 "Akshay Kumar says history books have ‘less on Prithviraj Chauhan, more on Mughals’. Is he accurate in his claim?")
Why are Bollywood stars prone to the foot-in-mouth syndrome? After Ajay Devgn was schooled on the issue of Hindi not being our national language, it was the turn of Akshay Kumar. Superstar Akshay, who will be seen on the big screen on 3 June in Samrat Prithviraj, was heavily criticised after he said that children’s history textbooks are filled with information on Mughals but hardly have any lines on Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan. What Akshay said? Akshay Kumar has been on a massive promotion spree for his upcoming movie Samrat Prithviraj, which will be out in theatres on 3 June. Akshay plays the lead character of the warrior Rajput king in the historical action drama alongside Manushi Chillar. On Wednesday, during an interview on the movie, Akshay lamented about the lack of information on Hindu kings in history textbooks in India and added that the education ministry needed to take cognisance of the matter. In the interview, he said, “It’s sad we don’t know about our own kings.” “There were only three-four lines about Samrat Prithviraj in the history books that I read. Thanks to this film, I got to know so much about him. I don’t think anyone else also knew about him,” he added. “When I was talking to my son about him (Prithviraj), he said ‘I know about the British Empire, Mughal empire, but who’s he?’ So it’s a sad thing that we don’t know about our own kings. There were only a few lines about Rana Pratap, Rani of Jhansi. But there are a lot of chapters on Mughals,” he added. The 54-year-old actor urged the education ministry to try and bring about a balance and introduce more of ‘our’ culture, Hindu kings into the textbooks.
Twitter schools Akshay Shortly after the interview, people on Twitter reacted to Akshay negatively and asked him to get his facts right. One netizen wrote, “Clearly @akshaykumar never went to school in India or studied from NCERT textbooks. He must have been tutored in RSS shakhas.” Another Twitter user pointed out that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) history textbook of class VII had an entire chapter on Prithviraj Chauhan.
A Twitter user also asked if Akshay was speaking of textbooks in India or of Canada, a jibe at his Canadian citizenship.
Some others also latched on to a previous comment he had made about ‘education not being a priority’.
Mughals vs Hindu kings in textbooks The representation of Mughal rules vis-à-vis Hindu kings in history textbooks is not a new issue brought to the fore by Akshay Kumar; in fact, it’s been ongoing for some years now. In July 2021, a research report by the director of Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC) Sumeet Bhasin, researcher Chandni Sengupta, Deepa Kaushik and Sanket Kate, called ‘Distortions and Misrepresentation of India’s past: History textbooks and why they need to change’ had stated that the NCERT history books pay “disproportionate attention” to Mughal rulers. The report had stated that there was an average of 97 references to Emperor Akbar, 30 references to Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and Jahangir each, as opposed to just eight mentions of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji, and almost no reference of Rajput kings Rana Sanga and Maharana Pratap. Similarly in 2017, the Class VII textbook was revised, removing big portions about the Mughals and the Muslim rulers before them including Razia Sultana and Muhammad bin Tuqhlaq. The textbook had then kept Shivaji as the focal point of medieval Indian history. It expanded his role as well as that of his family and the Maratha generals. On the other hand, paragraphs on Razia Sultana (the first woman to rule Delhi) and Muhammad bin Tughlaq’s various eccentric decisions (shifting the empire’s capital, replacing all coins overnight) as well as the reign of Sher Shah Suri all had been done away with. Textbook controversies The debate on textbooks isn’t only limited to the matter of Mughal rules vs Hindu kings. In Karnataka, there’s been a raging controversy over the ‘saffronisation’ of the books ; chapters on revolutionary and freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan, Lingayat social reformer Basavanna , Dravidian movement pioneer Periyar and reformer Narayana Guru have allegedly been removed from the syllabus or severely curtailed with. Also, a speech by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar has been added to the Class X language textbook. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .