By Yoginder Sikand

In a country so diverse in terms of religion and ethnicity as India it is crucial that the educational system reflect this plurality and provide adequate space to all cultural groups. However, as numerous studies have pointed out, this is far from being the case. In Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, textbooks seem to have been written with the specific purpose of further reinforcing negative stereotypes about certain religions and their adherents and of stressing the claim that Indian nationalism is somehow synonymous with Brahminical Hinduism. This is not limited to texts commissioned and prescribed by the government. In fact, the situation is much worse in textbooks employed in private schools. This is strikingly brought out in a study by the noted Lucknow-based academic and social activist Rooprekha Verma, titled ‘A Study of Textbooks in the Non-Government Schools in Uttar Pradesh’.

In Uttar Pradesh, as in other states in India, schools run or recognised and aided by the state government have to use only those texts approved of by the state education board. However, the Uttar Pradesh education board has not prescribed any specific books for moral education for these schools, and so they are free to choose their own books for the subject. For this purpose, most of these schools, Verma tells us, use the series titled ‘Rashtriya Naitiki Shiksha Evam Samanya Gyan’ (‘National Moral Education and General Knowledge’) by K.N. Joshi, G.Ram and B.V.Chaturvedi, with different books from class 2 to class 5. Schools run by the RSS, including the vast chain of Sarsawati Vidya Mandirs, are, Verma says, 'very evasive’ about the texts they use. While some claim to use government-approved books, on investigation it was found that the books used were entirely different. The series titled 'Rashtriya Naitik Shiksha Evam Samanya Gyan', Verma notes, is alarming in its uncritical glorification of Brahminism and social hierarchy. It assumes that all students are Hindus, and that they all subscribe or else should subscribe to Brahminical Hinduism. Thus, the very first page of the books displays the Hindu symbol of Om and most of the stories, characters and ideals portrayed in the books are drawn from Brahminical mythology. Hindu mythology is presented as history and even the relatively few non-mythological characters are almost all ‘upper’ caste Hindus. The books, Verma says, are 'obsessed' with the character of Ram, whose story is repeated over and over again, and there is very little mention of other religions They contain almost nothing, Verma says, that challenges inequality, stresses egalitrarianism, critiques religious biases and gender disparities and promotes scientific temper. Thus, for instance, the book prescribed for class 2 book speaks about the ‘heinous sin’ of 'killing a Brahmin', thus suggesting that killing a Brahmin is a special and much greater sin than killing a person of any other caste. The book refers to a Hindu mythological hero departing to heaven in an aeroplane 'in a factual tone'. It presents Brahminical Hinduism as normative for all, and appeals to students to ‘respect the temples of the gods and their idols’(‘dev mandir, dev murti ka adar karo). It speaks of Krishna as God, and the word ‘dharm’, which is projected as almost synonymous with Brahminical Hinduism, 'occurs on almost each page in all the books and to follow which umpteen instructions are given’.

Verma writes that the way ‘dharm’ is portrayed in the books is such that that the student relates it ‘only with rituals and narrow religious identities, which makes moral instruction counter-productive'. Stories in the books that exemplify moral virtues have all male characters, including mythological Hindu figures, barring a stray mention of figures like Sita. The books are 'obsessed with authoritarian ethics', and tirelessly repeat the need to 'worship parents, the elders and teachers blindly’. For instance, an entire chapter is devoted to the story of the Brahmin Dronacharaya demanding from the Trial Eklavya his fee and the latter willingly cutting off his thumb. Verma comments that there is 'no probematisation of this totally immoral and violent act on the part of Dronacharya'. The entire emphasis in the books is on Brahminical notions of hierarchy and submission to authority, such as ‘on touching feet of parents and teachers, bathing, saying pranam or namastey, bowing before a temple and idols, and the like’.

Consequently, Verma says, ‘The real moral questions of life never get addressed in any of these books’. The books prescribed in the vast chain of schools run by the RSS, the Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, and published by the RSS-affiliated Vidya Bharati and Saraswati Mandir Prakashan, are even more alarming, Verma says. They are clearly devised to promote Brahminical Hinduism, to stress the claim that Brahminical Hinduism is synonymous with Indian nationalism and to denigrate other religions and their adherents and to actively cultivate hatred against them.

A case in point is the Sanskrit prayer book called ‘Vandana’, that eulogises various Brahminical deities and mythological characters and Hindu kings. 'No opportunity’, Verma writes, ‘is lost to mention, in case of kings and warriors, that they bravely fought against Muslims'. The prayers wrongly portray the Buddha, Nanak and Kabir as having been within the broader Hindu fold, without mentioning their bitter opposition to the Vedic and Brahminical tradition. The book hails the founders of the RSS as supposed patriots and ends with the line: 'We offer respects to all those brave men who destroyed in the battlefield those enemies who attacked the unity and identity of the nation'. The book, Verma argues, ‘aims at consolidating anti-Muslim feeling by projecting the present-day Indian nation into the remote past and by appropriating most of the eminent historical figures, subtly mixing them up with Hindu mythological consciousness and by using an emotionally charged language to create an exclusivist nationalistic pride’.

Another case is the ‘Devavani Sanskritam’ (Sanskrit the Language of the Gods’), a series of four books for teaching Sanskrit, which is presented, as the title suggests, as not just any language but the language of the gods. The series is replete with references to Brahminical religious figures. Students are exhorted to 'save' the Hindu religion and to 'restore' the ‘Hindu nation’ to the status of 'vishwa guru' or ‘teacher of the world’. Verma also critiques the book for its portrayal of women, they being presented almost invariably in stereotypical terms, as housewives and mothers or as dancers and singers or at most as teachers.

For classes 2 and 3, books containing stories of the Ramayana and Mahabharata are prescribed. They present Brahminical mythology as historical fact, and include narratives about such supposed 'miracles' as women producing children after eating sweets prepared by a fire-god. The story in the Mahabharata of Kunti ordering the five Pandavas to share Draupadi as their common wife is hailed and, as Verma writes, the Pandavas’ 'immediate and thoughtless obedience of that order presents an extremely mindless and authoritarian moral system'. Superstitious beliefs, such as the notion of pre-determined 'good' and 'bad' time (muhurat), the story of Ram's rejection of Sita to save his own reputation in the eyes of a single man, Sita’s appeal to the earth to swallow her up and the story of Sulochana committing sati are presented approvingly and uncritically. 'Tricks, deceit and power-struggle are all presented with reverence and no questions relevant to the modern context, to peace, rights and justice, are raised', Verma notes. Even subjects like geography are used to reinforce Hindutva claims and to instil in the students a mindless conformity to the Hindutva view of the world. Textbooks used for Geography in Saraswati Shishu Mandirs describe different regions in India in terms of religion, identifying them with their association with Brahminical pilgrimage centres in order to reinforce the belief in the notion of the supposed sacredness of the geography of India. Muslims are presented as ‘invaders’ and ‘looters’ of this ‘sacred’ geographical space and, in contrast, Hindu rulers are depicted as valiant patriots, sacricicing their lives for ‘Mother India’. The notion of ‘India’ itself is greatly expanded to include vast territories outside present-day India, the supposed ‘Akhand Bharat’ of mythical times. ‘Mother India’ is presented as a goddess who demands every possible sacrifice from her ‘children’. One chapter, titled ‘Bharat Mata Ka Rup’ (‘The Form of Mother India’), asks students to describe different parts of India as different parts of ‘Mother India’s’ clothes or body. It speaks of India as ‘Hindu Sthan' or the ‘land of the Hindus’, implying that non-Hindus have no room in it. In presents India as one, indivisible nation since time immemorial, and demands that it be literally worshipped as a deity.

Likewise, the history books prescribed by the RSS schools centre on the notion of the supposed ‘sacredness’ of India. They project Indian history in sternly Brahminical terms, and are clearly geared, Verma says, ‘to promote jingoistic nationalism'. The cover of the books depict India in the form of a temple and also in the form of a goddess with a lion and a halo around her. The books stress violence, hatred, authoritarianism and hierarchy, and are full of stories of alleged brave killings of ‘enemies of India’ by Hindu rulers. Students are appealed to take to violence if need be to defend the country. Expectedly, since Hindutva is the modern form of Brahminism, the books portray the Vedic period uncritically, claiming the Vedic culture to be the earliest and most refined form of human civilisation. All manner of modern scientific discoveries and inventions are sought to be traced to the Vedas. India’s modern identity is sought to be located firmly within the Vedic tradition. Not surprisingly, the caste system and the brutal oppression of the ‘low’ castes by the Hindu religion and its ‘upper’ caste defenders is glossed over completely.

The books project India as synonymous with the Hindus. Muslims are presented as the menacing ‘other’. Chapter after chapter recount tales of kings, conquests and wars fought supposedly for Hinduism and India, with the aim of promoting anti-Muslim hatred and making the students insensitive to violence. Hindu rulers who fought against Muslims are lavishly praised, and Muslim rulers are painted as cruel and barbaric. Similar cruelties by Hindu rulers are presented as intelligence and patriotism. The books ignore those Hindu kings who did not engage in wars with any 'outsider' and, likewise, there is no mention of those Muslim kings who ruled peacefully with support of Hindu elites. Muslims are blamed for almost the ills afflicting India historically as well as today. Even books for teaching such subjects as Science are used to reinforce blind conformity to the Hindutva vision of the world. Thus, for instance, the book titled ‘Acharya Shishya Samvad’ (‘Dialogue Between a Teacher and His Student’) claims that almost all beneficial knowledge was been produced by the ancient Hindus, including great scientific discoveries, aeroplanes, cloning technology, plastic surgery, judo and karate. The law of gravity, it argues, was not discovered by Newton but was already known centuries before by a certain Brahmin called Maharishi Bharadwaj. Pseudo-scientific explanations are provided for Ball sorts of bizarre Brahminical rituals. Thus, the book claims that the sound from a conch being blown kills minute germs in the environment and drives away ‘ghostly souls’. The ritual of offering water to the sun and worshipping some trees is also sought to be justified, and the former is claimed as being good for the eyes. The consumption of cow’s urine is described as curing even cancer, and snakes are said to purify the environment by 'drinking poisonous air'.

While there is some talk today of pressuring the state to revise government-prescribed textbooks in order to promote pluralism and communal harmony, as Verma’s survey of the books used in non-government schools in Uttar Pradesh shows, there is also a need for a similar exercise with regard to private sector schools. The scope for this critique, as Verma indicates, also needs to be expanded. It should go beyond critiquing textbooks for their anti-Muslim bias to also interrogating their obsession with and glorification of Brahminical Hinduism, their total silence on Dalits and Adivasis and their historical oppression, their defence of social, including gender and economic, hierarchy and their uncritical defence of superstition and authority.

[Photos by Prem Sagar]

Link:

Regulatory mechanisms for textbooks and parallel textbooks taught in scholls outside the government system: report of the study commissioned by the HRD ministry.