The Hindutva View of History: Rewriting Textbooks in India and the United States
![handle is hein.journals/geojaf10 and id is 109 raw text is:
Culture&Society
The Hindutva View of History
Rewriting Textbooks in India and the United States
Kamala Visweswaran, Michael Witzel, Nandini
Manjrekar, Dipta Bhog, and Uma Chakravarti
When Hindu nationalist (or Sangh Parivar) organiza-
tions in India came to power at the national level in 1998,
one of the first things they did was to establish a National
Curriculum Framework (NCF) to change textbook content.
The 2000 NCF curriculum debate reflected the intense
conflict between competing visions of national identity that
had dominated India's public and political discourse over
the previous two decades. In a significant departure from
earlier curriculum frameworks of 1972 and 1986, which
stressed democratic values, social justice, and national
integration through appreciation of the commonalities of
different subcultures, the principal focus of the NCF was
value education.' The chief end of history, as of education
as a whole, was presented as the development of a national
spirit and national consciousness through generating
pride in the younger generation regarding India's past and
its unique religio-philosophical ethos, which was presented
as primarily Hindu.' These actions were vociferously chal-
lenged by academics and progressive, secular, liberal, or left
groups who decried the Sangh Parivar's ideological efforts to
recast history.
In the summer and fall months of 2005, U.S. Hindu
KamalaVisweswaran
is an associate profes-
sor of anthropology at
the University ofTexas,
Austin.
Michael WitzeI isa
professor of Sanskrit at
Harvard University.
Nandini Manjrekar is
n assosriate professor
ashe Tata Institue of
Social Sciences, Mum-
bai.
Dipta Bhog is a n-
direosor of Nirantor: A
Centre for Gender and
Education in Delhi.
Uma Chakravarti is
professor emeritus of
history at the Miranda
House at Delhi Uni-
versity.
Winter/Spring 2009 [Iol]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/geojaf10&div=17&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Hindutva View of History: Rewriting Textbooks in India and the United States
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