Three men and your child’s history book

In fact, one of them, Prof S. Settar, scholar of ancient history and the S. Radhakrishnan Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore, says he’s not going to ‘‘pre-judge’’ anything and so does not know, for sure, ‘‘if changes at all would be needed.’’

HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s choice of the three panel members—Settar, Prof Barun De and Prof J S Grewal—has befuddled the Left which has been clamouring not just for a rewrite but for ‘‘withdrawal’’ of all existing NCERT books. Even followers of former Minister Murli Manohar Joshi’s camp have not hit out at any of the three. Reason: none in the panel is among the usual suspects of ‘‘Marxist historians.’’

What has helped is that none is from New Delhi where the line between academia and politics gets more blurred than anywhere else.

Take De. At a recent History Congress, this specialist in modern Indian history and founder director of the Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad Institute for Asian Studies, Kolkata, had strongly criticised the Left’s sub-altern and Cambridge historians for interpreting past events from the perspective of economically deprived classes alone.

Equally independent are the credentials of Grewal, former Vice Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University and former director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla. Considered one of the foremost scholars of Sikhism, Grewal’s publications are authoritative reference material the world over. Not just the spread of Sikhism, Grewal’s scholarship touches on most other aspects of the mediaeval period.

Settar’s work on the Hoysala temples has impressed art historians worldwide. At the last Indian History Congress in Mysore in December 2003, his paper, ‘‘Footprints of Artisans in History’’ was described as ‘‘pathbreaking.’’ Using epigraphic sources, linguistics and even paleography, Settar reconstructed how intercultural communication took place among artisans from different regions in ancient India.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Settar says: ‘‘I love being a jack of all trades.’’ He has edited two volumes on the history of Partition. Another of his works that is spoken of with great respect is Inviting Death: Indian Attitude Towards the Ritual Death.

Coincidentally all three—they have not met since the panel was named and will come together only on June 23—told The Indian Express that they have a ‘‘nationalist’’ view, using the word in terms more historical than political.

De says by ‘‘nationalist’’ he means ‘‘history viewed from the perspective of all social classes.’’ Grewal says promoting the ‘‘nationalist view’’ means ‘‘taking history away from any specific political agenda.’’ As for Settar, school history should be ‘‘simple, factual, acceptable and free of isms.’’

But Settar claims that over the past five years, ‘‘political extremism did take over history.’’ Ironically, Settar was the chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research when Joshi first became HRD Minister in 1998. Settar was drawn into a controversy when a critical letter he wrote to S Gopal over a publication was waved by Joshi as one of the reasons for scrapping the ICHR’s Towards Freedom projct.

At a history Congress in Amritsar, two years ago Grewal had said: ‘‘History should not be used to create animosity among different communities.’’

Asked what criteria would he use for his current assignment, Grewal said: ‘‘I would give weight to authenticity and national interest above everything else.’’