No historian to correct Liberation War history

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Education ministry’s flimsy attempt at correcting the history of the Liberation War in textbooks through two committees of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) without a historian on them has made the process all the more questionable.

Academicians and historians talking to The Daily Star also questioned the way the education ministry furtively approved the committee reports that would end up getting into the ‘corrected’ textbooks.

Indicating that the drafts of the corrected history may have been externally tampered with, a few members of the two committees said they were not fully aware of how much of the final reports prepared by them remained.

The ministry in a dubious move arranged training and 43-day vacation for the official in charge of supervising the work of these committees a few days after the committees started working.

The supervising official, a joint secretary of the education ministry, did not even have the scope to see the reports of the committees.

Sources said the only thing that all the committee members and officials concerned knew about the correction was that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will be referred to as the ‘Father of the Nation’ and Ziaur Rahman as ‘proclaimer of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu’ on March 27, 1971.

“I don’t know about the correction of history or changes made in the textbooks. No meeting was ever held centring the correction of history in the textbooks,” a member of the committee for the secondary textbooks told The Daily Star.

Instead, noted historians alleged that the two committees are trying to strike a balance between the two versions of the history of 1971 written during the rule of the last Awami League and BNP-led four-party governments, rather than investigating the faults and writing the ‘real history’.

They said the present caretaker government would have to carry the same blame for history distortion like the previous political government if education ministry and NCTB fail to write the correct history of the Liberation War in the textbooks.

Prof Mamtazuddin Patwari, writer of a book on ‘Distortion of Facts in the Textbooks on the Liberation War of Bangladesh,’ said present committees have prepared the drafts aiming to highlight Mujib and Zia, two leaders of two major political parties, which is a kind of balancing technique.

Professor of history of Dhaka University Dr Syed Anwar Husain said corrections regarding the history of the Liberation War do not mean correction as to who declared independence first; it involves many other corrections of politically motivated distortions of information about the Liberation War.

“This type of correction can only be acceptable when done by professional historians free from political bias. Administratively done, corrections will not be acceptable to the nation,” he told The Daily Star.

The NCTB’s two committees are not acceptable on more than one ground, he said, adding that the committees comprising non-historians and administrative persons who may not have research background.

Two separate committees were formed to make the draft of the correct history, which would be included in primary and secondary textbooks for 2008 academic session.

A three-member primary textbooks correction committee led by NCTB official Ziaul Hasan has prepared the draft of the primary corrected history. Two other members of the committee are NCTB officers Mostaq Mian and Hasmat Monowara.

A five-member committee has prepared the draft of the corrected history for secondary textbooks. Dr Hasne Hena leads the committee comprising NCTB officials Monowara Sultana, Abdul Mannan, Feriwala Azad and Tahmina Rahman.

A group of education ministry top officials who were accused of several controversial initiatives like much-talked uni-track education system, are now allegedly trying to thwart the caretaker government’s initiative to present the ‘real history’ in textbooks, education ministry sources said.

The attempt to introduce so-called uni-track education system without consulting experts of the relevant field, however, failed in the face of widespread criticism by academics, intellectuals and students.

NCTB Chairman Prof Yusuf Farooq refused to provide this correspondent a photocopy of the drafts of corrected Liberation War history in the textbooks.

“I cannot provide you any copy of the draft as I did not give it to any newsman. You will find the corrected history after printing of the textbooks,” he said.

He also said that the history of war will be inserted in textbooks as described in the “Documents of the Bangladesh War of Independence” edited by Hasan Hafizur Rahman and published in 1982.

“There is no need of historian or expert for preparing the draft of the corrected history or checking the draft. I think our NCTB officials are the right persons to correct the history for the textbooks,” said Yusuf Farooq when asked why no experts are incorporated into the two committees.

Surprisingly enough, a member of the committee for correction of history in the secondary-level textbooks said they did not get the book edited by Hasan Hafizur Rahman.

“The committee is like a ‘puppet committee’ where the members have no right to correct or change any of the written text inside the books without direction from the top officials of education ministry. As a government officer, I can’t tell you who mainly deals with it,” the committee member added.

Education ministry Joint Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan was first given the charge of supervising the activities of two NCTB committees but later Education Secretary M Mamtazul Islam, another Joint Secretary of the ministry Humayun Khalid and Senior Assistant Secretary M Abbas Uddin supervised the two committees as Nazrul was on a 43-day leave, sources of education ministry and NCTB said.

“I cannot tell you anything about changes proposed for the textbooks and have not much knowledge about the two NCTB committees,” Joint Secretary Humayun Khalid told The Daily Star.

Renowned academicians, historians and experts in the field suggested that unbiased experts be incorporated into the committees for preparing drafts and another committee be formed for checking the drafts.

“Real history of the Liberation War cannot be written in the textbooks if corrections are made through maintaining a balance for all political groups. Real history, which might be so much difficult, should be written in the textbooks for informing the nation of the correct history. Otherwise there will be another type of distortion of history,” said renowned academician Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury.

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