History books to refocus on Swami Vivekananda, Netaji, Shyama Prasad

The central government is likely to rectify Indian history text-books at the school and college level, with renewed focus on some of India’s and Bengal’s most revered ideologues, like Swami Vivekananda, Netaji Subhas Chandra  Bose, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Syed Bhagat Singh and Khudiram Bose. 

This “rectification of history” is already under way with the National Book Trust and the NCERT working on the inclusion of detailed accounts of the life and teachings of these revolutionary thinkers from India who played major roles in India’s struggle for freedom. 

“I recently met with the Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. She said the process of rewriting history has already started. It is time that Indian history books gave Netaji and other leaders the importance they deserves,” Chandra Kumar Bose, who recently joined the BJP and Sarat Chandra Bose’s grandson told Millennium Post. 

The teachings of Swami Vivekananda, whom Netaji greatly admired as well as generations after him, and Shyama Prasad Mukherji will also be included in the revised text books. Shyama Prasad was a politician, barrister and academician who founded the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, in 1951, a party which would later evolve into the BJP. 

Khudiram Bose and Bhagat Singh were revolutionaries who were hanged by the British for their revolt against the Raj. 

There is more in store. Bose has also requested the BJP led Government to make available a history book penned by the legendary historian Ramesh Chandra Mazumder and rejected by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. 

“This book had a chapter on the Indian National Army(INA), of which Netaji was the supreme Commander, which valiantly fought the British armed forces in South East Asia for freeing India from the Imperialist forces,” Chandra Kumar Bose added.  

The INA, say some historians, had a huge role to play in finally ousting the British colonial rule and India’s independence in 1947. 

Interestingly, Chandra Kumar Bose and other members of Netaji’s family took part in a function for declassification of 100 secret Government files on Netaji at the behest of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on January 23. 

Netaji was “officially” declared dead by the Congress led Union Government under Pt Jawaharlal Nehru, a fact that could not be conclusively established by any inquiry commission and experts worldwide. 

“January 23 marks a new era of transparency with regard to Netaji’s life and struggle for freedom. For 70 years, the Congress government has suppressed information on this great leader,” explained Bose.