Teaching history in a complex country like India

 I have written quite a few blog posts on India and its history, whether it is rich or poor depends on one's perspective.

One cannot deny it’s a civilizational state with a constant occupation and change and being a country linked by land to both Middle East and Europe has a long history. In fact each and every region of the country has history going back by a thousand years if not more. To top that curriculum designers must account for nation building and highlight the history from Delhi centric perspective too. Last but not the least is the freedom struggle itself which technically started with first war of independence in 1857 and ended with 1947.

Keep in mind, we cannot ignore the world history which is shaping our contemporary world affairs also, at the least world wars 1 and 2 followed by Cold War to fall of Soviet Union to the present day conflicts and the dictatorships and so on.

I am only talking history and haven’t even touched the geography or the constitution/law or what we used to call Civics.

I truly pity the NCERT people for their job is not easy.

While I stated the problem statement here are some suggestions to make it slightly better.

1. Add history and others as a compulsory subjects for grade 11 and 12, adding 2 more years to the system of education helps a lot
2. Like they do in this country, dedicate a year worth in high school to learn about local history meaning in my case history of Karnataka. Dedicate another year on the world history and so on
3. Eliminate switching to Sanskrit or even English as first language in grade 8 and stick to local language or Hindi as first language from beginning to end, advantage is that students would have had great mastery over language and can digest complex literature and I myself learnt a lot with studying Kannada literature which otherwise I would not have learnt. Example : Jhansi rani Laxmi Bai is mentioned in history books but Kitturu Chennamma or Keladi Chennamma were learnt through kannada literature which were part of the curriculum.
4. Stop teaching history as dates and events but focus on drawing parallels and finding what Google likes to call “system analysis” for example how being religious zealots destroyed empires time and again across the globe with no exception. Or my favorite, any kingdom especially the big ones get destroyed by inner rot and court room politics than an external invasion
5. Its been 80 years since independence, at the rate of 12 years of education umpteen batches have passed through, time to teach real history be it about Jihad of Aurangazeb or Inquisitions by Spain in Goa or the Naval revolt of 1947 or how bankrupt England was at end of WW-II that it couldn't really control its "colonies"
6. Constantly I heard that "History is dead subject", this has led to people thinking it is set in stone and cannot be changed and more I have learnt over time, if anything its the opposite. It is as alive as Science and probably as fascinating

Of course all these require systemic changes in thinking and might need new ways of drafting curriculum and training teachers and probably a generation or two to go through.

My fundamental problem with the way I learnt history was, it was sorry to say completely Delhi Centric and sadly when I read Nehru Discovery of India, he was so freaking light on south of the Vindhya’s I was flabbergasted.

As one famous person once said, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it"