Protest against dropping ‘history’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state secretariat of Renaissance Values Protection Committee on Tuesday flayed NCERT decision to drop chapters on the glorious struggles of women in Travancore, other movements of the dalits and backward communities against the oppressive customs of the upper caste  from the text book of ninth standard.

The committee appeal-ed to all democratic forc-es to fight against the attempts to communalise and distort history.

Committee chairman Vellapally Natesan presi-ded over the meeting and convenor Punnala Sree-kumar presented the wor-king report in the presence of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Three chapters from NCERT ninth class history book have been removed. These chapters were about the historic struggles during Renaissance movement including Channar rebellion. As far as Kerala is concerned, these struggles are part of women upsurge and struggles in defence of their rights. The chapters referred to the changes in the dress code based on caste system during nineteenth and twentieth century, the committee said.

It alleged that the chapters had been removed at the behest of the Central government. The committee said it will not allow any move to bury the glorious struggles of the marginalized sections.

Punnala Srekumar informed the meeting that barring Wayanad, the Renaissance Values Protection committees had been formed in all districts. The activities of extending the committees work to the taluk level have begun. The public meetings scheduled earlier would now be held after the polls.

K Soma Prasad MP, B Raghavan, P.R. Devadas, K Shanthakumari, P K Sajeev, P Ramabhadran, Dr Hussain Madavoor, C P Sugathan, Ramachan-dran Mullasserri attended the meeting.