CHAPTER 23

Ideology, Curriculum and

Recent History Textbooks
ANAMIKA

It is not easy to write any school textbook on history or other subjects

in humanities and social sciences. Indian textbook writers should
always bear in mind the basic value enshrined in our constitution
while communicating their ideas to school students. They should not
ignore the consensus achieved on important issues by scholars in the
field but not on minor details. Although accepted views should be
placed before members of a younger age group, some original ideas,
which hold potentialities for discussion and elaboration at the university
stage should not be held back from them.
(R.S. Sharma, 2001)

INTRODUCTION
Professor R.S. Sharma suffered the wrath of communalism personally
and professionally. The textbook he authored on Ancient India was
withdrawn for a year in 1978, tampered in 2001 and finally replaced
by a right wing ideology laden textbook in 2002. The debate
surrounding the withdrawal of his book and his own powerful and
persuasive responses introduced the readers to a range of issues pertaining to ideology, pedagogy and the larger meaning of education.
This short paper is a modest attempt to address some of these issues
with regard to another set of history books, and is meant to be a
humble tribute to the memory of Professor R.S. Sharma.
The debate around history curriculum and textbooks is as old as
the history of education in independent India. History is one of the
most influential subjects that can be used to serve the ideological
purpose and interest of those who are in power or who have been

558

Anamika

given the task to prepare the framework of history curriculum. It is

with the help of history curriculum and textbooks that various social
and political groups legitimize their ideology and ensure its longevity.
Carr (1990) defined history as a continuous process of interaction
between the historian and his facts, an unending dialogue between
the present and the past (p. 30). The continuous dialogue between
the two experiences provides a foundation for ideologies and strategies
to work simultaneously to shape the curriculum and the text
books.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM
FRAMEWORK 2000 REVISITED
During the reign (1998-2004) of the National Democratic Alliance
(NDA), National Curriculum Framework 2000 (NCF-2000) was
prepared keeping in mind the saffron ideology. The history textbooks
based on NCF-2000 maligned medieval India and glorified the history
of Ancient India (a brilliant Index of Errors was published by the
Indian History Congress). The prejudiced view of the past led to a
debate on the distortion of facts and interpretations in history
textbooks. Chandra (2001) suggested that the communal interpretation
of history is at the core of communal ideology in India (p. 15). Sharma
(2001) emphasized the importance of what was being taught at the
primary and secondary levels. In his opinion the communalists
consider history to be the most effective vehicle of indoctrination
(p. 24). Sharma further argued that this approach would destroy the
very fabric of secular India and lead to the disintegration of our
nation.
Mukherjee and Mukherjee (2001) held the view that civilized
societies cannot ban the teaching of unsavoury aspects of the past on
grounds that it would hurt sentiments or confuse children or that it
would diminish patriotic feelings among them. Nor can one fabricate
fantasies to show the greatness of ones past and draw ridicule (p. 11).
All this happened when new history textbooks under the NDA
government were published in 2001. Thapar (2001) criticized the
history textbooks for the various passages that were missing. In
response to the omission of a passage which mentioned beef eating
in ancient India she had this to say:

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

559

The issue is not that there is no evidence for the eating of beef in ancient India,
but whether this is something that students at school should know about. Given
its prevalence for many centuries followed by the introduction of the prohibition
in some Hindu identities of more recent times, it is important for those studying
Indian societyas all students of history toto know the historical reasons for
the prohibition. There is a need to understand when and why prohibitions are
introduced since such knowledge provides a deeper understanding of social and
religious concerns. The sentiments of the various religious communities are not
God-given, they are gradually built up through particular beliefs and social
practices and often in the context of particular historical situations. If the
sentiments are to be appreciated then they have also to be comprehended in
their social and historical context (p. 13).

It is notable that the nature and scope of knowledge incorporated

in the curriculum would determine the future life of the ideas, beliefs
and values of those who are instrumental in framing national curriculum and involved in writing textbooks. These particular ideas,
beliefs, and values of a group propounded in the textbooks serve as
the basis of relevant curriculum. In other words, the relevant
curriculum is that which is relevant to the group that is involved
in textbook writing or in a position to exercise power.
NATIONAL CURRICULUM FRAMEWORK2005
The NCF-2005 was designed to avoid controversy of any kind. It
also aimed to follow a balanced approach to ensure longevity. The
genesis of NCF-2005 was the controversy over NCF-2000 and history
textbooks based on it as mentioned above. But NCF-2005 passed
over the controversy in order to incorporate certain aspects of NCF2005, such as adherence to child centred approach (child and childs
daily experiences should be the centre of the curriculum not the
teacher). Despite the safeguards, NCF-2005 has been heavily criticized
by scholars for ignoring constitutional values1 and for the emphasis
it has placed on the philosophy of constructivism.2 The critics were
also against the importance which NCF-2005 attached to local
knowledge, i.e. knowledge brought, further created and built upon
by students and teachers in the classroom. Habib (2005) argued that
local knowledge is heavily burdened with superstition, social
prejudices, casteism and communalism and, therefore, cannot be
treated as scientific (p. 7). Akhtar (2005) argues in the same vein that

560

Anamika

the advocates of local knowledge do not realize that it may be at

total variance with the rational approach and scientific method.
Moreover if the teacher is left to choose from what is available to her,
there can be no limit to superstitions and social biases that are going
to seep into our school education (p. 39). The general drift of the
criticism on this point is that NCF-2005 is encouraging uncritical
celebration of local knowledge.
A similar concern has been shown towards the nature of the past
and the scope of history. At the heart of the debate is the question,
in so far as the subject of history is concerned, whether our past is
collective or individual. The collective past deals with the experience
of a large part of the society lived in a particular time and place while
the individual past is about an individual and her immediate environment. Thus, collective past has a greater representation of the
people. For instance, the national movement was the movement of
the people of the country and individual experiences are important
for understanding the movement rather than the individual. The
current history textbooks are criticized for the idea that the human
past exists in fragments and that human beings cannot possibly have
a unified past. This is visible from the plural marker in title of the
textbooks (Our Pasts). There are two aspects to this problem. First,
in the understanding of the curriculum developers and some writers
of chapters of the books, history is not so much important as history
writing. Each writer therefore constructs her own version of the past.
In their opinion, there cannot be a single version of the past no matter
how unanimous the professional body of historians may be on a single
issue. Second, all events of the past are important no matter how
trivial they might seem to the present historians. Thus the importance
and weight assigned to a particular fact of history is a matter of value
judgement. As a result, for the history textbooks committee, the
history of one person or one family is just as important as the history
of a community, nation or state. In other words, the philosophy
embodied in the new curriculum or textbook denies the importance
of a single unified vision and rejects the practice of relating portions
of the past to the unified vision. The new approach is as much a
celebration of fragments as it is of local knowledge. It is therefore not
surprising that the new textbooks were written not by a single author,
as was the case earlier, but by a group.

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

561

The two approaches, outlined above, come together in the appeal

made for the study of popular history. The opinion of Shrimali (2006)
is germane to the issue:
The entire conception of History seems to be resting on some kind of
romanticisation of the disciplinereducing it to a mere narrative of episodes.
One looks in vain for any thrust on studying elements of change and continuities
in historical processes, which are so vital for an analytical understanding of the
subject. The need to focus on an explanation of historical phenomena is equally
conspicuous by its absence. If one were to take clues from the semantics of
various formulations, the preponderance of the occurrence of story in the
various rubrics of Class XII syllabus could not be a mere coincidence. It seems
to have almost become an obsession (p. 18).

The emphasis of new history textbooks has been on popular/local

history. The problem with popular/local history is the lack of sufficient
historical evidence because the history of individuals get seldom
recorded in the past. Thus, popular history mostly relies on folklores
and oral traditions. These sources are not as credible as carefully
constructed or maintained records. Hence, the new tradition of history
writing reduces history to mere story. Story is an account which
partakes only a small share of reality, and it is not constructed through
a rigorous collection of empirical material which can be tested and
verified. In other words, most stories have a strong component of
fiction in them. History, on the contrary, is based on evidence and
accurate and valid evidence which is verifiable. Habib (2005) argued
that the claim of NCF-2005 that it will reduce the content load in
the light of the report on Learning Without Burden remained a
claim only because apart from the content of textbooks students have
asked to consult dictionaries, encyclopedias, magazines, books, etc.
Habib does not undermine the importance of reference material but
highlights the discrepancy of what has been claimed and practised.
The following content analysis will demonstrate and establish the
extent to which history in the textbooks is treated as an accurate
representation of the events of the past or as a mental construct.
A WORD ON CONTENT ANALYSIS
Content analysis is a multipurpose research method developed
specifically for investigating a problem in which the content of

562

Anamika

communication serves as the basis of inference (Holsti 1969: 2).

Content analysis is a research technique for making replicable and
valid inferences from texts (or other meaningful written material,
such as interview transcript) to the contexts of their use (Krippendorff
2004: 18). It is a technique aimed at improving the quality of the
inferences an investigator makes from all types of communications
(Sproul 1979: 15). By utilizing this technique, the researcher
objectively and systematically picks out specific characteristics in a
particular piece of communication. These characteristics are then used
as the basis for making inferences. Thus content analysis is employed
in an attempt to objectively and systematically search a piece of
communication for evidence on which to build a case. For the present
paper, the criteria-driven or thematic content analysis methodology
was employed. In criteria-driven or thematic analysis some categories,
units or themes are derived from theoretical constructs or areas of
interest. Hence, in the present paper categories evolved for content
analysis are identified in light of issues raised in the debate on NCF2005. These categories have emerged from the debate on NCF-2005
itself. The categories for content analysis are: content load, collective
vs. individual past, local knowledge, the idea of India or concept of
nation and colonial vs. nationalist perspective.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
The upper primary history textbooks, published by NCERT, are an
offshoot of NCF-2005. It is logical to draw the conclusion that the
underlying philosophy of these textbooks has emerged from the
NCF-2005.
CONTENT LOAD
NCF-2005 has forcefully claimed to have reduced the content load
from school textbooks. As far as the main text of the textbooks is
concerned, there is certainly a reduction in the content. But
simultaneously there are additions of new categories, such as definitions,
sources, additional information, elsewhere, keywords, some important
dates, imagine, lets recall, lets discuss, lets do, in text questions

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

563

and activities. There can be little doubt that all these additional
categories play an important part in developing various cognitive
skills. But this raises two important questions. First, whether all these
additional categories are being taken seriously by teachers as well as
students. Second, these categories require extra work to find out the
solutions of many issues being raised in intext questions or elsewhere
categories. Following instances are illustrative of activities that require
plenty of time and are cumbersome in nature:
1. Find out whether your school library has a collection of books on religion,
and list the names of five books from this collection (Our Pasts I, p. 53).
2. In what ways do you think Ashokas attitude toward neighboring peoples was
different from that of the Chinese emperor (Our Pasts I, p. 82)?
3. If you have seen crafts persons at work, describe in a short paragraph what
they do. (Hint: how they get the raw materials, what kind of equipment do
they use, how do they work, what happens to the finished product) (Our
Pasts I, p. 98).
4. List the functions performed by men and women who live in your city or
village. In what ways are these similar to those performed by people who lived
in Mathura? In what ways are they different (Our Pasts I, p. 98).
5. Find out where records are kept in your village or city. Who writes these
records? Is there an archive? Who manages it? What kinds of documents are
stored there? Who are the people who use it (Our Pasts II, p. 15)?
6. Find out whether there are any buildings built by the Delhi Sultans in your
area. Are there any other buildings in your area that were built between the
twelfth and fifteenth centuries? Describe some of these buildings, and draw
sketches of them (Our Pasts II, p. 44).
7. You are living in England in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
How would you have reacted to the stories of British conquests? Remember
that you would have read about the immense fortunes that many of the
officials were making (Our Pasts III, part I, p. 24).
8. Find out about the history of any craft around the area you live. You may
wish to know about the community of craftsmen, the changes in the techniques
they use and the markets they supply. How have these changed in the past
50 years (Our Pasts III, part II, p. 94).

The above list proffers only a few examples and it is not exhaustive.
The questions or activities mentioned above require time and involve
supplementary readings or need field excursions to reach the answers.
For instance, to compare Ashokas policy with his contemporary

564

Anamika

Chinese emperor, students would have to look for material on Chinese

history. To write a short essay, they would have to go to a craftsmans
workshop to get all the answers about raw material, etc. Thus, these
activities are ambitious and make it difficult for a teacher or students
to accomplish all the activities in a stipulated academic session of the
school. Content load, therefore, in terms of reduction in information
containing main body has indeed taken place but at the same time
it has been substantiated by information boxes and other activities.
One gathers a strong impression that some part of the main body
text has been deducted and reproduced in the form of boxes which
used to be in the main text in the old textbooks.
COLLECTIVE VS. INDIVIDUAL PAST
Is there one past which is collective or there are many pasts and every
individual claims to have her/his own past! The debate about the
grand narrative and the individual narrative is embedded in the
philosophy of postmodernism. Post-modernism gave the view that
in the name of collective experience, grand narratives are subsuming
individual narratives. Hence, it is a responsibility of the historian to
bring the individual narrative back on the track and demolish the
grand narrative.
As mentioned earlier the history textbooks of upper primary level
are titled Our Pasts, itself an indication of the underlying philosophy.
Our Pasts I raised the question of one past or many and gave justification for many pasts in the following passage:
Did you notice the title of this book, Our Pasts? We have used the word past
in plural to draw attention to the fact that the past was different for different
people. For example, the lives of herders or farmers were different from those
of kings and queens, the lives of merchants were different from those of crafts
persons, and so on. Also, as is true even today, people followed different practices
and customs in different parts of the country. For example, today most people
living in the Andaman Islands get their own food by fishing, hunting, and
collecting forest produce. By contrast, most people living in cities depend on
others for supplies of food. Differences such as these existed in the past as well.
Besides, there is another kind of difference. We know a great deal about kings
and the battles they fought because they kept records of their victories. Generally,
ordinary people such as hunters, fishing folk, gatherers, farmers or herders did

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

565

not keep records of what they did. While archaeology helps us to find out about
their lives, there is much that remains unknown (pp. 6-7).

It is understandable that differences were always present in a society.

And, those differences should be studied thoroughly and should be
given an opportunity to be told the way grand narratives are. One
principal hurdle is the lack of sources; how to write about different
but unrecorded lifestyles. If a historian considers oral traditions or
folk tales or modern anthropological findings as the primary source
for presentation of the past at the micro level there can be problems.
First of all, how would she determine the historical authenticity of
the chosen sources? Second, postmodernist historians themselves
argue that modern concepts such as nation state cannot be projected
back and studied. How can the sources that are modern by all means
be used to understand those living in the remote past! The limitation
of this approach can be seen in the limited number of chapters on
unknown individuals, groups or communities. Most of the content
of the textbooks still deals mainly with grand narratives. Our Pasts
III (Part II) has chapters on weavers, iron smelters and women but
the rest of the book is about kings. To bring the individual past in
or to have a sense of the possibility of subjective past in the current
textbooks, authors have deliberately formulated and posed various
additional activities in front of the students. Following are the instances
from the textbooks that focus on individual or micro-level experiences
of the past:
1. In what ways do you think that the life of a raja was different from that of a
dasa or dasi (Our Pasts I, p. 52)?
2. Find out more about men and women who renounce the world today. Where
do they live, what kinds of clothes do they wear? What do they eat? Why do
they renounce the world (Our Pasts I, p. 74)?
3. Why do you think slaves and servants were ill-treated? Do you think the
orders of the emperor would have improved their condition? Give reasons
for your answer (Our Pasts I, p. 83).
4. Why do you think ordinary people were attracted to Bhakti (Our Pasts I, p.
110)?
5. Do you think ordinary people would have read and understood the prashastis?
Give reasons for your answer (Our Pasts I, p. 121).
6. How do you think wars affect the lives of ordinary people today (Our Pasts
I, p. 121)?

566

Anamika

7. Do you think the authors of tawarikh would provide information about the
lives of ordinary men and women (Our Pasts II, p. 44)?
8. Raziyya Sultan was unique in the history of the Delhi Sultanate. Do you
think women leaders are accepted more readily today (Our Pasts II, p.
44)?
9. Peasants were vital for the economy of the Mughal Empire. Do you think
that they are as important today? Has the gap in the income between the
rich and the poor in India changed a great deal from the period of the
Mughals (Our Pasts II, p. 59)?
10. There are several saint-poets whose names have been mentioned but their
works have not been included in the chapter. Find out more about the
language in which they composed, whether their compositions were sung,
and what their compositions were about (Our Pasts II, p. 121).
11. What was Birsas vision of a golden age? Why do you think such a vision
appealed to the people of the region (Our Pasts III, p. 50)?
12. Find out from your parents, friends or teachers, the names of some heroes
of other tribal revolts in the twentieth century. Write their story in your
own words (Our Pasts III, p. 50).
13. Find out stories and songs remembered by people in your area or your family
about San Sattawanki Ladaai. What memories do people cherish about the
great uprising (Our Pasts III, p. 63)?
14. Write a paragraph on what the changes depicted in the pictures might have
meant to people living in the area (Our Pasts III, p. 69).

The questions and activities outlined above indicate the immense

opportunity provided to construct individual, subjective or microlevel pasts.
To legitimize the concept of many histories, the authors of Our
Pasts II used the concept of tarikh, a Persian word for history. The
plural of it is tawarikh, translated as histories. However, when
tawarikhs usage is ascertained historically it does not imply the
plurality of history. There were certain rules for the usage of tawarikh.
In so far as the term was used in the title of medieval histories (far
less than tarikh which was more popular), the focus was on one ruler
and his reign (as on Akbar in Abdul Qadir Badaunis Muntakhabut
Tawarikh or on Aurangzeb in Sujan Rai Bhandaris Khulasatut
Tawarikh) which is seen in the larger chronological setting of previous
regimes. Hence, the way tawarikh is being used in the Our Pasts II
is different from the way it was used in pre-modern India.

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

567

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
The NCF-2005 laid emphasis on the role of local knowledge as the
basis for the construction of knowledge in the classroom teachinglearning experience. The document iterates:
Many communities and individuals in India are a rich storehouse of knowledge
about many aspects of Indias environment, acquired over generations and handed
down as traditional knowledge, as well as through an individuals practical
experience. Such knowledge may pertain to: naming and categorizing plants,
or ways of harvesting and storing water, or of practicing sustainable agriculture.
Sometimes these may be different from the ways in which school knowledge
approaches the subject. At other times, it may not be recognised as something
that is important. In these situations, teachers could help children develop
projects of study based on local traditions and peoples practical ecological
knowledge; this may also involve comparing these with the school approach. In
some cases, as in the case of classifying plants, the two traditions may be simply
parallel and be based on different criteria considered significant. In other cases,
for example the classification and diagnosis of illnesses, it may also challenge
and contradict local belief systems. However, all forms of local knowledge must
be mediated through Constitutional values and principles. (NCF-2005, p.
32)

While analysing the upper primary history textbooks it has been

found that local knowledge is interpreted by the authors of the
textbooks as local content. By local content is meant the inclusion
of experiences of students along with their environment and history
of those groups who have not been properly represented in mainstream
history. These groups are tribes, craftsmen, farmers, traders, common
masses, minority groups and women. It has been communicated to
the students by additional activities or in lets do activities. Following
are a few examples from the textbooks which intended to include
students experiences with their environment:
1. Describe three important buildings in your city or village. Are they located
in a special part of the settlement (e.g. the centre)? What are the activities
that take place in these buildings (Our Pasts I, p. 42)?
2. Are there any old buildings in your locality? Find out how old they are and
who looks after them (Our Pasts I, p. 42).
3. Compare the drainage system in your locality with that of the cities mentioned
in the lesson. What similarities and differences do you notice (Our Pasts I,
p. 98)?

568

Anamika

4. If you had to make a genealogy for yourself, who are the people you would
include in it? How many generations would you like to show? Make a chart
and fill it (Our Pasts I, p. 121).
5. Compare the temple shown in this chapter with any present-day temple in
your neighbourhood, highlighting any similarities and differences that you
notice (Our Pasts II, p. 29).
6. Find out whether there are any buildings built by the Delhi Sultans in your
area. Are there any other buildings in your area that were built between the
twelfth and fifteenth centuries? Describe some of these buildings, and draw
sketches of them (Our Pasts II, p. 44).
7. The Mughal Empire left its impact on the different regions of the subcontinent
in a variety of ways. Find out if it had any impact in the city, village or
region in which you live (Our Pasts II, p. 59).
8. Visit and describe any park or garden in your neighbourhood. In what ways
is it similar to or different from the gardens of the Mughals (Our Pasts II,
p. 74)?
9. Find out the history of the town you live in or of any town nearby. Check
when and how it grew, and how it has changed over the years. You could
look at the history of the bazaars, the buildings, cultural institutions, and
settlements (Our Pasts III, p. 77).
10. Look at any tradition of art in your locality. Find out how it has changed
in the last 50 years. You may check who supports the artists, and who looks
at their art. Remember to examine the changes in styles and themes (Our
Pasts III, part II, p. 140).

In all the above-mentioned activities students, are required to

explore their environment to find out the answers. It is clear from
the activities chalked out by the authors that students should construct
their knowledge from local content or environment. The activities
seem very imaginative and interesting but raise once again the issue
of feasibility. Another important issue is that there is no balance between the local content and national content. There is an overemphasis
on local content. The impression we get from the upper primary
history textbooks is that there is very little that exists outside the
childs local environment.
THE IDEA OF INDIA OR
THE CONCEPT OF NATION
The authors of upper primary history textbooks disguised the concept
of nation. They argued that the idea of a nation state is a modern

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

569

concept and cannot be located in the past. The following quote from
the Our Pasts II throws light on the schema of the authors of these
textbooks:
Take the term Hindustan, for example. Today we understand it as India,
the modern nation-state. When the term was used in the thirteenth century by
Minhaj-I Siraj, a chronicler who wrote in Persian, he meant the areas of Punjab,
Haryana and the lands between the Ganga and Yamuna. He used the term in
a political sense for lands that were a part of the dominions of the Delhi Sultan.
The areas included in this term shifted with the extent of the Sultanate but the
term never included south India. By contrast, in the early sixteenth century
Babur used Hindustan to describe the geography, the fauna and the culture of
the inhabitants of the subcontinent. As we will see later in the chapter, this was
somewhat similar to the way the fourteenth-century poet Amir Khusrau use the
word Hind. While the idea of a geographical and cultural entity like India
did exist, the term Hindustan did not carry the political and national meanings
which associate with it today. (p.3)

The implication of this argument is there was no political entity

called India in the past. This after Habib (2005) has convincingly
argued that there was a knowledge of India as a geographical entity
and that it also existed as a political reality. He further elaborated that
at times the outsiders recognition of a country, based on their sense
of Indias distinct cultural and social features, might sometimes have
been stronger than that of its own inhabitants who took these
institutions and features for granted (p. 4). And in the case of India
both these elements were present. The sense of geographical entity
was always there and foreigners have always given India a name and
treated it as a political entity. Mesopotamian sources, for instance,
have references to India as Meluhha which has political connotation.
It is difficult to deny the historical evidence for the existence of the
Mauryan Empire as a unified polity. The Greeks gave the name India
and later the Iranians called it Hind.3 The Chinese called India yin
du, a term which is used even now for the country.4 It is expected
that the authors of the upper primary history textbooks should have
at least mentioned these facts before constituting an argument.
COLONIAL VS. NATIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
From the content analysis, it was found that the authors of upper
primary history textbooks, particularly Our Pasts III (parts I and II),

570

Anamika

have undermined the nationalist perspective and tried to highlight

the colonial perspective. The following passage from Our Pasts III,
part I is presented to adduce the point:
In the book you will read about the way the British came to conquer the country
and establish their rule, subjugating local nawabs and rajas. You will see how
they established control over the economy and society, collected revenue to meet
all their expenses, bought the goods they wanted at low prices, produced crops
they needed for export, and you will understand the changes that came about
as a consequence. You will also come to know about the changes British rule
brought about in values and tastes, customs and practices. (p. 4)

There are two important issues pertaining to this passage. First,

there is no mention here about the groups whose history has not been
dully represented (in the authors opinion). The groups of tribes,
craftsmen, farmers, and common masses do not appear as victims of
ruthless colonial exploitation. Second, it gives an impression that at
the time of arrival of colonial power there were only local nawabs
and rajas. It completely ignores the Mughal rule which was still
wielding power and had sovereignty over the local kingdoms.
The authors have incorporated many activities in the various
chapters of Our Pasts III (Parts I and II) that explore and provide, at
the same time, the colonial perspective. Following are the examples
taken from the textbook that encourages the student to imagine
herself as a British national or official:
1. Imagine that you are a young Company official who has been in India for a
few months. Write a letter home to your mother telling her about your
luxurious life and contrasting it with your earlier life in Britain (Our Pasts III,
part I, p. 15).
2. You are living in England in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
How would you have reacted to the stories of British conquests? Remember
that you would have read about the immense fortunes that many of the
officials were making (Our Pasts III, part I, p. 24).
3. Imagine that you are a Company representative sending a report back to
England about the conditions in rural areas under Company rule. What
would you write (Our Pasts III, part I, p. 30)?
4. Imagine you are a British officer in Awadh during the rebellion. What would
you do to keep your plans of fighting the rebels a top secret (Our Pasts III,
part I, p. 62).
5. Imagine yourself walking up Raisina Hills, looking towards Rashtrapati

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

571

Bhavan. Do you think Baker was right in thinking that looking up to the
building would create a sense of awe and emphasise the power of the British
(Our Pasts III, part I, p. 15)?
6. Think of the life of two young peopleone growing up in a haveli and the
other in a colonial bungalow. What would be the difference in their relationship
with the family? Which would you prefer to live in? Discuss your views with
your classmates, and give reasons for your choice (Our Pasts III, part I,
p. 74).
7. Imagine that you are a British administrator leaving India in 1947. You are
writing a letter home where you discuss what is likely to happen to India
without the British. What would be your views about the future of India
(Our Pasts III, part II, p. 161).

It is interesting that the student is enabled to empathize with the

colonial establishment. It remains to be seen how many thirteen year
old Indians are able to imagine eighteenth century England in a
meaningful way and yet at the same time expect to get firmly grounded
in their local environment!
The content analysis of the upper primary level history textbooks
has highlighted the issues debated in the wake of NCF-2005. The
books based on it were written by multiple authors and meant to
offer multiple perspectives. What tangible ideas hold these perspectives
together is difficult to ascertain. In some case it may have been team
work but in some the project appears to be a miscellaneous assemblage
of individuals. It is possible that the inclusion or exclusion of content,
ideas, approaches and treatment of subjects were deliberated and
agreed upon. This could partly be the reason for the philosophy of
NCF-2005 not fully percolating into the upper primary history
textbooks. That said the textbooks are not antagonistic to the ideas
of NCF-2005. It is ironical that NCF-2005 ardently adhered to
critical pedagogy but the textbooks ignored the basic tenet of critical
pedagogy, i.e. to take a political position whatever it may be.
NOTES
1. The first draft of NCF-2005 did not refer to the Constitution and it was
added only after it got severely criticized for that.
2. A core notion of constructivism is that individuals live in the world of their
own personal and subjective experiences, it is the individual who imposes

572

Anamika

meaning on the world, rather than meaning being imposed on the individual
(Karagiorgi, 2005, p. 18). The philosophy of constructivism believes that
learner constructs her/his own knowledge and learning is an outcome of an
interaction taking place between the learner and the learning environment.
Prior knowledge or understanding of the learner plays an important role in
construction of knowledge. The NCF-2005 strongly adhered to this philosophy
of constructivism.
3 . Hindu stands for Sindhu because Iranians pronounced s as h.
4 . For a detailed discussion see, Habib (2005) esp., pp. 1-18.

REFERENCES
P S
National Curriculum Framework (2005), National Council of Educational
Research and Training. New Delhi.
Our Pasts I (2005). Textbook in History for class VI, New Delhi: NCERT.
Our Pasts II (2005). Textbook in History for class VI, New Delhi: NCERT.
Our Pasts III (2005). Textbook in History for class VII (parts I-II), New Delhi:
NCERT.
Position Paper by National Focus Group on Teaching of Social Sciences (2006),
New Delhi: NCERT.

S S
Ahmad, M. A. (1987), System of Education in Medieval India: 1526-1761 AD.
New Delhi: Panchsheel Publishers.
Akhtar, S. (2005), A Critical Note, Social Scientist, 33(9-10), 37-40.
Altekar, A.S. (1957), Education in Ancient India, Varanasi: Nand Kishor and
Brothers.
Amrith, S. (2009), Feature: Textbook Lessons, History Workshop Journal, 67,
83-6.
Anderson, J.R., L.M. Reder, and H.A. Simon (1995), Applications and
Misapplications of Cognitive Psychology to Mathematics Education.
Retrieved on 10 March 2011 from, http://memory.psy.cmu.edu/publications/
Applic.MisApp.pdf.
Apple M.W. (1979), Ideology and Curriculum, London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul.
Attwood, B., D. Chakrabarty, and C. Lomnitz (2008), Guest Editors Letter:
The Public Life of History, Public Culture, 20(1), 1-4.
Basham, A.L. (2004) The Wonder That Was India, London: Picador.

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

573

Bender, T. (2002), Reforming the Disciplines, Daedalus, 131(3), 59-62.

Bhattacharya, N. (2008), Predicaments of Secular Histories, Public Culture,
20(1), 57-73.
, (2009) Teaching History in Schools: The Politics of Textbooks in
India, History Workshop Journal, 67, 99-110.
Bingham, M. (2009), Surviving History: Gary Nash and the National Standards.
The History Teacher, 42, 39-44.
Burke, P. (2000), A Social History of Knowledge: From Gutenberg to Diderot.
Cambridge: Polity.
A., B.C. (2007), The False Promises of Constructivist Theories of Learning: A Global
and Ecological Critique, New York: Peter Lang.
Basu, A. (1974), The Growth of Education and Political Development in India,
1898-1920, Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bruner, J. (1997), Celebrating Divergence: Piaget and Vygotsky, Human
Development, 40(2), 63-73.
, (2004), A Short History of Psychological Theories of Learning,
Daedalus, 133(1), 13-20.
, (2008) Reflections of a Developmental Psychologist, Human
Development, 51, 101-3.
Bruner, J.S. (1960), The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
, (1971) The Relevance of Education, London: George Allen & Unwin
Ltd.
Carr, E.H. (1990), What is History? (rpt. edn.), London: Penguin Books.
Chakrabarty, D. (2008), The Public Life of History: An Argument Out of
India. Public Culture, 21, 143-68.
Chandra, B. (2001), Historical Blunders, New Delhi: Delhi Historians
Group.
Cobb, P., and E. Yackel (1996), Constructivist, Emergent, and Sociocultural
Perspectives in the Context of Developmental Research, Educational
Psychologist, 31(3-4), 175-90.
Cohen, L., L. Manion, and K. Morrison (2007). Research Methods in Education
(6th edn.). London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Collingwood, R.G. (1992), The Idea of History (tenth edn.), Hong Kong: Oxford
University Press.
Crawford, D.B., and D. Carnine, (2000), Comparing the Effects of Textbooks
in Eight-grade U.S. History: Does Conceptual Organization Help?
Education and Treatment of Children, 23(4), 387-422.
Danilov, A.A. (2010), The New Educational Standards and Textbooks on the
History of this Country, Russian Education and Society, 52(2), 37-44.
Delhi Historians Group (2001), Communalization of Education: The History
Textbook Controversy, New Delhi: Delhi Historians Group.

574

Anamika

Dev, A. (2001), NCERT, National Curriculum and Destruction of History, New

Delhi: Delhi Historians Group.
, (2005), Reversing the Main Thrust of the National Policy on Education,
Social Scientist, 33(9-10), 13-22.
Dodson, M.S. (2010), Orientalism, Empire, and National Culture: India, 17701880, Delhi: Cambridge University Press, (repr. New Delhi: Foundation
Books).
Dorn, C. (2008), Treason in the Textbooks: Reinterpreting the Harold Rugg
Textbook Controversy in the Context of Wartime Schooling, Paedagogica
Historica, 44(4), 457-79.
Edwardes, M. (1967), British India 1772-1947: A Survey of the Nature and Effects
of Alien Rule, London: Sidgwick & Jackson.
Ferro, M. (2004), The Use and Abuse of History: Or How the Past is Taught to
Children (tr. N. Stone & A. Brown, revd. edn.), London: Routledge.
Freire, P. (1994), Pedagogy of Hope: Reliving Pedagogy of the Oppressed (tr. R.R.
tr.), London: Continuum.
, (1997) Education for Critical Consciousness, New York: Continuum.
, (1998) Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage (tr.
P. Clarke). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
, (1998) Pedagogy of the Oppressed (tr. M.B. Ramos, rev edn.). New York:
Continuum.
, (1998) Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those Who Dare Teach
(tr. D. Macedo, D. Koike and A. Oliveira), Boulder: Westview Press.
Ganesh, K.N. (2005), National Curriculum Framework 2005: A Note, Social
Scientist, 33(9-10), 47-54.
Goldin, G.A. (1990), Epistemology, Constructivism, and Discovery Learning
in Mathematics, in R.B. Davis, C.A. Maher and N. Noddings (eds.),
Constructivist Views on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics (pp. 3147), Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Habib, I. (2005), India: Country and NationAn Introductory Essay. in I.
Habib (ed.), India: Studies in the History of an Idea (pp. 1-18), New Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal.
, (2005), How to Evade Real Issues and Make Room for Obscurantism,
Social Scientist, 33(9-10), 3-12.
Harmon, J.M., W.B. Hedrick, and E.A. Fox (2000), A Content Analysis of
Vocabulary Instruction in Social Studies Textbooks for Grades 4-8, The
Elementary School Journal, 100(3), 253-71.
Holsti, O.R. (1969), Content Analysis for the Social Sciences and Humanities,
Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
Irzik, G. (2001), Back to Basics: A Philosophical Critique of Constructivism,
Studies in Philosophy and Education, 20, 157-75.
Jaffar, S.M. (1936). Education in Muslim India: (1000-1800 A.C.), Peshawar.

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

575

Karagiorgi, Y., and L. Symeou (2005), Translating Constructivism into

Instructional Design: Potential and Limitations, Educational Technology &
Science, 8(1), 17-27.
Krippendorff, K. (2004), Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology,
Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Kumar, H. (2009), A Study of Experience and Perceptions of Teachers of History
in Relation to the Textbook Based on NCF-2005. New Delhi: Jamia Millia
Islamia.
Kumari, N. (2008). Curriculum, Textbooks and Classroom Practice: A Study of the
History Textbook NCF (2005) at Middle School Level. New Delhi: Jamia
Millia Islamia.
Lamon, S.J. (2003), Beyond Constructivism: An Improved Fitness Metaphor
for the Acquisition of Mathematical knowledge, in R. Lesh and H.M.
Doerr (eds.), Beyond Constructivism: Models and Modeling Perspectives on
Mathematics Problem Solving, Learning, and Teaching (pp. 435-47), Mahwah,
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Law, N.N. (1916), Promotion of Learning in India: During Muhammadan Rule
(By Muhammadans), New York: Longmans, Green and Co.
Lesh, R., and H.M. Doerr (2003), In What Ways Does a Model and Modeling
Perspective Move Beyond Constructivism? in R. Lesh and H.M. Doerr
(eds.), Beyond Constructivism: Models and Modeling Perspectives on Mathematics
Problem Solving, Learning, and Teaching (pp. 519-56), Mahwah, New Jersey:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Lyle, S. (2000), Narrative Understanding: Developing a Theoretical Context
for Understanding How Children Make Meaning in Classroom Setting,
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32(1), 45-63.
Marwick, A. (1989), The Nature of History (3rd edn.), Houndmills:
Macmillan.
Matthews, W.J. (2003), Constructivism in the Classroom: Epistemology, History,
and Empirical Evidence, Teacher Education Quarterly, 51-64.
Maurya, A. (2005), An Escape from the Reality of Education, Social Scientist,
33(9-10), 59-64.
Meena, A. (2010), A Study of the Role of History in Promoting National Integration
as Perceived by the Teachers. New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia.
Mintrop, H. (2004), Fostering Constructivist Communities of Learners in the
Amalgamated Multi-discipline of Social Studies, Journal of Curriculum
Studies, 36(2), 141-58.
Mukherjee, M., and A. Mukherjee (2001), Communalisation of Education: The
History Textbook Controversy: An Overview, New Delhi: Delhi Historians
Group.
Nasser, R. and I. Nasser, (2008) Textbooks as a Vehicle for Segregation and
Domination: State Efforts to Shape Palestinian Israelis Identities as Citizens,
Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40(5), 627-50.

576

Anamika

Osborne, M.D. (1997), Balancing Individual and the Group: A Dilemma for
the Constructivist Teacher, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 29(2), 183-96.
Paliwal, R., and C.N. Subramaniam (2006), Contextualising the Curriculum,
Contemporary Education Dialogue, 4(1), 25-51.
Pawar, N.G. (2004), Development of Educational System in India, Jaipur: Book
Enclave.
Pinar, W.F., W.M. Reynolds, P. Slattery, and P.M. Taubman, (2004), Understanding
Curriculum: An Introduction to the Study of Historical and Contemporary
Curriculum Discourses, New York: Peter Lang.
Pirolli, P.L., and J.R. Anderson (1985), The Role of Practice in Fact Retrieval,
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 11,
136-53.
Rajput, J.S. (2000) Preface, National Curriculum Framework for School Education,
New Delhi: NCERT.
Rawat, P. L. (1970), History of Indian Education (6th edn.), Agra: Ram Prasad
& Sons.
Rifkin, B. (1998), Gender Representation in Foreign Language Textbooks: A
Case Study of Textbooks of Russian. The Modern Language Journal, 82(2),
217-36.
Roelofs, E., and J. Terwel, (1999). Constructivism and Authentic Pedagogy:
State of the Art and Recent Developments in the Dutch National
Curriculum in Secondary Education, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(2),
201-27.
Sadgopal, A. (2005), On the Pedagogy of Writing a National Curriculum
Framework: Some Reflections from an Insider, Social Scientist, 33(9-10),
23-36.
Scharfe, H. (2002). Education in Ancient India, Leiden: Brill.
Sharma, R. (2006), History of Indian Education, Gurgaon: Shubhi
Publications.
Sharma, R.S. (2005), Indias Ancient Past, Delhi: Oxford University Press.
, Communalism and History Textbooks, New Delhi: Delhi Historians
Group.
Sikand, Y. (2005), Bastions of the Believers: Madrasas and Islamic Education in
India. Delhi: Penguin Books.
Shrimali, K.M. (2006), Whither Social History? General Presidents Address,
Punjab History Conference XXXVIII Annual Session, Punjab Historical
Studies Department: Punjabi University.
, (2005) Another Retreat of Reason, Social Scientist, 33(9-10), 41-6.
Singh, L. (1998), The National Initiative on Human Rights Education in
Schools and the Role of National Human Rights Commission, Human
Rights Education in Asian Schools, 1(1), 76-81.
Sproul, L.R. (1979). A Thematic Content Analysis of Peking and Hong Kong

Ideology, Curriculum and Recent History Textbook

577

Elementary School Chinese Language Texts Used in 1974-76, Simon Fraser

University, Canada.
Takaya, K. (2008), Jerome Bruners Theory of Education: From Early Bruner
to Later Bruner, Interchange, 39(1), 1-19.
Terhart, E. (2003), Constructivism and Teaching: A New Paradigm in General
Didactics?, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 35(1), 25-44.
Terwel, J. (1999), Constructivism and its Implications for Curriculum Theory
and Practice, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 31(2), 195-9.
Thapar, R. (2001), Propaganda as History Wont Sell, New Delhi: Delhi
Historians Group.
, (2002) Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300, London: Allen
Lane.
, (2005) National Curriculum Framework & the Social Sciences, Social
Scientist, 33(9-10), 55-8.
, (2009) The History Debate and School Textbooks in India: A Personal
Memoir, History Workshop Journal, 67, 87-98.
Wakefield, J.F. (1998) A Brief History of Textbooks: Where Have We Been All
These Years? Paper presented at the meeting of the text and academic
authors.
Windschitl, M. (2002), Framing Constructivism in Practice as the Negotiation
of Dilemmas: An Analysis of the Conceptual, Pedagogical, Cultural, and
Political Challenges Facing Teachers, Review of Educational Research, 72(2),
131-75.
Winter, H.J.J, (2004), Science in A. L. Basham (ed.), A Cultural History of
India (8th edn., pp. 141-61), Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Yadav, M.S., and V.M. Nikalje (2009), National Curriculum Framework: A
Historical Perspective, New Delhi: NCERT.
Zajda, J. (2007), The New History School Textbooks in the Russian Federation:
1992-2004, Compare, 37(3), 291-306.