College draft syllabus: Messing with history – By Ziya Us Salam
The new history syllabus drafted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) for undergraduate students is old wine in an old bottle, with a clear ideological slant towards “Bhartiyakaran” or Indianisation of history….
Even as it is said to be aimed at ‘restoration of balance’, and freeing history from the stranglehold of Marxist historians, it is just another reiteration of the colonial division of history, propounded by James Mill. The draft walks the tried and tested lane of 1977 when the first such overhaul of history was attempted, and that of 1999 when Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, attempted a similar saffronisation in the garb of Indianisation….
The UGC is silent on when and how the new syllabus will be implemented, having confined itself to going public with the new draft on its website. Yet the academic community has been quick to understand which way the wind is likely to blow….
