by Rohan Jolly

Created on: April 22, 2009

While everyone wants freedom from the watchful eye and strong hand of the government it is often the wisest move to entrust such activities with people who are working for the greater good of everyone and not for one small aim or objective.

Let me elaborate, I suppose most people would want a separate agency to be set up to decide the history syllabus. Perhaps a committee consisting of the most knowledgeable historian in the country and perhaps even experts from other parts of the world. Most probably they would come up with the most concise and in dept history syllabus we would have ever seen and parents would be able to sit in peace knowing their children are getting a detailed unbiased knowledge of our past and the worlds history.

But such a Utopian situation is very unlikely. Firstly historians are not unbiased all knowing people. they are very likely to support their own point of view and that point of view might not always be the best for the students or the nation. Secondly, frankly they are far too likely to make the books thick beyond measure with unnecessary things. History simply need be taught at a fairly basic level to ensure we are not disconnected with the world and our past and hopefully make us a tab bit wiser and smarter so that no one can fool us with a Trojan horse again.

the government is the perfect body to decide what should be put in the school history books as they have everyone's better self interest at heart. Perhaps they would change a few things here and there and maybe omit a few details but if that is enough to increase the level of patriotism and national pride in our people then it is a small price to pay. More importantly history must finally be taught for a greater purpose than simply the accumulation of facts and dates, we have university majors for that. History must now be something which will make a difference in an individual's life and hopefully that will translate to the nation as well.

I suppose someone very rightly said that history is written by the victors. Lets allow our government a fair chance, what have we to lose? Students are currently least interested in studying history and feel it is a complete waste. Only a new program designed keeping all this in mind will bring us back on track and I really can't see how anyone can do that better than the government who has been making the very history we read in our books.

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