Understanding Public Discourse on History Textbooks in India

Working Paper in International History and Politics, 2009

The history textbook controversy in India between 1998 and 2004 saw the opposition of two series of textbooks. A major subject of disagreement concerned the treatment of conflicts: first, the interpretation of certain events as conflicts, and then their inclusion or omission in the textbooks. This article analyses the way social conflicts and violence have been thematised in history textbooks in India over the last forty years. The argument here is that when the textbooks are elaborated primarily as nation-building instruments, the historical narratives they contain avoid the representation of social conflicts within the nation. This implies that conflicts (and violence) can be mentioned, but only when they involve the nation against its 'others'. This hypothesis is developed comparing the historical narratives in successive textbooks on medieval and modern India. 2

Delhi Historians Group, 2001

A brief history of history textbooks in India in recent decades

Revista de Educación, 2021

Textbooks are the only source to communicate information considered true, of unquestionable accuracy and whose authenticity could not questioned by anyone. The states, in collaboration with the textbook regimes employed textbooks to impart a certain notion of identity, of 'us' and 'them' through constructing and presenting a state narrative to pupils. The suitable study method for this study was qualitative content analysis and 9 history textbooks were analyzed in this study. The books were selected for their being published by the state textbook authorities. The analysis of textbooks revealed that textbooks writers used representation (positive and negative), unification, avoidance, and trivialization strategies to create the images of 'us' and 'them' through the images of invaders and conquerors and the social, cultural, political, economic, and religious influences and impact on Indian subcontinent and its people. This study recommends that the history textbooks designing exercise should be approached as a discipline covering all historical information about people, culture, lands and achievements.

2021

Textbooks are the only source to communicate information considered true, of unquestionable accuracy and whose authenticity could not questioned by anyone. The states, in collaboration with the textbook regimes employed textbooks to impart a certain notion of identity, of 'us' and 'them' through constructing and presenting a state narrative to pupils. The suitable study method for this study was qualitative content analysis and 9 history textbooks were analyzed in this study. The books were selected for their being published by the state textbook authorities. The analysis of textbooks revealed that textbooks writers used representation (positive and negative), unification, avoidance, and trivialization strategies to create the images of 'us' and 'them' through the images of invaders and conquerors and the social, cultural, political, economic, and religious influences and impact on Indian subcontinent and its people. This study recommends that the his...

One of the traditionally central goals of historical instruction is to convey a feeling of national identity. This is why history teaching often becomes a subject of political controversy. Since the last change of government in India in 2004, curriculum designers have attempted to focus on the development of students' judgements rather than on the presentation of ready-made views of the past and collective identity. Even an innovative curriculum of this kind must be embedded in society's processes of communication and self-understanding, in which ideologies of continuity and preservation and those of change and improvement contend with each other. Whatever the outcome of these debates is, the new form of historical instruction, based on a critical appropriation of the past, will seek to enable students to come to their own understanding of Indian identity and thus make their competence enrich public discourse and democratic culture.

Journal of International and Comparative Education, 2020

The textbooks are believed to be containing true and authentic historical narratives and it also remained the sole tool employed by a state to impart a certain notion of its identity. The qualitative perspective best suited this research, and within it, the qualitative content analysis method was chosen to analyze the content of textbooks. This study analyzed history textbooks of classes six to eight published by the three state textbook authorities in Pakistan. The focus of the textbook analysis was to identify discourse strategies used to construct, reinforce and strengthen a certain notion of pupils' identity. The study revealed the use of representation, unification, avoidance, and trivialization strategies as the textbook writers created images of invaders, conquerors and rulers of the Indian subcontinent and the impact on Indian people and society. This study suggests that history textbooks should present history with multiple interpretations using multiple sources to construct a historical narrative.

2018

Primary school students of Lakshadweep learn things about an unfamiliar socio-cultural milieu by neglecting their own socio-cultural environment. The complexities in the content would in fact badly influence the effective learning process and this kind of socially and culturally irrelevant learning process would give them a threat of a stigmatized and inferior cultural identity. This paper unveils the pedagogical injustice by analyzing the content of the textbooks used for teaching at primary level in Lakshadweep. This paper argues that culturally unfamiliar content in the textbooks and its teaching would lead to a ‘cultural conflict’ in the minds of primary school students, eventually leading to a ‘culture shock’. This ‘shock’ leads to the ‘devaluation’ of the culture in which they are born and brought up.

History Workshop Journal , 2016

2013