UP syllabus: Savarkar added, Nehru excluded from 'great leaders' list
From the upcoming academic session in July, the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP) will teach students about the life and times of India's 50 great personalities. Reportedly, the board has included the biographies of 50 iconic personalities in its syllabus, including the likes of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Deen Dayal Upadhyay, among others. However, India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was left out.
Why does this story matter?
The decision from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led UP government to drop Nehru from the syllabus has raised many eyebrows. As per the Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra released ahead of last year's legislative assembly polls, the saffron brigade promised to include the life tales of freedom fighters and great men in the state's educational curriculum.
Students should learn about great leaders like Savarkar: UP minister
Speaking about the addition of Savarkar, Uttar Pradesh's Secondary Education Minister Gulab Devi told Hindustan Times, "If we don't teach students about our great leaders like Savarkar and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay, what do we teach them?" "Are we supposed to tell our kids about terrorists instead of making them aware of the life and times of great personalities of India?" she asked.
Nehru didn't make supreme sacrifice for India: Devi
When asked about the decision to drop Nehru from the curriculum, the UP minister defended the decision by claiming that he did not make the supreme sacrifice for India, and thus he was excluded from the list. "Nehru had not made the supreme sacrifice for the country. Hence, Nehru was excluded from the list of 50 biographies of great men," Devi added.
This subject is compulsory for all students: UPMSP secretary
Meanwhile, UPMSP Secretary Dibyakant Shukla revealed that all the students must study and pass this subject, but the marks won't be added to the high school mark sheets. "This subject is compulsory for all students, and it is necessary to pass it. But, the marks will not be included in the high school and intermediate exams mark sheet," Shukla clarified.
Know about UP Board's new curriculum
Biographies of Bharat Ratna Mahamana Madan Mohan Malviya, Mahavir Swami, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Nana Saheb, and Sarojini Naidu, among others, will be taught to students. Reportedly, Class 9 students will be studying the life story of Birsa Munda, Chandrashekhar Azad, Veer Kunwar Singh, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Gautam Buddha, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Jyotiba Phule, Savarkar, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Jagadish Chandra Bose, and Vinoba Bhave.
New additions for Classes 10, 11 students in UP
For Class 10, students will be taught about Roshan Singh, Mangal Pandey, Sukhdev, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lokmanya Tilak, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, and Khudi Ram Bose. Class 11 students will learn about Bhagat Singh, Ram Prasad Bismal, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Malviya, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Mahabir Jain, Arvind Ghosh, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Naidu, Nana Saheb, Maharishi Patanjali, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, and Sushruta.
Details on Class 12 students' new curriculum
Besides that, students in Class 12 will be taught about personalities like Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi, Rajguru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Rabindranath Tagore, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rani Lakshmi Bai, and Maharana Pratap. They will also learn about Adi Shankaracharya, Guru Nanak Dev, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, APJ Abdul Kalam, Ramanujacharya, CV Raman, Panini, and Aryabhatta's contributions.
