Gujarat School Textbooks Claim All South Indians Are 'Madrasis'

By siliconindia | Wednesday, 18 June 2014, 13:38 Hrs

BANGALORE: The bitter truth that students of Gujarat have been fed with the wrong information. The textbooks seem to have many errors in contents. Social science textbooks that are studied by around 50,000 students between class 6 and 8 of government run English-medium schools in Gujarat reads—Japan launched a nuclear attack on the United States during world War II. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on October 30, 1948 and all South Indians are 'Madrasis'. A new country named 'Islamic Islamabad' was constituted after partition with its capital at 'Khyber Ghat' in the Hindu Kush Mountains,reports Mail Today.

A panel of experts put the textbooks together from the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) and Gujarat State Board for School Textbooks (GSBST), who decides the curriculum.

According to the Class 8 Social Science textbook, "People in east India wear clothes above ankle as there is more rainfall. Ladies wear sari in a peculiar manner. It says the majority of people in eastern India reside in "houses made of wood and bamboo". The textbook goes on to say—"Idli and dosa are famous in south India. Madrasi food is very famous."

In another reference, it goes on to club the Rath Yatra of Puri with South Indian festivals, including Onam and Diwali in Kerala.