Congress' 'appeasement' led to Partition: Haryana board textbook

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, May 9

A new Class IX history textbook introduced by the Haryana Board of Secondary Education has blamed the alleged appeasement policy of the Congress for the country’s Partition.

Uploaded on the board’s website, the book cites the Congress leadership’s “weariness and greed for power” among reasons behind the country’s division in 1947. “The Congress wanted to collaborate with the Muslim League against the British government. The Lucknow Pact of 1916, Khilafat Movement of 1919 and the Gandhi-Jinnah talks in 1944 were examples of the appeasement policy. It encouraged communalism. Mohammed Ali Jinnah was wooed again and again and due to the undue importance he got, he started opposing the Congress forever,” reads the book with a special section on the “Congress Appeasement Policy”. The book calls for a debate on appeasement policy in the present political context. “If Partition was necessary to ensure peace between the two countries, why hasn’t the peace been established even today,” it questions.

New history lessons in Haryana

Class IX: Gandhi sacrificed trusted lieutenant Patel to nominate Nehru as Cong chief in 1946

RSS founder KB Hedgewar & Abhinav Bharat’s Vinayak Damodar Savarkar find mention

Class X: Indus Valley Civilisation has been mentioned as ‘Saraswati Indus Civilisation’

Rejecting the changes in the textbooks as “politicisation of education”, former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda says, “They should have taught how the Congress’ struggle led to Independence.” Board Chairman Prof Jagbir Singh maintains that the Congress leaders were “always eager to assume power and easily agreed to Partition”. “Had they agreed to share power with Jinnah, the country wouldn’t have had to face Partition as he (Jinnah) died soon thereafter,” he avers.

RSS founder KB Hedgewar and Abhinav Bharat founder Vinayak Damodar Savarkar are covered in the book. There is a special mention of Savarkar’s stay in Andaman jail, but there is no mention of his mercy petitions. “It’s more important to mention that he was sentenced to imprisonment for two births and suffered atrocities,” claims Prof Jagbir. The Class X history book mentions Indus Valley Civilisation as ‘Saraswati Indus Civilisation’. “We are not undermining the Indus Valley Civilisation. It’s only that a number of new sites emerged alongside erstwhile Saraswati river,” clarifies the main coordinator for writing the books, Associate Professor Ramesh Kumar from Government College, Bilaspur (Yamunanagar).

There was a need to change history books as the earlier ones were more focussed on the Britishers and Mughals, says Prof Jagbir. “We have added how Haryana contributed in the freedom struggle…,” he adds.