JLF 2022 | Change In School Curriculum Should Not Be Done On Basis Of Political Ideology: Rakhshanda Jalil

“I agree that there should be a change in the school curriculum but it should not be done on the basis of political ideology,” Jalil said.

Author and historian Rakhshanda Jalil at JLF 2022 (Source: ABP)

New Delhi: Expressing her disappointment over the change in school curriculum on the basis of political ideology, author and historian Rakhshanda Jalil on Saturday said this will be “injustice” with the country’s coming generations.

“I agree that there should be a change in the school curriculum but it should not be done on the basis of political ideology,” Jalil said.

“If we are doing so then we are going to do injustice with the coming generations because we will give them a limited sense of literature,” she added in an exclusive conversation with ABP News on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF).

Asserting that professional historians have proof of everything, Jalil said their contributions and work should not be curtailed with the notion that they belong to a particular ideology.

“The committees of influential people used to sit earlier to decide the curriculum for the NCERT books. So, nothing was done in haste. Whatever we learned earlier, they are now trying to rewrite history giving the task to a selected few people,” said Jalil.

“This is wrong as well as dangerous. There was a democratic process so far. The committees of several people used to sit, there were checks and filters. I think those checks and filters have been reduced,” she added.

Jalil said the people are keeping a watch on the school curriculum with regard to ideology.

“The new generation is taught to pick and choose, but as per me, history is a continuum…Even if you do not agree with any ruler or dynasty, do not try to completely erase them,” she added.

Jalil said that there has been a “steady decline” in the intellectual debate in the country.

“I have seen the graph go down for long. I have stopped watching TV. I could not bear them because the intellectual debate or conversation has become all about shouting,” said Jalil.

“We are now doing debates only on the basis of ideology,” she added.  

Talking about her book ‘Invisible City: The Hidden Monuments of Delhi’, Jalil said, “The main purpose was to ensure the people know about the lesser-known monuments.”

She insisted that earlier, people used to spend time with their families visiting these monuments, but now nobody talks about these historical milestones.

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Historian Rana Safvi also talked about the lesser-known monuments of the country. She says that it pinches her to see people vandalising monuments. She adds that "if people want to document their stories, they can do that in their own books, rather than destroying some artisan's hard work."

She emphasises that every culture in India lives together but does not merge into the other which explains the 'Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb'. In her book, she also explores the that "Mumtaz Begum actually died in Burhanpur, but was taken to the Taj Mahal six months later, so the first tears of the king Shahjan actually fell in Burhanpur."

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After Safvi, the ABP News also talked to the author of 'The Ottomans book', Marc David Baer. He said that "any country that loses its tolerance and moves away from pluralism and multiculturalism will eventually end itself, just like the Ottoman empire did."

He also said that "he loves that films and other new age mediums are being made on the Ottoman history - such as Dirilis: Ertugrul but it also shows the Ottoman Empire as Ottomans vs Christian which was never the case."

"So on the one hand it is good that people are now talking about the Ottoman Empire that has been misjudged and misinterpreted by the west but it also shows them as black and white. Whereas clearly, the ottomans was an empire of several cultures and religions," he added.

Another personality at the JLF that talked about films was Balaji Vittal talking about his book ‘Pure Evil: The Bad Men of Bollywood’.  Vittal explains that how Indian cinema is reaching to a point where there is a grey area to the characters. he thinks that the realistic films that are being made in the Indian cinema, which includes regional cinema as well, would add to the taste of foreign audiences as they are made with a sense of realism. 

Watch Full Interview Here: