Books to be rewritten with focus on Khudiram Bose's sacrifice

Kolkata: The state Education department has brought out a notification stating that it will bring amendment in Class VIII history books published by West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) that had dubbed freedom fighter Khudiram Bose as a terrorist.

The new text books that will be published soon will designate Bose as 'freedom fighter and revolutionary'. The state government had formed a review committee under the leadership of Jiban Mukhopadhyay after the issue was raised by the Opposition at the state Assembly in the month of July. State Education minister Partha Chatterjee had immediately announced the formation of a review committee to carry out an inquiry into the matter.

He had said that the department will submit a report within three months.

It is learnt that the committee had submitted two reports to the department following which the decision of the necessary amendments in the text book was taken.

The Education department has also directed WBBSE to take measures to ensure that the books with the changes should be brought out at an earliest. The committee has also pointed out some more changes in the text books which will be incorporated when the new books are published.

The committee has also conducted an assessment of the standard of the textbooks of Classes V to XII. It has also recommended on how language of the textbooks can be made more lucid.

A similar incident had come to light in 2014, when the history textbook of Class VIII had described the activities of freedom fighters like Khudiram Bose, Jatindranath Mukherjee and Prafulla Chaki as "extremism and terrorism".