Gujarat School Textbooks Claim All South Indians Are 'Madrasis'

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

The textbooks were full of errors, both factual as well as grammatical that left people baffled. The translation from Gujarati to English absolutely changed the meaning and made no sense. Here's a sample from the Class 6 textbook: "You might have heared, read and seen that the Earth is round. Whereas, you stay on the Earth, you cannot come to know the shape of Earth; because the Earth is too much vast. "Why we do not feel that the Earth is round? Is the Earth really To whom it is like? Just imagine, round? The Moon-uncle is telling. Come on to my surface and see from the edge. The travellers of the space had taken the photographs of the Earth from the space - see it."

State government has ordered a probe that the books have to reviewed and revised. However, the official sources said that new and revised textbooks will be out in the market in time for the new academic session.

According to Samir Barua, former director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, who was drafted by the state government back in 2001 to review the textbooks, said that the authors of Gujarat school books are not competent. The base material provided is in Gujarati and the translators are of poor quality”.

Speaking to Mail Today, Yagnik, social scientist, cited the first semester textbook of Class 7 that contains a chapter on the medieval age but has just a paragraph on Mughal rule. The chapter devotes itself largely to how Mahmud of Ghazni looted "India and Saurashtra (in Gujarat)".

After so much of development done in Gujarat, It’s high time to make changes in the structure of the book and make the book error free. The books are the future of Gujarat.