BISM: Incomplete Maratha history in CBSE textbooks

On Thursday, city-based Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal (BISM) suspected that the information provided in the CBSE textbooks developed  by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) regarding the famous Maratha warriors and events is not appropriate.

The Mandal recommended that few landmark events are not only important for the Maharastra history however they contribute in the national history.

Pandurang Balkawde, history scholar and member of BISM, focusing in a news conference said “a member of BISM history team evaluated almost 1,600 pages of NCERT history books recommended for class VI to XII and bring into being that  Maratha history has been neglected by the council."

Balkawde added that in the Class VI history textbook, the Marathas history was restricted to only one or two pages and even there is no photo of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. "The history of Marathas is not confined to Maharashtra alone however it is important to the whole country as they protect the country from the Mughals."

BISM, organized in 1910 to offer ready resources to researchers and historians. More than 30,000 scripts and 1,500,000 historical papers in different languages including Marathi, Persian, Modi, Portuguese and English has been maintained by the Mandal. Most of the paper contains Maratha history, culture and Literature. Along with the huge matter regarding Mughal and British rule over the India.

SM Bhave, Secretary of BISM, also added to the same matter and said that Savitribai Phule was the first female teacher in the country and started the movement to educate the women but there is no trace of her in the NCERT history text books.

Balkawde also suspected that the class XII textbook contains information regarding saints however it does not include Maharashtra Saints including Namdeo, Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram and Eknath. There are a huge contribution of these saints in Indian History and followers of their ideology resides all over the nation.