is a deft
move to propagate the BJP's ideology," one principal told Rediff On The
NeT, adding that private schools "will not obey the BJP government's
commands."
Private schools, he said, have requested the HRD ministry to caution the
BJP government not to go ahead without having the textbooks and the moral
education programme screened by the federal government and its agencies
like the National Centre for Education Research Training.
But the HRD ministry's missives is unlikely to have any impact on the BJP
government's move as the federal government cannot order state governments
to halt changes in the school curricula.
The federal government's national educational policy is only a broad
outline. Under the Constitution, policy decisions on education come under
the purview of state governments.
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