People's Democracy

SHODDINESS, IGNORANCE AND PREJUDICE MARK CLASS VI TEXT BOOK

§         It is mentioned that human beings had appeared on earth only lakhs of years ago in Africa. A few pages later in the text it is found that for millions of years, humans lived by hunting and gathering food.

 §         In the chapter on Vedic Civilisation, Zero was known during the vedic civilization. They also knew that the earth moved on its own axis and around the sun and also that the moon moved around the earth[p91].  On page 118, it is stated that zero was introduced in north India after Mauryas and Shungas and that it was Aryabhatta who suggested that earth revolves around the sun and rotates on its axis. The two periods are separated by 1000 years.

 §         The Egyptian calender is called a lunar calender while in fact it was solar.

 §         The underlying current of chauvinism, Brahminism, and anti-Muslim bias one finds in this book is most disturbing.  On page 102, it is stated: 'The last Mauryan king Brihadratha had lost the loyalty of army. The army chief Pushyamitra Sunga killed him in 187 BC and himself became the king. This is the only incident in the history of India till twelfth century AD when a king was killed and replaced.' The message is obvious: such killings became common only after the 12th century AD during the reign of Muslim kings. The statement is as insidious as it is false-a succession of patricides ruled in eastern India before the Mauryas and even a cursory reading of the Rajatarangini would show that the kings in the pre-Muslim times were no better or worse than later.

 §         It is mentioned under the chapter on Vedic Civilisation "Injuring or killing of cow was prohibited in the Vedic period.... Vedas prescribe punishment for injuring or killing cow by expulsion from the kingdom or by death penalty, as the case may be." P V Kane, the author in his monumental work- The History of Dharmasastras, Volume I, - does not support this view.