KOLKATA/ BHOPAL: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education decided to rectify the Class VIII history textbook which labelled freedom fighter Khudiram Bose as a terrorist, by referring to him as an “armed revolutionary”.
A review committee, headed by Trinamool MLA Jiban Mukhopadhyay, a retired history college teacher, examined the content of the textbook and decided to correct the mistake.
The decision to form the committee was announced in response to a complaint by CPM’s Pradip Saha in the Assembly in last July.
In 2014, the state government had set up a four-member committee comprising historians. But the content remained unchanged because the committee had said the word ‘’terrorist’’ had nowhere been used to describe Khudiram.
The Bengali and English versions of the textbook have a chapter of the freedom movement where there is a reference to “revolutionary terrorism” in which Khudiram’s name has been mentioned.
In its report, the review committee mentioned that the word terrorism might send a wrong message to students.
“Terrorism was the term that was widely used to refer to a certain kind of freedom fighters between 1908 and 1930s,” said a committee member.
Row over exam paper
An MA (Political Philosophy) exam paper in Madhya Pradesh’s Guna district created controversy after a question asked students to “describe the activities of revolutionary terrorist”
Former CM and BJP national vice president Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed the state government.
The All India Democratic Students Organisation met the Jiwaji University Registrar and voiced their protest.
“The development dishonours revolutionaries, from Khudiram Bose to Bhagat Singh. Stern action should be taken against those responsible,” said AIDSO leader Astha Soni.