International Development: Indian NGO claims text book "unhealthy"

Prashant, an Indian NGO, has called for the immediate withdrawal of a social science text book it considers "‘unhealthy education."

The revised textbook reads: ‘‘India suffered from communal secularism, communal riots and migration of Hindu and Muslims as gift in heritage.’’ The textbook also says that ‘‘Uniform Civil Code should be prepared and be implemented in the entire nation.’’

Ahmedabad Online reports that Father Cedrik Prakash, of Prashant, told a news conference on Saturday: ‘‘Minorities have been given certain, special rights under the Constitution and how can the government, through a school textbook, state that a Uniform Civil Code should be implemented.’’ He also stated that his organisation had received several complaints from school teachers.

Although the text book does not contain one photo of Mahatma Gandhi, it does contain over 300 errors including historical, spelling and typing mistakes.One outstanding historical error describes how the, "Event of Bosnia, the capital of Sarajevo, acted as a spark in this atmosphere. Consequently, the World War I was started."

It seems that the text book must have been written by newsgroup contributors!