Tak­ing the win­dow of op­por­tu­nity pro­vided by the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Ed­u­ca­tion re­forms, The Sikh Col­lec­tive writes a let­ter to the chair­per­son of the Com­mit­tee Dr Vinay Sa­hasrabud­dhe seek­ing an ex­ten­sion of time be­yond the last date of 15 July 2021 and also ex­presses gen­uine fears that this ex­er­cise may not be­come a tool to fur­ther per­pet­u­ate the in­jus­tice in text­books to mi­nori­ties by push­ing the Hin­dutva agenda. Mean­while, The Sikh Col­lec­tive learns that a Com­mit­tee of Sikh schol­ars and ac­tivists is al­ready ex­am­in­ing NCERT books and build­ing a com­pre­hen­sive list of sug­ges­tions to be pre­sented to the In­dian Up­per House Par­lia­men­tary Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on Ed­u­ca­tion, Women, Chil­dren, and Youth & Sports.

THE SIKH COL­LEC­TIVE, in an email sent to Dr Vinay Sa­hasrab­hudde, chair­per­son of the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee on ed­u­ca­tional re­forms has sought an ex­ten­sion of at least 6-8 weeks from the pre­sent last date of 15 July 2021. The con­venor of the grass­roots move­ment body -Jag­mo­han Singh has said the ex­ten­sion will en­able mem­bers of the pub­lic, aca­d­e­mics to send in sug­ges­tions re­gard­ing in­ac­cu­ra­cies, mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of facts, mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion of re­li­gious writ­ings, blas­phe­mous over­tones to re­li­gious and his­tor­i­cal fig­ures and glar­ing omis­sions, in text­books pre­scribed by var­i­ous Union of In­dia agen­cies and state bod­ies.

The let­ter has sought clar­ity from the Com­mit­tee re­gard­ing whether the changes are sought for books pub­lished by NCERT and state boards or any other pub­li­ca­tions also.

Sound­ing an alarm based on the Hin­dutva stance of the BJP gov­ern­ment, the let­ter says that, “Sikhs have been vic­tims of stereo­typ­ing and a gross mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of his­tor­i­cal facts, par­tic­u­larly ref­er­ences to their Gu­rus and con­tem­po­rary his­tory. We be­lieve that once you re­ceive sug­ges­tions, the fi­nal draft of any text, which has his­tor­i­cal con­no­ta­tions or re­li­gious ref­er­ences, must be re­viewed by an un­bi­ased com­mu­nity of schol­ars and ac­tivists for a fair de­scrip­tion of a par­tic­u­lar in­ci­dent or event.”

“We hope that notwith­stand­ing your po­lit­i­cal lean­ings, you and the mem­bers of the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing com­mit­tee will do due jus­tice to this sen­si­tive mat­ter in a fair and ju­di­cious man­ner.  We, how­ever, do not hes­i­tate in em­pha­siz­ing that this ex­er­cise, in the garb of mak­ing amend­ments should not be­come a tool to fur­ther ag­gra­vate in­jus­tice to mi­nori­ties.”

As per the no­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Ra­jya Sabha, the sug­ges­tions are in­vited for the fol­low­ing:

1. Re­mov­ing ref­er­ences to un­his­tor­i­cal facts and dis­tor­tions about our na­tional he­roes.
2. En­sure equal or pro­por­tion­ate ref­er­ences to all pe­ri­ods of In­dian his­tory.
3. High­light roles of great his­toric women he­roes.

The let­ter to the Mem­ber Par­lia­ment from Thane, Mum­bai says, “Sikh bod­ies across the coun­try are seized with the is­sue and are ex­am­in­ing text­books for the la­cu­nae as men­tioned in the pa­ra­me­ters pre­scribed by the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee.”

“Sikh bod­ies across the coun­try are seized with the is­sue and are ex­am­in­ing text­books for the la­cu­nae as men­tioned in the pa­ra­me­ters pre­scribed by the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee.”

Cit­ing the con­di­tions of Covid19 pan­demic, Jag­mo­han Singh of the Sikh Col­lec­tive has said that “God will­ing, with Coro­n­avirus be­ing less se­vere, the ex­tended time will pro­vide time and space to pro­vide the Ra­jya Sabha headed by you with ac­cu­rate, au­then­tic, proven facts for im­ple­men­ta­tion in the next edi­tion of syl­labi of var­i­ous sub­jects in the coun­try.”

Sikh bod­ies in the coun­try are also tak­ing ef­fec­tive steps to in­volve Sikh San­gat in the ex­er­cise. Singh Sabha Mum­bai has taken the ini­tia­tive in Mum­bai and has urged schol­ars to write di­rectly to the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee.

The Sikh Col­lec­tive has called for vol­un­teers to as­sist in this en­deav­our. They have also sought sug­ges­tions from stu­dents, ex­perts and aca­d­e­mics to be sent to the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee. Emails may be sent to: the­sikhcol­lec­tive2021@gmail.com

Those read­ers de­sirous of send­ing their con­cerns, ideas and sug­ges­tions to the Ra­jya Sabha Stand­ing Com­mit­tee di­rectly, may send emails to: rsc_hrd@sansad.nic.in 

As the above video shows, the Mus­lim com­mu­nity is also rightly seized with the mat­ter.