Teaching the students the real history may be an option.Now our historians are divided into two groups.One group propounds the aryan invasion theory and another group attacks it vehemently.When BJP comes to power history books are changed.when congress comes to power history books are again changed.How can you change what happened in the past?But that is happening now.
In Germany religion is taught in schools.Your religion of choice will be taught to you,atheists will be taught philosophy.Students learn about their religion and the role it has played in the society and also compare it with other religions.This helps them to learn their culture and be proud of it.
Something in this line should be done in India.Our culture and heritage should be taught to students.We should teach students of minority communities about Indian culture.Unfortunately many minority leaders live under the misconception that teaching indian culture is akin to imposing hinduism on the minorities.
So a comparitive religional class where all religions are taught to all students can be a good idea.This will also help students to remove the misconceptions about other religions in their mind.
Next we should get rid of this aryan and dravidian stuff.Its an insult that our past is subject to so many changes.Students will be confused.Also when I studied in schools in tamilnadu every history book had the "golden history" of then CM's like MGR, M.Karunanidhi etc.It was nothing but propoganda stuff.If we remove it students will benefit.This creeped into even tamil books.In my college tamil books I read about Ma.Po.Si and Kee.AAA.Pee. Certainly worthwhile people I agree,but let us learn about people like jayakanthan and poomani for a change.Dont include people in books for their political party affiliations.
So I would suggest that this aryan-dravidian debate end and someone write really as of what happened.If possible both aryan invasion and counter theories should totally be removed from history books.Let us start reading our history from alexander's invasion ,please.History before that can be debated in history journals.Let us spare the poor students.Dont teach them politics in the name of history.
Well said Sampath. I agree to your point to the maximum extent. In our country its very difficult to make amemndments to anything, let it be law, or history...As David Frawley rightly pointed out, India is the only country in the world, which does not probe into its history and make changes to it as and when required. Every theory, every country's history are re-visited time and again by scholars, and if something new is found out with proof, the things are amended.But we in India....
Aryan-Dravidian debate is a never ending one. A logical analysis would reveal that the Britishers used this to divide and rule india. But the irony is, even today, we are divided based on this thoery. Many learned people, whom I have interacted with, have a high level of aversion to the Brahmin community, based on the Aryan invasion theory. Those times, I laugh to myself appreiciating the Europeans. They still rule us, though we claim that we are independent. The westerners have created such an impact in us that even after 1000 years we will be the same. We will continue to be their slaves, though not physically. Its a shame on us, that we are unable to unite even after half a century of independence.
As you pointed out, all the countires teach their religion and culture in schools. But if we closely examine our culture, everything is religious centric. Everything our ancestors created is spun around the concept of God. Let it be music, let it be literature, let it be our lifestlye, everything is religious centric and thats why teaching Indian culture is perceived as teaching Hindutva(sorry adhu periya vartha. sollaradhe pavam. Hinduismnu vechikalama?)..
We Indians have adopted western life style started celebrating westurn culture, festivals etc. Today we can see that valentines day, christmas, fathers day, mothers day, etc. etc. etc. is being widely celebrated in India. None of them has a relevance to our culture. But still we are open to everything and accept other cultures also.Nothing wrong in that. But we forget our own culture and its not being practiced or taught.Because our culture is communal.
We can change this only through group efforts. Though we cannot change the textbooks, atleast we can try to educate people as what real history is ,what our real culture is. Even if we succeed to educate a few in our lifetime, I think its something great.