In North Korea the citizens are made to believe that their country is the best in the world, a paradise on earth. The birthday of the leader is a great national festival and anyone showing indifference to the great event will face dire  consequences.  In China, all thought is regulated and  trimmed according to Maoist Communist bible. India is not far behind in the queue in brainwashing the minds of  the impressionable young if one is to accept meekly the distortions made in the NCERT history text books of Classes XI and XII. Day after day these distortions were documented in newspapers. At first it was the total erasing of the Moghul empire period in history because the Hindus reportedly faced humiliation by this. It hurts Hindutuva pride, not Hindu community as such. Certainly the three essential ingredients of war are greed, vanity and hatred. 

The Gujarat riots of 2002 were blotted out since they are a blot on the then Chief Minister and now Prime Minister of India. Unpalatable reference to the RSS and its anti-Gandhi posture and activities were blacked out since from a one-time banned organisation now it is the godfather of the ruling BJP. It was also later discovered  that arrangements in the  political hot potato of Kashmir suffered an eclipse since it involved a case of  the Indian Union reneging on  its  solemn promise made  at the time of its accession to the Indian Union that its autonomous state would be respected. This has been easily done since Patel who made this promise on behalf of India is long dead and buried though his statue stands tall and proud in Gujarat, dwarfing all other world famous iconic  statues. If one does not see  a certain pattern of distortion  in all these omissions  one must be sparrow-brained or brain dead. These are justified by the NCERT in the name of  ‘rationalisation’ of  syllabus though if someone termed it ‘politicisation’of syllabus, he  can hardly be successfully sued in court for defamation of the respected NCERT body. 

What makes it ominous is the fact that all omitted portions were in the NCERT history text books as displayed on its original public net version. Though  these are attempted to be passed off as ‘oversight’ one can hardly trust the bona fide of this shoddy claim. 

What is at the bottom of this double speak? Nothing short of whitewashing history and corrupting the minds of the young  generation herding them from the sunshine of truth to the dark tunnel of ignorance and prejudice. This saffronised version is supposed  to be the official text books in a country that has been amusingly declared  to be the  ‘mother of all democracies’ by  the ruling  regime.

This kind of manipulation of history can cause a critical question to spring  in the minds of the young and the old alike:  If in a discipline like History which is made of personalities and events, facts and figures, whimsical censorship and tampering with facts is allowed why can’t it be done also in other fields of life? Let me give a few specific instances. What moral authority have  education officers to pull up students for  cheating and malpractices in exam when the lead for it   has been given  in  their official text books?

How can  those  who make fake declarations in passports and visas be called to book?  They are also just distorting facts that are inconvenient to them and  their careers. Are we sanctioning social double standards? 

Can you speak anymore of false witnessing in  courts? Offenders  can misrepresent facts in their own  personal interests and pass it off  as helping their family to survive.

 (adukanildb@gmail.com)