There is so much “to do” in the new government about the national curriculum and rewriting the NCERT textbooks. There is a strong plea from the public to re-write and correct the history books written for children under the previous regime. Teachers, schools and children stand confused about what to do as the new school-term starts. The importance of textbooks for schools is of great concern to all parents, grandparents and children too. For national textbooks inform the young about what is important to remember, and the memory of an entire nation is critical to the world.

I remember sometime ago, at a teacher-training workshop, a distraught teacher from the Andaman Islands got up and pointed a finger at the audience and said, “You people from the mainland always think…” I had never thought of myself as someone from the mainland, which is what it must be for someone living on an island that is closer to other countries than its own. On another occasion, a teacher from Manipur stood up and accused everyone in the audience and said, “Children of Manipur have to learn about the Mughal emperors, the names of Chola kings, the battles of Shivaji. But is there anyone here today who knows anything about the kings and battles we have fought in Manipur? Or even where our state is?” A sad silence followed.

Where is Manipur?

We are truly an enormous country and if we are to live in this world we need to have an inclusive policy of education rather than this Delhi-centric idea of the history of India. We need to enable our children to celebrate the diversity that abounds in India and to know how to care for countless communities and cultures that exist around us. How can we be more inclusive and exclusive in our attitude and approach to education?

Inclusion has become an important term in Western advanced democracies as it suggests making place for different points of view, which is a fundamental right in a democracy. So much so that a great deal of money, time, research and effort are being spent on finding out how excluded people feel in this world. One study in England revealed that 50 per cent more white people were likely to visit a museum than the average Asian resident, and 100 per cent more likely to visit than people of African-Caribbean background. When asked why people of these communities did not visit museums, they found that people of Asian and African-Caribbean origins found museums “intimidating and almost totally devoted to educated white culture and therefore of little relevance to them”(Greater London Arts, 1989).

So many from so much

The recognition that the history and contemporary reality of minority communities are worthy of representation is present in the writings of many scholars and public figures in India over the past century. All that we need is the political will to do so and make it a part of our children’s education and school textbooks throughout the country.

Many items that are in the history textbook should be erased from them forever. My daughter in class VI was asked last year in her exam to write about the differences between the caste system in the early and later Vedic Age. As a mother I would say all she needs to know on this score is that the caste system that began in the Vedic period exists in the 21st century in various forms and still dictates our politics, our partialities and our ideology. The entire chapter that describes, in excruciating details, the difference in the caste system in a bygone era should be erased from the textbook as should casteism be eradicated from Indian society.

We need textbooks that fill the child with wonder at how many different ways people have adapted to their climate and to the dictates of history. We need to flood the textbooks with questions that make our children query our contemporary culture that serves to exclude so many from so much.