Reading the textbooks (I’m only reading 6th right now), I found some very
interesting things. First, the good:
1. On multiple “pasts”
Did you notice the title of this book, *Our Pasts? *We have used the word
> ‘pasts’ in plural to draw attention to the fact that the past was *different
> *for different groups of 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 not keep records of what they did. While
> archaeology helps us to find out about their lives, there is much that
> remains unknown.
>
2. On the south:
> Assemblies in the southern kingdoms
>
> The inscriptions of the Pallavas mention a number of local assemblies.
> These included the sabha, which was an assembly of brahmin land owners.
> This assembly functioned through sub- committees, which looked after
> irrigation, agricultural operations, making roads, local temples, etc.
>
> The ur was a village assembly found in areas where the land owners were
> not brahmins. And the nagaram was an organisation of merchants. It is
> likely that these assemblies were controlled by rich and powerful
> landowners and merchants. Many of these local assemblies continued to
> function for centuries.
>
The world of books
> Some of the best–known epics were written during this period. Epics are
> grand, long compositions, about heroic men and women, and include stories
> about gods.
> A famous Tamil epic, the Silappadikaram, was composed by a poet named
> Ilango, around 1800 years ago. It is the story of a merchant named Kovalan,
> who lived in Puhar and fell in love with a courtesan named Madhavi,
> neglecting his wife Kannagi. Later, he and Kannagi left Puhar and went to
> Madurai, where he was wrongly accused of theft by the court jeweller of the
> Pandya king. The king sentenced Kovalan to death. Kannagi, who still loved
> him, was full of grief and anger at this injustice, and destroyed the
> entire city of Madurai.
> A description from the Silappadikaram
> Here is how the poet describes Kannagi’s grief:
> “O witness of my grief, you cannot console me. Is it right that your
> body, fairer than pure gold, lies unwashed here in the dust? Is it just
> that in the red glow of the twilight, your handsome chest, framed with a
> flower wreath, lies thrown down on the bare earth, while I remain alone,
> helpless and abandoned to despair? Is there no god? Is there no god in this
> country? Can there be a god in a land where the sword of the king is used
> for the murder of innocent strangers? Is there no god, no god?”
>
And the bad…
What I found worst about the books is a tendency to “talk down” to the
children. They make statements of fact, not statements supported by fact.
For example, “A Harappan city was a very busy place. There were people who
planned the construction of special buildings in the city. These were
probably the rulers. It is likely that the rulers sent people to distant
lands to get metal, precious stones, and other things that they wanted.
They may have kept the most valuable objects, such as ornaments of gold and
silver, or beautiful beads, for themselves. And there were scribes, people
who knew how to write, who helped prepare the seals, and perhaps wrote on
other materials that have not survived.”
Where did these statements come from? How are they supported? How do we
know these things to be true? Is this any way to promote critical thinking
in children?
The short blurbs on top of each page are really stupid! I’d have resented
those if I were made to study from these texts.
In general, I think they’re a little better than textbooks of the BJP era
(which I thank all the gods of luck in every pantheon that has ever existed
that I escaped), and a little worse than the critical books that I really
learned from. Honestly, I don’t think that the original blog’s criticisms
can be completely sustained.
More when I read the 7th and 8th, and maybe the book that the blogger
suggested; John Keay’s India: A History.
Shash
