New Delhi, October 6
Bowing to pressure from the Sikh community, the Centre today asked the NCERT to delete the chapter denigrating the community from the class XI history textbook.
However, the Centre’s move has not pacified the Sikh community with the Akalis, cutting across party lines, demanding action against the author and the NCERT for allowing the publication of the book at the first instance and its continuance for the past two decades.
The Human Resource Development Minister, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, has asked the “NCERT to delete all references from history textbooks which hurt the religious sentiments of the people.”
“He has also asked the CBSE to direct all affiliated institutions that such objectionable portions in the textbooks should not be taught, nor should questions be put on such matter,” an official press note said.
Talking to The Tribune, the DSGMC President, Mr Avtar Singh Hit, said “the government should initiate action against the author and the NCERT for publishing the book.”
The head of Tohra faction of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi unit), Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, said “the government should confiscate all available copies of the book and destory it. Not only the book should be banned, the author and the NCERT should be prosecuted for first publishing the history book, which has denigrated the Sikh community and has affected the sentiments of the community members.”
The community took objections to the portion of the book which had misrepresented historical facts about the Sikh Gurus.
Mr Hit said “The author Prof Satish Chandra has cited so-called ‘official explanation’ for the execution of Guru Teg Bahadur, which accused the protector of righteousness of banditry.”
He said “The Guru laid down his
life for the protection of human values and rights. Guru Teg Bahadur was executed because he had rejected the demand of Aurangzeb that he should embrace Islam, and not because of any family intrigues or any other reason.”
Mr Sarna said “the author has stated that Guru Harkishan’s son stayed in the durbar of Aurangzeb. The fact is that the Guru had breathed his last at the tender age of eight years and thus had no son.”
Similarly, Mr Sarna said the author had tried to mislead about the causes behind Guru Tegh Bahadur’s great martyrdom about whom Guru Gobind Singh had written in his autobiography ‘Bachitra Natak.’ This was the primary evidence, which Prof Chandra had deliberately ignored because it did not fit in with his purpose.”
Mr Sarna alleged that the author had “tried to misinterpret and under rate his (Guru Gobind Singh) struggles against the Mughals. This book, therefore, is a direct attack against the Sikh religion.”
The chapter on disintegration of the Mughal Empire, the former UGC Chairman and a noted historian, Prof Chandra after giving different interpretation to the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur said “it is not easy to shift the truth from these conflicting accounts.”
The author said “in 1675, Guru Tegh Bahadur was arrested with five of his followers, brought to Delhi and executed. The official explantion for this as given in some later Persian sources is that after his return from Assam, the Guru, in association with one Hafiz Adam, a follower of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi, had resorted to plunder and rapine, laying waste the whole province of the Punjab,” the book said.
The author wrote that “according to Sikh tradition, the execution was due to the intrigues of some members of his family who disputed his succession and by other who had joined them. But we also told that Aurangzeb was annoyed because the Guru had converted a few Muslims to Sikhism.”
“There is also the tradition that the Guru was punished because he had raised a protest against the religious persecution of the Hindus in Kashmir by the local governor,” the books said.
The historian said “The persecution of Hindus is not mentioned in any of the histories of Kashmir, including the one written by Narayan Kaul in 1710.”
