Pushed on the back-foot over the controversy surrounding alleged dilution of Sikh history from Punjab School Education Board’s Class XI and XII history textbooks, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday announced the constitution of a six-member Oversight Committee, headed by eminent historian Prof Kirpal Singh.
The expert panel has been authorized to examine the recommendations of 2014 panel, set up by the then SAD-BJP Government, that had reviewed the History syllabus and to oversee all history books in the future.
Earlier, Capt Amarinder had defended his government’s move to make changes in the history textbooks of the two classes while ruling out any need to set up a panel to look into the same.
Notably, the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has also set 10-day deadline for the government to revoke changes in the textbooks, while warning of a massive protest on May 19.
lashing out at the Opposition for “unnecessarily politicising” the issue, Capt Amarinder said that the Government had decided to prevent any such politicization of history books by setting up a permanent committee to oversee the process of formulating the syllabus and ensuring error-free books on the subject.
Dismissing as “politically-motivated” the controversy on the issue, he said that the decision to review the syllabus and print books in alignment with the NCERT syllabus was taken during the SAD-BJP rule back in 2014. “In fact, there were no history books earlier and what SAD president Sukhbir Badal was citing was merely a guide,” he added.
Capt Amarinder reasserted that there had been “no deletion of syllabus relating to the Sikh Gurus”, and the entire history of the Gurus, including that if Baba Banda Singh Bahadur and four sahibzadas, had been incorporated in the chronological order in Class XI and XII syllabus.
The committee, headed by Prof Kirpal Singh, will comprise former Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University Prof JS Grewal, former pro-vice chancellor GNDU Prof Prithipal Singh Kapur, Emeritus Prof of History Panjab University Prof Indu Banga, besides two eminent historians to be nominated by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC).
Capt Amarinder said that the committee has been mandated to work on three aspects. “First would be to consider and report on the recommendations of the expert group constituted by the PSEB in 2014. It would review the changes made in the new history syllabus prescribed for Classes XI and XII subsequent to the recommendations of the expert group, and to suggest corrections, if any,” he said.
“Other aspect would be to examine the contents of the textbooks prescribed for Classes XI and XII, and to suggest corrections for factual and other errors, if any, and to align, as may be practicably possible, the History syllabus with that prescribed by the NCERT,” he said.
Apart from these, the committee has also been directed to exercise oversight over the syllabus and contents of textbooks prescribed for History for all classes in the Punjab School Education Board and to ensure that there are no factual discrepancies, said Capt Amarinder adding that the panel would be a permanent feature of the government.
Maintaining that history need to be in a chronological order, Capt Amarinder clarified that all the details about Sikh gurus have been included in Class XI and the Sikh history from Baba Banda Singh Bahadur onwards, including four sahibzadas, lahore Durbar, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and after that independence struggle, have been made the part of Class XII. “Do they want that this part be taught before guru sahibaansIJ” he asked.