Ahmedabad, Jun 20: You may wonder why does Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi often distort facts in public speeches. But perhaps taking a look at the gruesome blunders and erroneous facts ' appearing in textbooks printed in Gujarat, will make your more sympathetic.
* Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on October 30, 1948
*Japan launched a nuclear attack on the United States during World War II
* A new country named Islamic Islamabad was constituted after the Partition with its capital Khyber Ghat in the Hindukush mountains
* All South Indians are Madrasis
*Puri Rath Yatra is a South Indian festival
Unbelievable? These are but a few erroneous facts ' that students in Gujarat are learning from their textbooks this year.
Shocking revelations!
In the social science textbook for Class VIII, there are statements such as — People in east India wear clothes above the ankle as there is more rainfall; ladies wear sari in a peculiar manner. It also mentions that a majority of people in the eastern part of India reside in “houses made of wood and bamboo”. Moreover, “idli and dosa are famous in south India; Madrasi food is very famous” — also appear in the said textbook.
In another reference, the textbook goes on to club the Puri Rath Yatra among the south Indian festivals, attributing Onam and Diwali to Kerala, while also terming Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi as festivals ' of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, respectively.
Gujarati Model English!
The English language textbooks are a clear case of lost in translation '. The textbooks, translated poorly from Gujarati to English, throw up quite a few stunners. A case in point: The Class VI textbook has the following paragraph,
“You might have heared, read and seen that the Earth is round. Whereas, you stay on the Earth, you cannot come to know the shape of Earth; because the Earth is too much vast. Why we do not feel that the Earth is round? Is the Earth really To whom it is like? Just imagine, round? The Moon-uncle is telling. Come on to my surface and see from the edge. The travellers of the space had taken the photographs of the Earth from the space”
Here is another: "The man found grains like wheat, jav etc. automatically in the various part of India's soil. So the people of India (in that time) collected and preserved that grains for food. They met each other often and often and often, and so 'Socialism' increased. We are getting the residues of premature mankind since 20 lacs years ago in India."
In damage control mode, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma said that the problems have been pointed out and the government was taking steps to rectify them. “We have already constituted a committee of “experts” to rectify the mistakes and replace them with facts,” he said.
Comments
Add new comment