Hitler lives on as hero in Gujarat textbooks ..

byy Tina Parekh/TNN

Ahmedabad:
In the rest of the world, it would be outrageous to have the Holocaust,
in which millions of Jews were butchered by the Nazis,
attributed to German ‘nationalism’,
without a word of condemnation of one of the darkest periods of human history.

But not in Gujarat, where, one year after the eruption of a controversy over the distortion of history in school textbooks,
students still learn about Nazism as “a co-ordination of nationalism and socialism’’.
In both the newly-revised Class IX social sciences book and Class X social studies textbook,
there are grave distortions and uncritical description of Hitler and his Nazis.


The Times of India had last year raised the issue of glorification of Hitler in the Class X textbook,
but it was still taught in classrooms across the state because the BJP government took the defence that these books were introduced during the previous Congress regime.

However, there are similar anomalies in the revised Class IX social sciences textbook brought out by the Gujarat Textbook Board on March 14, 2005.
In a section on Nazism on page 11, the author makes no mention of the Holocaust, and instead, glorifies Hitler.

It says, “Hitler adopted an aggressive policy and led the Germans towards ardent nationalism.’’
It goes on to mention “In thinking of Nazism, there is co-ordination of nationalism and socialism’’ and that “due to severe nationalism of Italy and Germany and their aggressive policy, the nations of the world thought of forming groups.’’

There seems to be symbolic capping of words like ‘Swastik’ in the section on Nazism. It appears as “The Nazi soldiers were wearing blue dress and were adorning the symbol of ‘swastik’. They considered Hitler as their Fuhrer’ (saviour).’’

The Class X book too presents a frighteningly uncritical picture of Fascism and Nazism. Section ‘Ideology of Nazism’ reads, “Hitler lent dignity and prestige to the German government within a short time by establishing a strong administrative setup....
He instilled the spirit of adventure in the common people.’’

Some Other Gems
“A uniform civil code should be prepared and be implemented in the entire nation’’ — Chapter 9, Pg 94


“Wild animals are like our family members’’—Chapter 18, Pg 155


“The Pope gave religious order to Portugal and Spain to find out new waterways to reach India, which is known as ‘Pope Line’ in history’’—
Chapter 1, Pg 3


“The youth fall in age group of 10-19...The youth group is a non-productive part of the nation.They are simply consumers of material goods and services’’—Chapter 19, Pg 164