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April 28, 2002
ARTICLES: Whitewashing history
IN its recent report on education in Southeast Asia, Time magazine describes the phenomenon of “textbook whitewashing”. It focuses mainly on Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and other countries in the region which control the textbooks taught in their schools. This is not something new. As Time says “history textbooks are the record of a nation’s conscience”. That would explain why governments want the people to learn only what brings out the nation in a positive light.
Didn’t the Western democracies also tamper with their history books in the days of yore? When they were not open societies and did not have the culture of tolerance and pluralism as they do now, Britain, America and Europe did no better. We know how the British writers portrayed Clive and other marauders in the days when they ruled over an empire on which the sun never set. The American account of the slave trade also glorified a practice which is abhorred today. The Germans chose to gloss over the inter-war period in their history books for many years when they were being drilled about the collective guilt they were supposed to feel about the Nazis. We heard from time to time about history being rewritten in countries with every change of regime.
Mercifully a lot has changed as societies have opened up. Although textbooks in many countries are still recording history on the lines the Establishment wants them written, there is more freedom being given to the intellectuals to analyze and interpret. But third world countries lacking the confidence of the western societies are still wary about allowing open discussions on sensitive issues such as religion, national security and their historical heroes. In this context, the debate started recently by historiographers in India and Pakistan about the contradictions in their interpretations of their common history in school textbooks is of great significance.
In Books & Authors we have carried some articles and reviews on this issue. The fact is that history textbooks in South Asia remain untouched by this debate. The need of the hour is, as Dr Mubarak Ali, a renowned historian, points out, to create awareness among our students about what happened in the past. It is important that they be told that there are two (sometimes even more) sides of the coin.
They would acquire a better perspective and understanding of historical events if they are not merely asked to memorize them as narrated from our point of view (with unpleasant facts glossed over). Let them be told the other points of view as well. Of course this would call for a revamping of our education methodology so that students are required to investigate facts and discuss them. It would also call for greater tolerance in our approach.
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