In West Bengal, Left turns to Right

‘‘It’s a significant departure from the past,’’ says a teacher who is writing a text in keeping with the new guidelines of the higher secondary board.

While the higher secondary texts are still under preparation, the history syllabus for Class VIII and IX has already been modified over the last couple of years. ‘‘Here again the Communist thought process has been subtly injected,’’ says Ashok Kumar Maity, general secretary of the West Bengal Head Master’s Association, a non-political body of school teachers.

‘‘The history of India’s freedom movement has been drastically reduced to make room for modern European history. And the stress is predominantly on the economic history,’’ says Maity. So, texts for VIII talk about development of capitalism and how it impacted the economic, social and cultural spheres of life. About how the growth of commercial civilisation has fostered the growth of colonialism.

History teachers say chapters like the progress of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the working class and the beginning of socialist thought are ‘‘replete with communist jargon’’.

For example, expressions like industrialists and working class, exploitation, unity of the working class, consolidation of the working class movement, have been frequently used.

History books in the state are increasingly being united by the thread of communist thought. Constituents of the Left Front agree. ‘‘The process of slow indoctrination in communist ideology by the CPI(M) began as early as late 1970s but has become more pronounced recent times,’’ admits a teacher belonging to the Revolutionary Socialist Party’s teacher’s wing.

‘‘Significantly, while communist leaders and social uprisings have been highlighted, there are many patriotic Indian leaders who are systematically being pushed out the history texts, ostensibly for their pro-Hindu leanings,’’ says Madan Mohan Acharya, a teacher of Ramakrishna Mission, Narendraur. Maratha history, including Shivaji, has been virtually dropped from the new syllabus for Class IX.

‘‘These are deliberate and systematic elimination of India’s national heroes,’’ say academics. ‘‘Those writing the history books will have to read between the lines of the Secondary Board’s guidelines and avoid reference to these leaders if one is keen to make his text acceptable to the board,’’ said a teacher of the Hindu School.

However, Bengal’s education minister, Kanti Biswas, has a different take. ‘‘There is nothing wrong in the shift towards the Left priority of history,’’ says Biswas.

‘‘Too much stress on India’s national history would have created a sense of false pride and patriotism in tender minds,’’ he says, defending the decision to include more of world history at the cost of India’s independence struggle.

Interestingly, in the modern world history section being taught in Class VIII, the fall of the Berlin Wall finds no space. Disintegration of the Soviet Union too, gets a passing reference in some books and none in others.

Clearly, one man’s history is another man’s poison.