Strongly opposing an alleged proposal to include an account of Ram and his rule as part of the “classical period” in the school syllabus for Indian history, the Samajwadi Party’s general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya on Wednesday asked whether the government wanted today’s women to suffer abandonment like Sita and other goddesses.
Some reports have suggested that a high-level committee constituted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to help revamp the social sciences syllabus for schools has suggested that the Ramayana and Mahabharata be included in the curriculum.
“Today, incidents of caste violence and oppression of women are taking place on a large scale. Somewhere, incidents of urination on Dalits, tribals and people of backward communities, [as well as] beating children to death for not paying their fees on time are coming to light. Even in college and university campuses, incidents of girl students being forced to commit suicide due to humiliation keep coming,” Mr. Maurya said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “Are NCERT and the government, by including Ramayana and Mahabharata in the curriculum, promoting the abandonment of great goddesses like Sita, Shurpanakha, the tragedy of cutting off nose and ears on marriage proposal, and the disrobing of many other goddesses like Draupadi?” he asked.
The SP leader argued that the government shuould instead teach students about freedom fighters and nation builders. “If the issue is about teaching the heroes of the country in the curriculum, then bring nation builders and heroes of the nation in the curriculum like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar, and great heroes like Rani Laxmibai, Jhalkari Bai, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sardar Bhagat Singh, Ashfaq Ullah Khan, Pt. Ram Prasad Vismil, Thakur Roshan Singh,” he added.
