Indian History Congress

HISTORY IN THE
NEW NCERT TEXT BOOKS
FOR CLASSES VI, IX AND XI

--- A Report and

an Index of Errors

IRFAN HABIB
SUVIRA JAlSWAL
ADITYA MUKHERJEE

Approved and Published by the Executive Comm ittee

Indian History Congress
Kolkala, 2003
 Published by Ramakrishna Chatterjee, Secretary,
Indian History Congress. Netaji Institute or Asian Studies,
Kolkata 700020

O lndian HislOry Congress. 2003

Price: Rs.50

Type-set by Aligarh Histolians Soci~ty, and prinl~d

by Ratan Gupta at the Litho-Colour Primers.
G.T. Road. Aligarh 2020() I.
 CONTENTS

Page

Preface

Report

I ndCK 01 ElTors 6

I. Makkhnn Lal. ct al . /" di(l {/lid rhl! World, lor Class VI 6

2. M3kk~an Lal, Anc:ienf India, for Closs Xl 27

3. Mecnakshi Jain. Medieval India, fo r Cl a~ XI 58

4. H :l.I'j Om. el ai, COrlll!l!Ipormy India, for Clas," IX gg

 Preface

The Ind ia n History Congress has, ever sll1ce l is founding

s ixt y·eig hl years ago. been constantly concerned with th..:
improvement of the sy llabi and of textbooks in HlSlory' in our
school s. colleges and uni versities. It gave support to the effort of
th e NCERT (National Council of Educa t iona l Research and
rrain ing) from the 19705 o nwards to produce school textbooks o f
high standard. books such as lei students have a tas te of Hi story
as seen wi th the expanding vis ion and critical apparatus of modern
time s. Eminent hi s torians like Professurs Romila Thapar. R.S .
Sharma, Salish Chandra and Sipan Chandra were involved In the
writing of the textbook s on indian hislory. while Professol' ArJun
Dev of the NCERT w rote a very imaginatively planned history of
worl d c ivili zatio ns. These books were regularl y updated , a nd
~erved not onl y as teKtbooks for schoo ls of the CBSE system, but
also as models for textbooks in the schools of the Stale boards
and o ther examination boards
An outcry agai nst these books arose suddenly with the
t:hanged political atmosphere of the last few years. Controversies
were raked up o ve r a few statemenlS made in Ihe textbooks. The
entire campai gn rrom the beginning lacked convic ti on. But there
was obviously official determination from the beginn ing to 're place
tho. books wilh a different kind of lex-IS .
The first step taken wa s to c hange th e "c urril'ular
framework" in order to be able to say that new textbooks are in
any case needed. Already at liS Callc ut Univers ilY sess ion <28-30
December 1999) the Indian His tory Congress expressed serious
reservat ions in thi s rega rd . When in 2000 the NCERT pu bli shed
its policy statement "National Curricu lum Framework of Sc hool
Education", the Indian Hi story Congress meeting at Kolkata, 2-4
Jan uary 200 I t passed a de tai led resolution questioning the way
History was now to be treated in the sc hool c urriculum , a nd the
way '·values" were bei ng linked to "education in re ligion".
In the year 2002 four textboo ks were published by the
vi Preface
NCERT, two for Classes VI and IX , which had units tlssigned to
Hislory, and two respectively on Ancient and Medieval Indiu . r<lr
Class Xl These are presumably designed to meet the rcquin:l)lcnl~
of the new "Curriculum Framework."
The textbooks caused much disquiet nmon g lho~c will;
read them, a nd there was considerable discussion in the pres~ and
other m edia .
In view of the importance of the mailer. the l ouian HiHory
Congress at its session at Guru ~anak Dev University, Amrilsar.
28-30 December 2002 , decided that the Executive Committee
should arrange for a scrutiny of the textbooks and iswe its repor(
t hereo n. A committee was th e reupon constituted. compris in g
Professor I ffan Habib (A lig~I1'h ), Proft.'_ss or SUVInI lai .swal
( Hyderabad) a nd Professor Ad itya Mukherj ~c (New Delhi). 1<1
examine and report on the book s.
As wi ll be seen from t he Committee ' s report. till.!
Comm iuee members weill through each of the books in a very
meticulou s fas hi on, and, instead o f o nl y giving. a ge neral
assessment, compiled an extensive Index of Errors. From this Index
a ll readers can form Iheiropinl0n of tile n:l.tureo flhe new NCERT
Hi slory textbooks.
I should like to express my deep sense of gl·.1t ituue to the
three members of the committee who have spent so much lime
and labour on the work. /
Atter Professor Dwijendra Tripathi , President o f nur
Congress, approved the report , it was c ircu lated among memhe r'
of the Executive Committee. With their unanimous approval, il is
now being re leased as a publicati~n of the Indian History Congress.
I am grateful for Professor Shireen Moos-vi, In-charge of
Publications, THC, for seeing this volume thro ugh rhe pre ... s.
lL IS hoped that the Report and its Index. of Errors will he
of much use 10 teachers and students of our schools as well <I!\ 1(1
gene ra l readers interested in a true depiction of Qur past ,

Ramaknshnu Ch~rt(" l"Jc(,"

Sec.:retary
)0 June 2003 Indian History C()llgrcs~
 Report

In September-November 2002 the National Counci l of

Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Government of
India, New Delhi. released four textbooks dealing w holly or In
part with Hi story, in line with its new con trovers ial Currku lam
Framework. These books are:
1. Makk han Lal , el al.: Indian and thi' World , for Class VI
(Hi storical port io n: U ni t II)
2 . Had Om, e l al.: Contl!.mporary India. for C lass IX ( Hi.~wriC :11
portion: Un it I)
3 . Makkhan Lal : Anci~nt India, for C lass XI
4. Meenak"shi Jain: Me.dieval Ind ia. for C lass X I
Though the textbooks nos. 1 and 2 are attributed 10 two
groups of writers, it turned ou l from post-publicati on statemen ts
in the press that the historical portions in Nos. t and 2 were
respectively authored by Professors Makkhan Lal and Hari Om .
who admitted their indi vidual re:>ponsibility for them.
Upon the release of the books, r.here was widesprcau
criticism o n the score of their language, approach , bias, anu fuc ts.
Since these books a re bound to be read by a very large numhcr
of sc hool students. notably those of schools in the CSSE system.
and so have an immen se capacity to cause damage, much co ncc.rn
has been repeatedly expressed in the media about them .
In these circu mstances the Indian History Congre s.~.
mee ting for its 63'~ annua l session a t the Guru Nanak Dev
University, Amrilsar, 28·30 December -2002, desired th<ll Ihe
Execulive·Commiltee shou ld have the text books scrutinized and
issue a report giving an assessmen t of their content s.
A committee consisting of the three of us was accordingl y
const ituted by the General Secretary, Professor Ramakrishna
Chatterjee, in order to subject the textbooks to a detailed scrutiny
and submi t its concl usions to the Execut ive Committee .
We decided that the tex tbooks should be read by each
of us and where ver e rrors a nd queslionab.le statements were
2 Report

found , tbese should be taken up for comment. For ,hi ... pUlpll~e
lrfan Habib read and co mmented on Textbook!. Nos.] a nd 4;
Suvlra JaiswaJ did the sa me with te~lbo o lo: Nu 3 . a nd A.
Mukherjee with No.2 . All th e member s re ad eac h \l lh e l" ';
co mments. and the resultant Index of Errors has .helr ~n l lccllve
e ndorsement. They wish to ac kn owledge with gratitude omel;
and commen ts made available to them by many s..:; h o lllrs, IHll.lb ly
Professor Arjun Dev, with hi s own vast ex perience of the' prevlnu~
e ffort al the NCERT al produc ing textbooks in HislOry and Ot he r
Social Science subjects. We, however. s hQuld like il 10 be
unders tood that we alone are responsible for the conte nt s l)( the
rodex, as II is now presented.
The prac tice fo ll owed in this Index is to glv~ 10 \:.H:h
case 3S extensive a quotation as possib le under the relcvil nl p:lge
no. from the new NCERT textbooks. and the n !>I ubJ'::'!: 1 e~lCh
pa ssage to concise a naly sis o r comment Thi s m!;lhod hu ~ the
advantage thai teachers and pupils can c heck with aUf Index as
they read the textbooks , and tak e into account the co rrec tJ,~n ~
that arc given here page-by-page.
In our Index we have taken nOle of the changes mude In
the 'second reprint ' editions of Textbooks nos. I and 2. brought
o ut in January 2003 and October 2002 respec ti ve ly . Where In
the s tatements quoted, changes ha ve been made in the reprmt
ed itions, these ha ve bee n indicated. Generally, the qu o ta thm~
from these two books are taken from the reprint e(hti om•. unle .,s
otherwise indi cated.
The arran geme nt o f the Index follow s rou g hly 11
chrono logical arrange ment. That is. Professor Makkhan La1's
lex ts covering the Ancient World and Ancie nt Indi a. for Classes
V and XI are dealt with first, (allowed by Dr Meenak s hi Jain 's
text on Medieval India for C lass Xl, and, Ihen. finall y ProfesSClr
Hari Om's text on Modern and Conte mporary India for C l lIs~
IX.
Lest readers be surprised at the enormou~ number of
errors that have bee n nOled , il needs to be s tressed Ihal·
unfortunately the Index of Errors cannot s till stilt be deemed to
be complete; and man y slips and misstatements of varying deg rees
of serious ness have had to be overlooked to keep our rndex within
manageable limits.
It is to be noted that all the four books Uniformly suffer
from similar defects. The language is poor. with many s pelling
u!ld grammati cal errors, infelicitous expressions and qbscurities .
 Report J
which are all pnmary lapses that any sChoOltCXlbook must avolli
If these books are to be translated into Hindi. one wonders how
the translators will be ab le to understand many of the statement ..
made in them. One also fears for students who might model thelL'
English prose after the texts of these books.
There is universally an absolutely poor grasp of hi",loncnl
facts . Failure here is. of course. far more 'serious than poverty (I f
expression The Index of Errors shows that the depanures from
facts arc so considerable Ihal one sometImes begins (0 feel
whether a pupil reading these books wdr really learn much
History at all.
Often the erro rs are apparently mere product.s 0 1
ignorance; but as often they stem from an anx iety 10 prt:",ent
History with a very s trong chauvinistic and communal bi:I";. The
te~lbooks draw heavily on the kind of propaganda that the s(\-
called Sangh Parivar publicat ions have been prOJecling for quite
some time. The major features of the presentation of Indi un
history in the new NCERTbooks may be summed up as follows '·
I. India IS held 10 be the original home of !he Aryans. N,)
concern at all is shown with the origins of peop les ~peakin~
Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic languages.
2. The Indian civiliza tion is s upposed to have liS S(,1e
fountainhead in the "Vedic Civilization" which i'i given much
greater antiquity than histOrian s have been Willing 10 assign
10 It so far. The lalter is claimed to have embraced the Indu s
Civilization. now to be ca lled the "Indus-Saraswati"'
civil ization. which is thus entirely credi 'led to the Aryan::..
3. All substanlive, scientific discoveries (from zero and decimal
placement of numerals 10 heliocentric ast ronom y) ure
s upposed to have been made in the "Vedic Civilization."
4. The Hindu religion is held superior to other religions. The
Upanishads are proclajmed as "the mosL profound work s 01
ph il osophy in any religion". Both Buddhism and lainis m are
held to have emerged oul of Chern . Hindus had no sense 01
constrai nts about chronology. unlike the Christians . Hindu .~ .
moreover, have been by their faith true pat rialS. In the modern
freedom struggle 100, they alone are held to have been
sincere, while the Muslims only dreamt of a Muslim empire
or a separate nation. Medi ev al Mu s lim s and mo'dero
Christians are also held to have been deeply influenced by
racism :
5 .. The caste sys tem was all right in the neginlo.ng; on ly
"rigidities" (not inequities or oppression of Dulits ) are seell
4 Rt'port
in its later stages and very lightly touched Upoll . The Dalits,
ill effect, are excluded from history,
6. A neutral or even admiring sta llce is mllintained about
practices s uch as sat, 3nd jaulrar in ancient and medieval
Indi a. Abduct iollS of women are described as a leg itimate
form of marriage (rahlwsa), not 3pparently ill co n .~istcnt wi th
women being he ld in honour.
7. Fore igne rs ha ve taught litt le or nothi ng to Indians, while
India has given so much to the world in all realms of cultu re.
8. Muslims brought linle new to India. e'!(cept oppression and
temple-destruction . All the dark co rners are thoruughly
pr~senled in th e narrative of medieval Indlu . 11.\ regards
Mu slims, while they .I re coolly overlooked in Ihal of ancient
India.
9. The rise of a composi te culture is ignored or downpJayed
Kllhir getS with difficulty a sentence in the Med ieva l Indi !!
textbook (w here. on the othe r hand. Guru Gobind S ingh
appears as II "devotee or Goddess C handi ").
10. in modern India. "Muslim separat ism" is the grcat bughear,
whi le Hindu communalism is not even mcntiuncd , and the
Hindu Mahasabha leaders appear uniformly as great patriot~ .
II. The growt h of the great modern values of democracy. gende,'
equali ~y, secularism. welfare state, etc . is neglected . ~r pas~cd
over in silence.
12. Therc is litlle or nothing on Indian social reformerlo like Rilln
M ohan Roy, Keshav C handra Sen, l ot iba Phul e and even
B.R . Ambedkar - since apparently traditional Hindu ~nclc t y
is not thougbt to hrlVc been in need of. reform.
13. The mainstream sec ular :lnd democratic e lement:> in the
Nat ional Movement arc presented as unimportant or /11en.'
obstacles to the growth or (Hindu) "Cultural NatlOnilli~m"
Hars h words are used for the Moderates; there is a deliberate
effort to eit her ignore or present in unfavourable light
Jawaharlal Nehru. and also Ihe Left. es pe cially the
CommunislS.
With such parochialism and prejudice as the dri ving force
behind these tex tbooks, illS clear that Ihese cannol be converted
into IIcceptab le textbooks by a mere removal of the. linguisli<.·
and f,lclual errors pointed OU I in our index . In many cases lhe
basic arguments in the textbooks are built on these very error!.
or fact. and so the errors cannot be removed without chung ing
the main ideas behind the textbooks.
 Report 5
These textboo ks a re therefore beyond the realm of
salvage, and they need to be withdraw n altogether.
Until such a withdrawa l takes place , we hupe our Index
will help both teachers and students to rectify the more seno us
e rrors in the books and so attain a more balanced view of our
past.

Trfan Habib
Suvira Jaiswa l
Aditya Mukherjee

Postscript: As thi s Report goes to press, the NCERT ha s issued

three more textbooks conta ining materi al on Hi story, for Classes
VII, X and XII. These would need to be sc rutinlz.ed Will'; as mu!;h
care as the books eovered by Ihe present Report. Indeed, Ihis
Report should be trea ted as an advance warning thai th e three
new book9 too cannot by any means be accepted on trust.

R amakrishna Chatterjee
June 2003 Secretary, Indian Hhaory Congress
 INDEX OF
ERRORS

1
Makkhan Lal, et. al., [ndw and the World
- Social Sciences Textbook for Class VI
FirSI ed ition. September 2002, reprint cd" J unuary 2003.

Unit II People and Society in the Ancient Period

7. Introduction
Page 50 (Page 51 in reprint cd.):
Songam literature arid Tripitakas".
The Tripitakas, being chronologically earlIe r. s houlll
precede Sangam literature.

8. The Ea rly Humans

Page 52
"Sto ne Age ,., is diVIded into three phases - Palaeolithic.
M eso lithic and Neolithic",
The terms are not defined, nor even rendered mto Engli Sh
as Old, Middle and Ne' \' S lone Ages.

Pages S4~S5

"The discovery of the wheel made a signific:mt difference. It

was used also to spin COLlon nnd wool and wcave cloth. Some
time aner it was lIsed In making transport v.chic les like bullock
caris and chariots."
The spinning wheel was not known 10 ancient India; and
its use (even in . ils country of origin. China) is much l:uer thun
the use of the cart-wheel. Wheel was not u~ed in weaving al all
(Hal> the author never seen an old hand-loom being worked? j

Page 56
Exercises: Things to do:
 Ancien' Illdia. Class VI 7
"CUI out the pictures of tools and other materia l remain!. from
old magazines and h,story books and pasleY
Curious "values" being Iaughl; mutilate history books .

9. Eal"ly Non-Jndinn Civilizations

Page 57
Map "Early Civilizations' shows the same frOn!ier s
(w hi ch are largely those of Harappan Civilization) as Iho.')e of
' Harappan and Vedic Civilizations'. It IS wrong to Insist through
such a map that the terrjtory know n to the t:omposers of the
Vedas was the same as mat of the Indus C ivilization . See commen t
under Page 88.

Page 58
.... In dian C ivil ization \..Ihich has unbroken history of nbo!!t !WOO
years, Le. from Ihe neolithjc ttmes."
The Iudus Civilization, held to be Ine enrlle.<i t in India
Ceven by B.B. Lal) , LS dated 2500-2000 BC. How then I.":ou ld
India have had a "CIv ilization" from 6000 Be?

I)age 58
"You may be surpri!>ed It) know lhat Indian and C hin ese
civili zations are the only ones which have survived ... All other
I:arly civilizutions have disappea.red and the prese nt people I
c ivilizations have 00 connection with the past ones."
The s tatement IS wrong and tendentiou s. HlS modern
Iran no link with its old civilization (cf. Firdausi's Slwhnama).
or Greece with the Greek Civilizalion'?

Page 59
" Th e Egyptian c ivili zation is one of the o ldest one (.I'it"). It
developed around 7500 years ago [5500 BC) and lasted ahout
5000 years".
• The Egyptian civilization developed no earlier than
c.3200 BC. Makkhan Lal's dale is wrong by a mere 23,000 yea rs!

Page 63
"In this .region [Mesopotamial a Civilization developed
around 7000 years ago (ltbout 5000 Be)."
Eltcessivcly early datin g: the Mesopotamian Civili"llltion.
8 Index of Errors
like- the Egy pti an, cannOl be held to begin before c.3200 Be.
The author seems to have no sense of what Givi li zulion means.
the term being never properly defined.

Page 66
"Corinth ", nOl' "Cornilh", is the correct spel ling.

Page 70
"Some (s ic !) of the important Roman kings were Julius Caesar
and Octavian Caesar."
Juliu s Caesar was not a king; and Augustus Caesar (\0
give the correct name for Octavian when he became Cuesar) came
on ly later to be regarded as the one with whose accessio n to
power the hi s tory of Rom e us a republi c came to a close.
Characteristically, the textbook desc ribes Roma n polity as a
republic, but does not tell the reader when ;t lUrned into e mpire.
and what a reas the Roman e mpire (and . therefore. the Ro man
Ci vilization) covered.
The re is no information on Julius Caesar ot he r than in
the senle nce quoted above, ye t in Exerci ses on p.72, tho pupil is
asked ( 0 answer the question: "Why is Juliu s Caesar famous'?"

Page 74
"Taoi sm and Confucianism were the popular relig ions ".
To describe the two ( pl aced in wrong sequ e nce) as
religions is erroneous . They were essentially eth ic al and
philosophical systems, though Taoi sm in time develo ped cert ai n
religious features.

Page 75
"The invention of paper and silk are the greatest contribution s
of the Ch inese 10 the world ."
What of printing, spinning wheel, magnetic compass
gunpowder, etc., also invented by the Chinese? Were Ihey less
important ?

Page .77
" The (sic!) Zoroast ri anism was wi ped (Jut as a rnnjor re li gion of
that area [Iran] by the spread of Is lam in the seventh nnd eight
(sic) centuries A.D. and later" However, its traditi on continues
in the fa ith and pracl:ce of Parsecs who left Ir:m Hnd came In
 Ancient India. Class VI 9
Ind ia to save their faith and religion."
Tendentious statement: Zoroastrian comm unities 'in Irtlrl
survive to the present day.

Page 78
"Temples of" Altura Ma zda ...."
The pupil is not told that Ahu ra Mazda means God.

10. Indian Civilization : Harappan Civiliza tion

Page 80
"G hagghar IHakra (ancient Saraswati) "
There is no proof that the Ghaggar~Hakra was ever known
as Sarasvati, si nce the s mall Saraswati stream is far small er Ih an
Ih e G haggar, of which it is, In the ra iny season, a tri butary.

Page 80
"lndu s-Saraswati C ivi li zation"
A tendentious name, from a desire to suggest, t.hrough
imposed nomenclatu re, an Aryan affiliati on of the I,ndu l;
C ivili zation. Why not "Indu s- Hakra Civilization"? In any case
Hakra belongs to the Indu s basin, so that the name "Indu s" covers
the bas in of that ri ver as well as that of the Ghaggar, whil,:h is the
name of the higher course of the same ri ver..

Page 80
" J[ [Harappan o r Indus C ivili zation ] slarted developing Mound
4600 BC .... "
This date for the beginning o f the Indu s C ivili z:lt ion is
fantast ic. Even the Pre-Indus cultures. li ke KOI-Diji or Sot hi-
Siswa l cu ltures, cannot be dated to much beyond 3000 Be.

Page 80
"Its geographical area was almos t 20 limes [that] o f Egyptian
<: ivi li zation and 12 limes of the Egypt ian an d Mesopota mian
Civ ili zations combi ned." (Em ph asis as in ori gina l).
This is sheer fantasy. The area of the Indus C ivjfil.3£ion
was about 700,000 to 800.000 square k.m. Th e area of the
Egyptian civi li zatio n was abou t 300,000 and oJ' th e
Mesopotamian about 400,000 square km. Where is the question
of the I ndus Civi lization being 12 limes the wmhine.d si~c uf
..
10 Index of Error~'
the other tWO in 3fi.'!a? Or of being 20 limes Ihe' tcrrllory of Ihe
EgYPli:1O civilization?

Page 80
"It [the Harappan Civilization1 developed in Pakistan , Sout hern
Afghanistan .. ....
There is I/() known Harappan . bite in southern
Afghanistan.

Page 81
The map shows totally wrong limits of the Harappan Civilization . .
making it include Kashmir. NWFP. much of western Rajasthan
and even Bombay ! Alamgirpur is wrnngly located; Taxlla IS
shown as if it is an Indus site.

Page 82
" Even in the modern world this kind of town plunnmg onl y began
on ly ar\,lund the eighteenth century AD,"
Surprising ignorance is only how one can cfltcgorise thi s.
Even in India lhe authors could have looked up S hahjahanabatl
(Walled city of Delhi) laid OUt under ShahJllhal\ ( 1628-58), and
earl ier ci ties like Th ghluqabad .

Page 83
"The presence of the horse is also indicated by lerracoua figurines
and bones."
A statement like this, which is disputcd by mOSl archaeo~
zoologists. as far as bones are concerned, should nOI be made in
such a definite manner in a school text. No specifically horse~
like features (to distinguish Ihe animal from onager or wild ass
or even neelgai) appear in the terracotta figurines .

Page 84
"These people also worshipped Siva (sic/) in the form of linca
which is done also today:'
There is no prool' that the stone cones found arc nOI
pes LIes but phaJlus stones: and no proof that they were conn~cted
with Shiva-worship.
 Allciem india, Cl(Js~' VI
Page 84 "
"One of such stories paimed on a pot is the story of tht- thi rsty
cow ~hich we read in the story books even now. Another [pot]
has the painting of the cUl/ning fox."
This linking of the pictu,res on pots with any known later
stories is without foundatio n.

Pu ge 85
''The famous slone statute of the YogL .."
See also illus tration with legend "Yogi figurine" o n the
same page. To call the famous :'Priest ~ king " (so labelled by
mode rn writers) as Yogi is preposte rous. The cut of beard an d
the trefoil embroidery s uggest . o n the other hand. a s tro ng
Mesopotamian co nnec tion. The baseless "yogi" ascripti on seems
s impl y to fo rce an Aryan mould on the Indus Civi lization.

Page 85
"The most frequently portrayed a nimal on the sea l is bu ll ".
Again. a piece of sheer mi srepresentation. The uni corn,
a mythic an imal , is ttJe most frequent ly portrayed (on 1, 150 sea ls)
as against humpless bull (95) a nd l,ebJI or humped bull (on ly
54).

Pages 85·86
"The seal of (sic!) a dei ty si tting in a yogic post ure and
surrounded by ani mals has been identified wi th god Pasllpari
(S i c!) which is a nother name of S iva (s i c!)." See also Fi g. on
p.87 (':Seal depictin g Siva·Pas upati').
This is a very disputable proposit ion: the system or yogic
postures ca nn ot be traced beyond 200 BC , if, indeed , to even
that date. There is a bull ·deity fo und in sim il ar posture in the
Proto·E lamite c ulture of Mesopotamia, and 'it is more reasonable
to link the Indus seal fi gu re with that deity. On suc h doubtful
mailers schoo l textbooks shou.ld (read most 'carefu lly.

Pa ge 87
Exercises: Things to do :
"Make a collage of some phOIOrnphs cut out rrom lin old Hi slory
book ," ,
The st udent is thu l: l SllJ n encounged (0 practise book·
mutilation .
12 Indl'.f of E,-,ors
Page 88
"II. The Vedic Civilization"
The title "Vedk C ivilizati on" is hardly te nnille. Si lh.' C Ill)
town s arc named o r described in the RiRlI l'(/rL The word
"Culture" should have bee n used in stead of "Civi li zatIOn."

Page 88
"Vedic literature does nOI signify any indi vidual rclig i {\u .~ wW'k
lik e Koran or Biblc ,"
By no stretch o f imaginatio n can the Billk he cutled an
" indi vidual religiou s work." The write r does nOI 'Iccm HI IHlve
a ny idea of the Old a nd New Tel- lament. It is not c kar wll n! th..:
pupil is being to ld here. Does it mean thai in the Vcclic literature
thel'c arc no "i ndi vidua l re li gious" teltt s like the Rigl'l:'lW ?
It is bettcr 10 use the spelling 'Quran ' Ihan ' Kuran ",

Page 8S
" During Rig Vedic times. people we re settl ed in the su me :J !'cn n~
re pr ese nt ed by H a rapptln C i v ili t, Olioll, i.e . Afg h unis i ll n .
Pak is tan. Punjab. Guja ra t. Rajas than Haryana and Wcstl.'l"Il U.P."·
( Empha sis as in original).
There is no Harapp a n s ite in Afghani s t an, cxt.:cp t
S hurtugha i, a n Iso l ated o utpost o n the Oxus - a ri ver nOl al illI
mentio ne d in the Rigveda . No o ne has c laimed 10 10e,lIe a ll y
reference to Gujarat in the Ri gvcda. It cu n. t herefurc. he ~I.'cn
Ih al the territories of the Rigvedic peopl e and In du s C lvlli z:lli un
\ln ly part ly coin cided .

Page 88
" You have a lready learnt thai Ithel large st num ber of Hanlppan
sett lements are foun d on Saraswali river."
Few Indu s s ites have bee n found on the Sa raS\311 I'ivcr.
The hager number is found o n or ncar t h ~ PlIlhtli. Gh.lg g.a r.
Chuut iln g and Hakru rivers. The twu largt.:st t\l\vn s Harappa UII\I
Mnhcnjo Daro are o n the Ra vi and Indu s flvcrs.

Page 89
" The name o f this coun try us Bharal is after the Rig Vedil' pl.'up k
Bharatn ...
This is by 1\11 mean s cstahlished . The PU rallll' .lII d 11th., .
 Ancient India, Class VI 1;1

sources suggest more than one indi vidual after whose son,' the
count ry cou ld be so named .

Page 89
"There were rules which governed the debate and behav iour \ )1
membe rs in Sabha and Samit; like (sic!) in'uur parli anlcnl.··
We 'll be next told th at a Speakcr wa~ also pruvllJed fu rt
We ju st do not know what rules, if any, were made (by\ wholll'.'l
fo r proceedings o f the Sabha and Sami t; . Di ce wu~ abH phlycll
there, which is not done as yet in "our parliamen t"!

Page 89
" Economic LIfe"
" Vedas prescribe punishmcnt for inju ring or ki ll ing llhcl Cl'W ,hy
expu lsion from the kil/gdom or by deaIh pellalty. :l ~ the case
may be". [Emphasis as in the original].
The bold lellers in whi ch th e words "expu lsIOn from the
kin gdom" and "death penalty" are pu t show thut M akk hnn L:l1
wis hes to invite the pupil 's favourable anen ll on to 5u~h "'value~'·.
W here preci sely these pu ni sh ment s are menti oned i~ not 'HHed .
How does this re li g i ous pre scription Clime unller
"'Economic Life"? There is no doubt that cattle were .\ I:tughtered
wi dely In the Indus Civi li za ti on as we ll as in s uch lItter l' uluHl' '''
as were contemporaneous with the Rigveda. as is shown by ampk
re mai ns of ox-bones. This is not mentioned here .

Page 90
Socia l ' Lire
"'The Rig Vedic society mainl y compri sed four I 'Mllas .... The
teachers were called brahmal/(u; rule rs and ad mini s t~.:ltor s
bharriyas; farm ers. merchants and banhrs I'u;.ryw (s ic!): and
artisans and labourers as sudras (sic!)."
There is' no proof that there was a separate profe ss ion of
" teachers"; Brahman s should be designated pries ts . T He te rm
bhutri)"Q does not occur In the Purush a-sllktu; rajel.ll)"(1 is the..
term used: " Rulers and warriors". rathe r than " rulers and
admiOl strators (a very modcrn- looking designation)," would he
a better description o f the rajanY(ll kshatriya castc. There is no
proof that artisans and labou rers were shuilros. The textbook
to tall y omits to mention slaves (dasas). whereas they, inciUding
fe male slaves (dasis), are mentioned frequently in the Rigve.da,
14 Index of Errors
wh-i le the four varna$ are on ly menti oned once .

Page 90
..... Child marriage was unknown. One cou ld marry the persnll
of hi s Ot her own choice ... Father's property was inherited hy
all hiS children .....
Such statemems are without basis and meant s imply 10
project the Vedic Period as an idea l age. There is no proof th UI
daughters Inherited their father's property along with the son s.

Page 90
Food and Drink
·'Howe-ver. drinking of soma and su ra wert; lsic! I disuppruveJ
and discouraged because it caused ugly behaviour by peop le,"
There is no proof thai soma was disapproved of. It W:\i>
throu ghout highly praised.

Page 90
:'The , yajnas were the most common rituals",
It is not explained what th e yoj1lQS were : and it I ~
co n c~a l ed from the reader that these in vo lved an im alh::Iulc
sacrifi ces.

Pllge 91
-Upanishads are the works o f most profound phi ll)s\lphy In .my
religion."
This is a characteri stic way of instilling In the mHld of
the pup il the superi or it y of the Hindu religion abov<; (llht'r
re ligions. There was no need to insen " in any religion" ufte r Ihe
word " philosophy" .

Page 91
"Sciences"
The first paragraph is wrong in sialing thut " Vcd:ls.
Brahmanas and Upanishads" di s (ingubh the sci..::nc l':; (If
"Geometry (rekha gOIl;Ia), Algebra (bija gal/iw) and A ~ tmn(lIl1 Y
and Astro logy ljyotisllO)." The Vedas do nOI eve n me ntion the~e
sciences by the Sanskrit names given or by any other.
 Ancien! Ilidia, ela$.\ VI L'
Pag~ 91
"The ;:ero was known ... Also the positional value o r each number
with its absolute val~e was known."
The claim thai the Vedic people knew of lero and the
method of representmg numbers by giving pogilional value.' tu
digits (accordi ng to the decimal syslcm'!) IS absurd. When the
an of writing was not employed, positional values r..:ou ld Just
nOl have been given to the digits. Even later on, In the Brahmi
sc ript u/1tilthe 6th century AD, higher numbers were represented
by different sy mbol s. such as for len twenty, hundred . etc" and
there was no sy mbo l for zero,
Page 91
" In the Vedic period. astronomy was well deve loped ... It helped
them in accurately preparing their calendars and predh.:ting the
time of so lar and lunar edipses ."
l'here is no proof of either the use. of e rus o r pr~ci sc
predic tio n uf eclipse§ in Vedic times.

Page 91
';They also knew that the earth moved on i/S (/wn (.ui.)' Wid
aroulld the sun ." (Emphasis as in o riginal) .
This is ent irely baseles s, Aryabhatta W(lS the f irs t
astronomer in tndi.a to present the hypothesis of the ehrth moving
on Its own axis. as this textbook ltself notes on page 117. This
too was not accep ted by other Indi an astronomers. No one
claImed thaI the earth moves uound the sun .

Page 91
"These ca lculations lor movements of hea ven ly bodi~sl arc
almost the same 85 calculated by the modern scientifIC methods,"
This is an absurd mis represenlaljon of the facts . No such
calculations su rvi ve from the Vedic period.

Page 91
"The Vedic Civilization appears to have been fairly adv anced .
People li ved in cities ( nagar). fortified cities (pura) and vi Jiages."
That urban life had developed in the Vedic period is a
most dubious proposition. aod is not accepted by most scholars .
16 Index of Errors
Page 91
Some Ge neral Co nclusions
"Sc.:ience was studied and vari ous branches of science were we ll
developed . They . made accu rate calendars and could predict thc
li'TIC o f ecli pses. Even today us ing their method we can predict
the time of eclipse with 3. margin o f only one to two hours."
Sec com me nt made above on a si mil ar statemen t made
earl ie r o n th is page. Mere repetition of a claim does not make it
mote acceptable.

Page 91
" Many sc ho la rs th in k th at Rigvedi c Cult ure and Harappa n
Cu ltu re arc the same. However, some scholars do not agree wit h
t hi s. "
The actual position is the reverse. Nearly all , except for
',,\ few re~enl co nverts to the opposire view, reject the identity of
the Vedic cultu re with the [ndull (Harappan ) Civilization a nd
wo uld place the Rig veda much later than the Indus C ivilization .

Page 92
Exercises
In the exercises the importance given to unhi storica l claims is
fun her underl ined, such as the Vedic people's knowledge of zero,
earLh's revo lution a ro und the su n . a nd exact prediction or
eclipses, The de ath penalty for killing or inj uring a cow is also
not allowed to be forgotten .

12. Indian History (600 to 100 BC)

The Age of Janapadas and Mabajan apadas
P a ge 93
"Here [in the "Ganasanghas, i.e. republics" ] the ru lers were
chosen by the people of the kingdom (sic!) like (sic!) Wl! c hoose
Our govern ment today."
Were they c hosen by universal adult surrragc? Such
Inis represe ntation is inexcusable , T he republi cs were clearly
tribal aris tocracies. the c hiefdoms being largely hereditary.

Page 95
"They also raised three crops in the year."
'Ihey coul d have on ly raised two main harvests. One does
 AII(:ielH India. Clau VI 17
not know how the a uthor gets hi s three crops.

Page 96
" Buddha was very critical of thi s jali syste m and preac hed simp l.:
li vi ng."
Read in context. the sente nce implies that thc Buddh a
approved of the va rna syste m. b)n not of jali.\·. The term jm;
meant 10 Ihe Buddha an e ndogamou s tribe like thc Shakyas. while
the main discriminations in law (a s in puni s hments) werc on the
basis of llama, n01 jari (as in the Arthashastrll and M (JIIIl.I'lIIrili) .
The Buddha was certainl y opposed to the 'va rna sys te m. and
thi s s hould have been clearl y menti uned.

The Age of the Mauryas

Page 98
" He [Chandragupta MauryaJ ovenhrew Nandas with the help 0 1
his teacher Ko",if)'a. also known as Clumakya". The cred il of
thi s unifi cation (Chand ragupta's co nquests l is ri ghtl y given Ic)
C hanakya ......
Since all references to Kautil ya's advice or aid he long
10 m uch later tradition. a statement abou t hi s aid to C hllndraguptil
can hardly be made in positive or unqualified terms. lei illune
assigning to him the credit for c reating the Mauryan emflire .

Page 98
.•. .. Greek General So!ljjcus" .
The s tandard spelling is Seleu e us. Moreovl! r. Sclcucus
was a M acedonian . like Alexander. and not 'a Greek.

Page 98
" At (he lim e of Alexander ' s a tt ac k. lndian kings behaved
cowa rdl y (s ic!) a nd indifferently. This hUft C ha nak ya deepl y and
fi ll ed him with a nger. To defe nd the country.. . a nd to get rid nf
the weak rule rs . Chanakya encouraged his stude nts 10 rai!\e an
arm y under the leadership of C handragupta Maurya."
Such patrioti c sentime nts lhat arc attributed 10 C hanak Y;1
do nOI occur even in the traditional lore (e.g. in the DivyavidwI(J
or Mlldrarakshasa) and are appare ntl y lake n fro m a TV seria l.

Page 98
" H e (C hanakya) wa s a teach e r of Ar th ashashtra (J'ic C ) in
18 Index of Errol's
Takshashila Un ivers ity."
A sheer fantasy. In any case, Mukkhan La] s hould ha ve
spell "A rthashastru" correctl y.

Page 98
"Megasthenes" is the correct spe lling, n OI "Megas thenc.se."

Page 99
Map: The Mauryan Empire.
"Taksasila" (Taxjla ) is shown as s ituated we ll to the wesl
of th e Indu s. not , as it s tand s, [0 its east near l s larn abad.
Kapilava st u is s imilarl y wrongly plo lte d a littl e nOrth 0 1
Allahabad; and there is no s pot fOr 'Sravasti ' .

Page 101
"In no other period of [odian history do we find so many t y pc ~
of officers as in the Mauryan period."
There is no basis for thi s statement. No suc h co mpariso n
h~ s been made anywhere. ft is in any case a primalacie d u biou~
assertion: The Mughal Empire is likel y to have maintained a much
larger bureaucracy than the Mauryan Empire.

Page 101
"KuUl ilyu 's Arthashashtra (.~iC!) is one of the g reatest books on
pol it y" .
But can we get its spe lling ri gh t! Read: Arthal'II(lSfra ,

Page 101
"[U nder the Mauryas] Because of very strict admi ni stration and
the people o beyin g the law, life was peacefu l and prosperous."
This kind of ' Go lden-Age' s tal e m e~ll S are p'a rlicul arly
te ndentiou s when one kno ws from the Arthashasrra (w ho se
testimony is obviously used to describe Maurya a admini stratiOn
in thi s book) that the lower cl asses were severely repressed .

Page 101
"Forests. mines, wild animals and other nalural resources were
cons idered as publi c property and protected by law."
Not ' public property', but 'roya l property', sure ly. The
form ul a ' by law' is still more misleading ; kin gs' ed icts, not laws.
a re more rel ev ant here. And th e King 's e di cts reServed the
 Ancien( India, Clan VI I~

animals, mines , etc. , for the king' s use rather than 'prOte"clclr
th e m . Tbe claims as made here for environ mental protection in
Mauryan times are shee r fantasy, not history.

P age: 101-2
"Ashoka in his rock-edict XII advised people to maintain
harmony in the (sic!) society by respect for each other and not
c ritici sing each other. He said Ibat one musllearn and appreciate
the other's point of view. He further said that disputes must bl!
sett led by talks among the elders of the commun i! ies." '
Thi s is a gross misrepresentation of Ashoka's Rock Edict
XII. which warns against members of religious I.:ommunilie~
exalting their own and condemning other religions. Th e fact that
such warning was needed mi gh t suggest thai there in fact existed
religious or sectarian tensions in soc iety" Thi s Impre ssion tht!
author seemi ngly wishes to avoid\ and so reduces Ashoka's ca ll
for reli gious toleration to a mere advice fOr apprec.iati On of ead":
olher's "point of view", unconnected with rel igion. Th ere is,
finally, nothing in the edict about '·dis putes .... [being} ~e"tlled
by talks among e lders of the communities" -Ihis is an invention
pure and si mp le.

P3;ge 102
"It is said that Ashoka dedicated all hi s energies and resources
to bu"ild a moral society and welfare state. ·This weakened the
ar my an d admin is trative machinery. Due to thi s, neighbouring
Indo-Gree ks invaded and conquered many parts (If n9rthern
India. "
All this is baseless speculation. There is no proof thaI
Ashoka weakened the army. and very slight one that the "l ndo-
Greeks invaded and seized any parts of India during the time 0\
the Mauryan empi re. But s uc h .criticisms. o f Ashob occ ur
frequently in Parivar writings.

Page 102
"The Army Chief Pusliyamilrll Sung" (sic!) killed him LIas!
Mauryan ru ler, Bri hadratha] in 187 Be. This is the only incide nt
in the history of India till twelfth century AD whe n a k.ing wal>
kill ed and replaced ."
The aUemp! here is to show Ihat the crime of regicide
was brought in by Mus lims. However, a ncient Indian political
20 Index of error.f
history is replete with sim ilar in stances.
In tbe Buddha's own life-lime Prasenajit . the Kin g o f
Kosala , was dethroned a nd kill ed by hi s son Vidudabha ; and
Bimbisara. the King of Magadha , was killed by hi s s on ,
Ajatashatru. The Nanda dynasty of Magadha was fou nded by its
founder after murde ring the last ruler of the Sishunaga dynasty.
A s trong tradition developed that Chandragupt 3.I1 (c.38 1-414
AD) killed his cider brother Ramag upt3 and married :he lalle r 's
widow (vide DevichandragupUlm ), showing that such an act wu:-.
by no mean s co ns idered eit her unthinkabl e or necessarily
immoral. For the murders of kings, there is ev idence enough in
Kalhll.fla's Rajafarangilli as well: Unmatthavanti (937-39) kilktl
his father Partha (931-35). Parvagupta (949-50) slew the l:hild*
king Sangramadeva (948-49) to in stall himself on "the throne.
Putling king Bhimagupta (9'15-8 1) to death , Queen Didda (98 1-
1003) herself ascended the th ronc. Uc hd<f la (reigned. I lOl -
l I ) overthrew and killed king Harsha ( 1089-1 10 1), Ii! he himselr
s lain by Radda. who then c rowned himse lf ( 1111,.
Much can be added in thi s vein. The above is sulTit.:ien t
to s how the utter lack of histo ricity in the claim made in the
textbook about the rare ness of the occurrence or regicide in
ancien t India.

Page 105
"13. Megalithic Culture of Deccan and South India"
In stead of "CUlture", it should be "Cultures" , s in ce there was
no s ingle megalithic c'J ltu re.

Page lOS
"00 you know that it (iron ) bega n to be used in lndia about
1600 BC."
The dale is excess i ve ly carly: the undi sputable usc of
iron is no earlier than 1000 Be. There is no consens us behind
"tl.n y earlier date.
Note: The short chapter (pp.1 05-6) on Deccan and South
[ndian megalithic cultures contains no men tion of th e origins o f
the Dravidian lang uages, a very important aspect o f not only
south Indian hi story. but In dian hi story in general ,

Early History or the Deccan and South India

Page 107
"The Sa[:lvahanas had a large fleet or ships ."
 Ancient Illdia, Class VI 21
There 'is no proof available for this statemen l.

Page 107
"The Satavahanas were succeeded by H(I~'I"r(lk/l'(JS in
Maharashtra .... ,. (emphas is as in original).
A gross blunder: The Vakatakas (who arc IIOt mentioned)
have been obviously confou nded with the Rashtrnkutas.

Page 109
"Sanskrit language, Indian names and religIOn also spread' widely
lin Southeast Asia]."
W.. s there only one In d ian religion '! What about Ih..:
spread of Buddhism In south·east Asia along wilh BrahmllnKIll'!

"14. North India after Mauryas and Sungas"

Page 111
"The Kushnnas came from Chinese part of Taklamakan de!'en."
The who le of Taklamakan D<!sert is in China, n04 jU!'t
any part of it alon~.

Page HZ
"With in Buddhism two sects developed. namely, Huw wlllu and
Mahayana . In Ihe Mahayana the images of Buddha arc
worshipped".
There is no difference in respect of images between
"Hi nay ana" and "Mahayana." Moreover, "Hinayana" is the term
MahayanislS use for the rival sect. "Theravada" should better be
used instead of "Hinayana".

Page 112
Not ·'Oharmas has htras." but "Ohan.n3shastras". is the
correct spelling.

Page 112
••... most of the invaders who came to India during lhis period
accepted one Indian religion or the Olher. They absorbed the
(sic!) Indian cuhure and became part of the ('\'ic!) Indian society ."
The s upplementary statcmcnI that they (espec ially the
Greeks) influenced Indian culture, science and art i!' nOI made-_
though this aspect is equally important.
22 Index of Erron'
The. Gupta Empire
Page 114
' This piJlar inscriptIOn of Samudragupta is also known as Prel,m,lt
P, (JShashri."
Read "Prashasti."

Page 117
"The Guptas Cont ributed signi fi cantly tow3rds the development
of sc ience and technology by gIving patronage to great scienl i ~t:;."
No such act of patronage is kno ..... n to us.

Page 117
"He (Aryabhatta) rearfinned thaI the earth revolvc1> anjun,1 the
s un and rolates on its own axis. which IS accepted even ·h)Jay.··
The word "reaffirmed" is used in ... iew of the faci thai
the two discoveries are already attributed to the Ved ,c. times !
Aryabhatta did not say lhal the earth revolves around the sun:
on ly Ihat it revolves on it s own axis .

T ht' Era or Harsha

Page 120
" Harsha was a devOlee of Siva (.~;c ). He supported other sec.!!. I
reli g ion s also."
The purpose here seems to be to sidestep H:.trshu·s uwn
persona l attachment to Buddhism , well descnhed by Yuan
Chwang. and corroborated by Dana.

Page 121
Heading o f Map : "The (sic!) Harsha 's em pire."
What kind of EngliSh will chi ldren learn from such
Ignorant use of the articl e "the"?

15 Deccan and South India

Page 124
"A painting in an Ajanta cave s how s PtJlk es llln II [rl!ct.
Pulak eshin II] receiving the ambassador or Iran ".
Thi s interpretation o f two panels in Ajanla Cave I is
now generally doubted, and o ught not to be repented wi thout
much qua lification.
 Ancient India , Class VI 23
Corre,ct also the exerc ise 3(ii i) on page 127, accordingly.

16. lndia 's Cultural Contacts with the Outside WOI'ld

Pages 128-129
.... , t here were t rading a nd culfural con tac ts b~ t wecn the
Harappa n Civ ili zation and the Egyp tian and Mesopotamian
Civi lizations .. ."
There is no evidence o f any co ntact between the
Harappan Civil ization and Egypt.

Page 129
.. ... As hoka sent his missionaries to five western countries on
dhammav ij ayayatra" (emph as is in origina l):
While dhammal'ijaya is a ge nuin e Ashokan term,
dhammavijayayatra (3 hybrid Sanskrit-Prakrit combi nation) is
a purely manufactured on e ; an d its use here, as if it was a n
Ashokan te rm . is uncalled for.

Page 130
'·Ashoka senl his missionaries to Central Asia ."
A baseless statement.

Page 130
"Larges t statues of Buddha at Bamiyan were a landmark in Ihis
region since 151 century AD."
The Buddha fi gures in Bamyan were cu t in ro(:1;; no carlier
than the 6 (11 century and they are first described in the 7th cen tury
by Yuan Chwang. There is no sa nction for the date of l SI cen tury
given here. See D. Klimburg-Saller, The Kingdom (1/ Bom(wH/,
Nap les, 1989.

Page 130
·From the days of Ramayall(l India had close li nks with Sri
L.anka." (Emph asis as in original)
Does the author mean that ou r "close" relations with
Sri Lanka began with Lord Rama's overthrow of Ihe S ri Lan kan
ruler land demon) Ravana? Nice way 10 win friends in Sri LHnka~
The incident of Ram a's invasion of Sri Lanka and the killing vI'
Ravana fi gures in no history of Sri Lanka·, nor. I'o r that maHer. I ~
Ihe story recognised a~ historical even in the leltlbook under
24 Index of Errors
review. How can. the n, Indian-Sri Lankan relati ons have begun
with the R4mayalla .

Page 131
" ... the Indians lea rn t the art of g rowing sil k and making papel'
from Chin a,"
Neither sericu lture nor paper- manufacture apPCilrcd in
In dia before the 13th cen tury, and bot h came here Ilia Mus lims.
A s th e se nt e nce s la nds it suggests misl ead ingly t hat the.
tech no logic al adopt ions belonged to lhe anc ie nt period.

17. Major Retlgions

Hind uis m
Page 133
" Hi ndui s m ... js also known as Sa l/ aWfUl Dharma, i.c. the Et e rnal
S piritu al Trad it ion of Indi a." (Emphasis asin original)
Sana rana mea n s etern a l , ancient. One ca n render
SlHwtallo Dharma as eternal fa ith or 3m:ient cuslO m or tradi ti on.
The j,ddilion "of Indi:1 " is unwarranted , a pparentl y dOne to
ins inu a te that Hi ndUism as the S(/I/i/wna Dharma is th e o nly
s piri tual tradition of India (not eve n Buddhi s m or hlini.sm ).

Page 134
" H ills and mountains are also g iven sanctity by Hindui sm. MOlillt
Kaila,w (sic!) Iln d Vaikuntha (the abodes of S iva lind Vis hnu )
a nd ri vcrs suc h as Ganga, Saraswati and Kaveri are cons idert!d
holy." (Emphas is as in original),
One needs to go to China to revere Kailash , but hu w
docs One go to Mount Vaikun rha (paradise)?

Page 134
"Hi nduism laid great stress on varna shrum dlwrmtL, These four
stages o f li fe were meant ~o be fo ll owed by all ind ividuals
irrespect ive of their caste, c reed a nd belief."
And also irrespective of§ex, if they wereJuSI individual s '
BUI 10 say that women and persons ot her than the. ·twice-horn '
(dvija,. s uch as cha ndalas and sh udra s , cou ld I'o ll ow
vamush ram dhurma is absurd. It is strange that neithe r the c:\ste
(vl/ m a(jati) sys tem nor the d hamwsJlllsfrll texts llrt' me ntioned
;n the c hapter on Hi ndui sm.
 Ancient Illdia, Clan VI 25
Page 134
"Upan ishads are the greatest works o f philosophy ill the hi stOry
of humankind ."
For the Upanishads. the adjective 'great' could of course
have passed; but "greatest" implies a kind of comparison of whi ch
none is capable. It gives away th e autho r 's own anxiety to
es tabli sh Hindui sm's superio rity over a ll oIlier re ligu:ins and
philosoph,cal traditi o ns.

Page 134
S in ce Kabir exp ressly critIcised bpth Hinduism uml
Islam ;-hi s name canno t figure among those who accepled Hind u
bllllk,i Ui; is done in the las t but o nc paragraph o n thi s page .

Page 135
··It (Hinduism) does not believe that there is only one Way of
achieV ing salvation like other monothei stic religions :'
Here 100 the compa ri son is uncalled for, Almost every
monotheistic r~lig ion embraces several paths to sulvation , liS IS
seen In Islam, w ith differe nl pe rceptions'of sa lvation and 0 1
different ways to salva ti on in .,u fhm as well as theologica l Islam.

Page 135
"Fol lowing the philosophical traditi o n of Upanbhad!> and six
philosophies in Hinduism , quest fo r salvatiOn through knowledge
con tinued . T his gave rise to 1ainism and Buddhism."
The obv ious anxiety is 10 show thil l Jaill1sm unJ
Buddhism arose o ut of Hinduis m and nol in opposit ion 10 It.
Thi s is unh isloricaJ; ilnd there was no nced 10 make ~uc h II on~' ­
, ided .suu..:menl.

Judaism
P~gc 137
of the Israelis called Moses .. .'·
.••..• UIIC
Read ·· Israeli te" fo r ·· Is raeli:· ··Israeli·· m C;lIUi 11 dlil.Cll
uf the modern state of hrael.

Zoroastrianism
Page 138
··Zuru<lstrianism was the rclig iOll IIf Iran unit! Its \·nn~luc s l oy
26 Index of Errors
the Arabs when most of its people were convened to Is lam."
The wording suggests to t he reader .t hat the I rani an
peop le were immediately converted (0 Islam upOn t h~ Arab
conques t of Iran in t he 7t h cenwTy. On the co n tra ry. th e
conversio n was a long-drawn oul process . Tn fac t, [he Umayyad
regime (660-750) strong ly ,d iscouraged conversions for fiscal
reaso ns.

Ch ris tia nity

Page 138
"He (Jes us C hr i~l) emphasized o n (sic!) one God. "
"Other sects also emerged who (sic!) ca ll themselves Free
Churches."
The lingui stic errors here are just illustrative of what
the who le textbook IS like.

Pages 137 · 138

Neither in the account of Judais m, nor in that of C hristianity, is
the re any refere nce made to the spread of the rel igion concerned
to lndia, though both Jewis h and Christian comm uni ties have
ell.isted in India since ancien! times . The coming of these fa iths
to Indi a is also not mentioned in C hapter 16 (Ind ia's C ult ural
Contacts with the Ou tside Worl d), where the spread of H indu ism
and Buddhism 10 other countries i.~ much commented on.

Page- 138
"The Holy Book of Chris ti ans is known as the Bible ."
Sure ly, the New Tc:stament shou ld have been especially
mentioned he re, as th e tell.t containing t he core of C hrist's
teachings. T he author is obviously unawa re of the degree of
influence the New TeStament exercised in the formation of the:
thoug ht of lhe Father of our Nation.
 2
Makkhan Lal, Allcient Inclia
(Textbook for Class Xl)
Puhlished: bClobeJ" 2002

Page 3
"Ashoka, in his Rock Edict XII , insisted nn .... SC I1 "C of unity (If
all religions ... [mectln,gl of exponents of dilTerent rcliglOn~
assembl ie~, and ... learning [he lex Is of other rdigitlo".:'
These delails. viz., unity of religions. IOIc=r- religiom
assemblies an d learning of ather religions' texts. are th e f1utho,j" 's
own in ve ntions. These are not at all to be found in Ashokan
edicts. inc luding R. E. XII, which last is essentially concerned
with religious tolerance and removal of sectarian discord .

Page 5
in all the Purallos royal genealogies are <kat! Wllh Iwith1
the reign of Parikshi t. the grandson of ArJulI, 3S a bcnchm:.r~.
All the earlier dynasties a nd kings have been mentioned in pa,t
te nse. While .the lalter (sic) kings and dynasties have been
narrated in wtu re tense. This may be because of the f:lct that the
coronation ot Parikshit marks the beginning of Kali Age. Many
sc holars think that this also points to the fact that perhar!' Ihe
Puranos were completed during the re ig n ·of Parikshit ,.
. As no comment IS made by him on the vi.lid ity of th ' l-
view (of the Puranas being compiled in the reign 01" Pariksh il). il
will be assumed thaI the author agrees with such un absurd vie w.
Arc students required to believe that the au thors of the Puruntls
were omn isciem and could see into the future . be in ~ nhlc to
predi ct who Parikshit's successors would be for two thousand
years? And the n why djd they s top where they do, e.g. most·ty in
the 9th century? Cou ld they nOI fore see the future any further '!
A lso to be noted lire the punctuation anll spe ll ing
mi stakes in the passage quoted above.

Pages 5·6
O n page 5 th1: student is told: "t he knowledge of history w:.l~
28 Indu of Errors
gIven a very high place in ancient Indi a. It was :1.I.:cordcd san cti ty
e qu al to a Veda : ' On page 6, however, he di .sc u v er~ Ih :u
" Kathana's RajaIongini .. . is indeed a so litary ex ample of II~
kind ," The date of Rajararangini (c . 1 150) is con cea led from
hi m. nor. its subject matlc r; and he is never told why, d' hi story
was such a respected branch of knowledge , Itlis work remnincd
"8 so litary eumplc",

Page 6
Pargiter is spe lt "Pargilar", The s pell ing of Mega st hane s is
Incorrectly given throughout the book. here as we ll as elsewhere .
as "Meg asthenese".

Page 6
"The Greek a mbassador Megas thene se (sic) in the co urt of
Chandragupt a Maurya (c.314·300 S .C:) tes tifi es (s i c) th e
existence of a list of 153 kings whose reigns had covered a pe riod
of about 6051 (or 6015) years ... This ex tr a~t fr o lTI
Megasthenese 's (sic) Indica is in conformity with the pO~I­
Mahabharata war royal genealogy preserved in the Puratf(j .~ . "
. This wou ld p lace the Mahabharata war somewhere
around 6377 B.C.! No hi storian . not even Proressor B.B . Lal,
who excavated the "Mahabharata" sites in order to eslab l i~h the '
historicity of the Mahabharata story, gives such an ea rl y dale.
The present author, Makkhltn La!, writes in Ihis
connect ion that H.C. Raychaudhuri (misspelt as " Rayc ha~dhury"
here and elsewhere) attempted "to write hi story o n the basis of
genealogies of various dynasties given in Purana:;," BUI he doe~ .
not tell hi s readers thai Raychaudhuri place ~ the' d ale of
Mahabhara(a war and accession of Parikshit in Ihe ninth ~entury
B.C. Further, Raychaudhuri ex.pressed agreement wi th Rh y~
Davids that Megasthenes possessed very liu le crit ical judgcmcnt
and was often misled by hi s informants .
See also our comment o n a similar slatement rcgard;n!!!
Megaslhenes made on page 116 by MaHlum Lal.

Page 6
" (After Megaslhenes] nex.t important phase o f historiography
begins with Alberun i ... "
All this comes under the headin g "Early Foreign ers" .
and Makkhan Lal clearly confuses foreign !\l:counts 1I$ ~oun.:es
 AncielH India (Class XI)

of history with historical works, when he s peak s here o f

'"
"h is toriography." In any case he o mit s altogether th e verv
important C hi nese accounts, especially, those of Fah ien, Yuan
Chwang and I-Ising which are such imponanl histori ca l sources.

Page 7
"So me of t he: leading Intellectuals of {he nineteenth cen tu ry
trading (sic) of (sic) thi s path ar~: William Jones ... Kurt Mar}!.
"
Whatever might be sa id of Karl Marx., it is absu rd to say,
as is here implied , that he shared wilh others any "i nterest in
enl arging the Eu ropean colo ni e ~ for econom ic exp lt)i lalion ,"
Makkhan Lal seems unaware that Marx was a trenchant critic of
co lonial exploitatio n of India : Thus the state ment also on page
14 that "Marx was a great votary of India being ens laved by
Briti s h" ..a nd th a t " he was not really fr ee from rac;'a l
cons ideniti ons," belongs equally to the realm of fantasy.

Pages 8-10
" Imperiali st Historiography"
The larger part of the text of thi s secti on is taken up nOI
by how imperialist historians shaned their view at Indian history,
but by how. as C hri stians, tbey tri ed to understress the an.ti.quity
of Hindu cu lture because of their belief in th e Bible and the
dating of Creation, on its bas is, to 4004 BC. Statemenls such a!>
the foll ow ing (p.1 0 ) s how an unaq::eptabl y b iased attitude
towards C hri stianity ; " Such effort s on the part o f Europel1 n .
scholars, c hiefl y Briti sh brought some relief (to Christian!;?]
and m ~ de thi s approach safe fo r Chri stianity al;ld its follow ers."

Page 9
" .. . Therefore ... a ll he IM a}!. Mull e r] h ad was [ Us her's
ca lc~lation of) 6000 years, i. e. upto 4000 Be. wi thin which the
entire history of uni verse had to be fitt ed . It was under th is gui di ng
principle [that) William Jones, Max Mulle r, Vincent S mith and
OIhers wro te Indian history."
ft is sill y to su ppose that if someone was a Christian and
believed in the truth o f the Bible (including th e Genesis), he
must have d ated the creat ion of the Unive rse to c.40UO B,C.
Makk han Lal forgets that those who had worked out th e sequence
of geological ages and their long-t ime-span were also Christia·ns.
'Ii flJdex oj Errors

not Hindu s. How false are Makkhan Lal's allegations one nccu~
10 read on ly the follo wing lines from Vincent A. Smllh. O.if"rd
HisTOry of In dia. Chapter I: "Man has existed o n the earth till';J
time bc,Yond co m putation, but certainly to be estimatell In
hu ndreds of thou sands rathe r th an in thousands of yC <lr~ ... certain
pariS of India were occupied by human beings at <l time imll1el1 .~c l y
remote ... " These lines and Olher statement s in the sa me
paragraph show bow absurd it is 10 attribute to V A. Smith "and
others" the kind of belief in the lime of creati on th at Makkhllil '
La l assigns 10 them .

Page 13
' -The cont ributions of all these gretH lindianl scholur .. helped III
dearing the mi st built (.ric) by the miSSIOnaries amlth(, impcriniisl
hislurian s."
No "mi ss\ona r y" hi storia n ha s hcen . mcnt1(lnci.l Int'
c reating the undefinci.l " mist. " The reference i .. Just a pan of the
ilnli-Christ ian position Mukkh:tn Lal wishes 10 pn1d :um . NUl 1\
hi s assert ion a fa ir comment on the many Indlall hi "lu rwo , Ill'
. nam es, w ho wished to unravel Indill' s pa!>\ 10 :I crHlcal lind
ubject i ve m a nn er. rather th iln just g lCHify It I" pal'll S:l1l
propagandists.

Page IJ
" Karl Marx and F. Enge ls clearly ud.oowlcd gclll hcir ilH~'llc c tlial
dellt 10 F.W. HegeL"
Marx and Engels ackn<lwlcdgcd their "kilt tllth~ ..:lcllll' nl
of dialectics in He gel ian philosuphy; even ,\\1 the} n..'Jl'\: I.: J
Hegel's idealism, and therefore hi S enlire vil!w 1)1' !-I n.lllry. II , ..
the refore lo tall y mi s leading 10 give so mw.:h SP;U':IC In Hq!d',
hi storica l ideas on puges I ~- 1 4 under the Iteallillg " M:I!·s i .. \
Sc hoo l of His tory".

Page 14
Co l.l. line 12: Read 'appall ed' for ' ;JPP:lUlcd '

Page J4
" In 1nd ia also there IS a sig niri canl traditi on \If ·Hcgdl,IIH:-.IlI '.
'Nc(l-Hegcliani sm ' - a nd ·Anti-Hegelianism· ...
This is jusl one of Ihe many meanin gless slall'lU\.'IlI S III
the book .
 Anciellf Illdia (Cla.\·.\· XI) .11
Page 14
"Thh, (Marxist] schoo l al $O like the imperialht school find
anything good in the Indian civiJizati(/Il."
Makkhan La[ see ms to finu him selr cntitk_u til s ay
anything he <likes about anyone whom he uisJikes. He uues nnt
seem to have heard of D.O. Kos amhi 's ClIlwre amI Civili::.,(lfitm
of India or D.P. ChaUopadhyaya's Lolwyar. It is no wonder that
Makkhan Lal makes suc h s ill y statements as thai Marxi.~ls
cons ide r the age of Kushanas on ly as , I "Golden Age'} and the
period 500-1200 as a "Dark Age".

Page IS
fn the list of Marxist hi s torian s of ant:i\;n l Indiu , II I~
strange to find the names of " frfan Habib, Blpan Chllndru". WlllhC
main fi e ld,S li e in medieval and modern history , A-" ror "Rnllulll
Thapcr" (.so s pe ll). there seems no ba.~is (except Ihe new urge 10
ca[ 1 all scientifically minded hi storians as "Leflisl s'") fur cla-"-,,ing
her among Marxists . On the o ther hand . so pronuunced a sclf-
proclaimed Marxi SI historian of ancient Indian philosophy and
science as D.P. C hattopadhyaya is left oul.

Page 17
Perhaps following A.A . Macdonell, Makkhan LaJ enumcr;llc~
Vedic a nd Sa nskrit separately among the literary sourcc~. But
unl ess the students a re also infOrmed that Vedic and Silmknt
constitute onl y two phases of the s ame language a~ i ~, done hy-
Macdo nell , who by $anskrll mean$ class ical San skrit. thc stu J e nt
wi ll tarry the impress ion that these lire t\VO separate. unrd~ted
languages, Makkhan Lal writes. that Ihc " Vedic literature .,' ,Ire
entirely in n different language." Docs he me a n th a t Vedl ":
lang uage is nOI Sanskrit al all?

Page 17
thi s cltcellenl an of writi ng in ~'utrQ ( precept s)."
S/Ura meiln s a Ihrend, whe nce a line, When works we re
composed for memori zation it was convenient 10 lu ve rule:.. c le ..
framed in shari , preferably rhyming sentences. ' Prece pt\' IS a
furth e r denved meaning from the facl that legal texts (tht !lO'
ca ll ed sutras ) were wrillcn in sutra-fo rm . The two menllln g~
are here co nfl"Hlnded. Furth e rmore, wr iting was nOI known thc.n.
The "c .\(ce llenl art of writi ng" could o nl y ha ve heen Ih al or
32 IIlde,t of Errors

composing s hort se nte·nces (surras).

Page 19
"Sangama (s ic) ... arc. in all, 30,000 lines of poetry arranged in
two main groups, t'ari"e"kllkallakkll and PattI/pauli . The former
is older (hun the · latter."
This is a mi sleading statement. In all Refounts the
enumeration of Sangam works begins with ErlIltQgal (Eight
Anthologies), which is followed by PattltplJIw (The Ten Poems)
and the "Patinenkilka"akkll (the collection of Eighteen Works).
The Tolkappiyam. the great grammatical work of Tamillanguag-e .
is also generally included in Sangam literature. Makkhan Lal
makes no mention ,of EUlitogai and Tolkappiyam. How does he
arrive al 30,QOO lines of poctry when he leaves Ollt EUI/roga;?
This is only one example of the splipshod way Ihis textbook is
written ,

Page 20
"But with the cxcavaliom, at Mohenjo Daro. Kalibangan and
Harappa, the antiquity of Indian civilization has gone back to
abollt 5000 Be."
Apart from the infelicity of placing 'excava tIon s al
Harappa after those of Kalibangan. the ~ho l e statement IS <t
simple piece of misrepresentation. Nothing al the three site s ca n
be possibly dated before c.3200 - if even that. And, if
"civilization" mean s presence of cities, no city in India can
possibly be dated earlier than c,2600 Be.

Pages 22 and 23
In place of the obverse side of a coin, the texi has "obse rve side"
and "on the observe",

Pages 25
"In ancient times this whole mass of land (Indian 5ubcbntinent)
was known as Bharatavarsha or Hindustan:'
The Puranas speak of Bharatavarsha, buY which ancient
lext mentions Hindustan?

Page 26
"The Hindukush Mountains , right from the Pamirs , form the
natural western boundary of the Indian subcontinent. The
 AI/citml India (Class XI) 33
mounlains of Safed Koh, Sulaiman and Kirthar JiCparafC fran
from the Indian subc~mtinenl".
The IWO sentences conta in notbing bUI geographi .... ul
nonsense. If the Hindukush Mounlaim; mark the boundary of
"'tbe Indian subconlinenl". two-thirds of Afghanistan wou ld be
included in it. The assertion conOicts with Ihe very next Slalernenl
Ihat the Indian subconllnent reaches only up 10 Safed Koh l
Sulairnan and Kirthnr ranges. This would naturally exclude the
who le of Afghanistan and Baluchistan from it , II wou ld be finally
news to some people that the borders of Iran come up to Safed
Koh , Sulaiman and Klrthar ranges, so Ihat no country like
Afghanistan exists at all!

Page- 28
'"Ptwchanarida (sjd ) de~11ll or Punjab'".
If Makkhan Lal musl use a name ( ' Panchnnada ' ) from
Ih e Mahabharata, he s hould at Jeasl get il righl. Punjab IS a
Persian w9rd meaning five (pan}) rivers (ab) . Panjnad or
Panchnad is the small seclion of the river after Chenab and Sutlej
unite until they run intO th e Indus.

Page 32
"The name 'Ind ia' was first applied by the Achaemenid Persians
to the region watered by the Sindhu."
The Achaeme nid name for the Indu s reg..ion was
'Hindush', not "India ' .

Page 32
"'The Sapta-Sindhu referring [0 the region of the seven rivers of
Sa raswat i (o r five s treams of the Sarasw31i together wi th the
Ganges and the Iamuna) was the term used for India in the Zend-
Avesta, the sacred book of Parasis (sic)."
How many errors can be collected together in just one
sentence! The Avestan name for the region was Hapta Hendu .
not Sapta Sindhu, which is its Vedic equiva.lent. Hupta He.ndu
was nOt used (or India in the Avesta, but for roughly the Panjab
as o ne of the sixteen regions c reated by Ahura, Mazda. The name
ill both its Avestan and Vedic form s. Hapta Hendu/Sapta Sindhu
shows that the Indus and its IribUiaries are concerned here, not
Saraswati or "the five streams of Saraswati" whatever that strange
expression means . Finally, the Ganga and Yamuna have never
34 IIU/ex of £rror.\

been counted among the 'Sapta Sindhu'; und the two rivers HI\,'
not at all mentioned in the Avesw..

Page 32
" HinJu in Persian. Ind os in Gl'cek .. art: .:nrrupl rorlll ~ ,01
Sindhu ."
Not at alL They nre des..:cndcd trom Avo.;s!<lll· ' I-I\!mlu'
which correspo nded to Vedic 'Sind hu ', Neither was <I o..:oll"uPI
for m of the olher, but ba~ed on th e inten;hungcahilily ~)r 'I;' ,1110.1
·s ' between the Ave'Han and Vedic languages.

Page 32
"Thus the descend:!.nls of Bharala Clune \(I be kll\)wn as Indian.,
or Hindu s."
This slalement suggf!sts thaL all In dians Ufo.: Ul:SL'CIHkd
rru m a s ingle ind ividual Sharat3.. w ho in traJiliull I S Dilly Ih ...·
progenilOf of t he tribe of Bharatas. belonging to the ~II·<.':I uf
Kur ukshctra. Thi s is just the crention of a new (:Ind i mros~ihk)
genealogy for the Indian people llt the mos t ahsurd level , AI,, }
to be noted is the cllsy indentification of Indians with Hindu :-
made by Makkhan Lal here: non- H indus are. hy implication , 1101
Indian s.

Page 3-1
"Tn saml:: of the sacred Lexts like the Bh tHP'tl/{1 PUI'(Utu til"
Mallu.nll,;, i are found passages of palriOli!.. fervour dc~<.:rihlllg
Bha n ua varsha as fashiollell by t,h e Gods themselv..:~."
Setting !l.SH.le the oddness of placing BI/(I.~\'{lf(' Pur/illu
before Mallwmlriti , and spelling "Gods ", YJith a capil:11 G , tilt
aut hor dOeS nOI allow himself the luxur), of l'hecking wlwthcr
Ihe name Bharala-varl> ha ever occurs in the Mallloilifili . The
,s tatem e nt he Ilttribules to it is not at all found there. It un ly
reft: f ~ La Aryav3n3, o bviously making il identical with North
India , and never speaks of il ~ being especially divinely fa"hilllH:: LI
(Manu, n, 23-24). MOreover.lhe Shudras arc nullrcaleLi a" heing
bound in any way !O Aryavana - n curious aspect of :...:riplunll
"pa triOfi :\m"' that is narurally overlooked by Mnkkhan LaL

Page 34
" Sectaria1l1sm is thu s an aid 10 nationalism in Hindu c ulture ...
A ll these prayers and passnges show lhal a Hindu h:l." CkVall"J
J ):l1 riotj ~m min a religi on:'
 Ancient India (Class XI)
Suc h e xtraordin arily irratio nal in fere nces from du b i o u ~
asserti o ns (see preced ing com me nt) are made to suggest that true
pal'rioti sm can onl y be practised by Hind us, for w hom it is :1 pa n
of their re lig io n! Su pposedly, the n, H indu s in Ne pal and Sf!
L ,m ka mu st by their faith be loy al o nl y to, Bh a rutavarsha!

Page 38
~ 'Salim C hi sti " s ho uld be "Sa lim C hi shti ".

Page 42
"The hum a ns evol ved o ver a period of thes.e 42 lakhs (sic) years
and the present for m reached about 50,000 years ago."
The dal.in g is obso le te. The A nato mi ca ll y Mode rn Man
is much o lde r than 100,000 years, as has been show n by fos~ i l
rema lllS in both Afric a and Palestine.

Page 45
"Th e iden ti cal s hape, size aod nature o f the Uppe r Pal aco lit hi ,,:
spec ime n , dated 9000- 8000 BC, a nd the o nes tha t are kept in
the mode rn vi ll age s hrines is sig ni ficant."
Thi ~ refers to u piece of ferrugi nou s sands tone fou nd 011
s:lIldstone ru bble platform belongin g to Bagho r I c ul tu re datable
to 25,500- 10,500 years ago (not just 9000-8000 BC ). Si nce we
do not knO\v its exact Signi fi cance, it is not legiti mate. \0 a!>Sume
that liS "nature" is the same as that of Sim ilar 'stones worshipped
"a~ female pri nci ple or Sakti fsic ! Shaktil in .he cou nlrys ldc" as
Makkha n La l arg ues, tryi ng to push back modern be liefs to a
period over 10,000 years ago.

Page 46
""Th e C- 14 d ates ava ilabl e for the Mesoli thi c culture ... "
The re is no explanat ion provided in the textbook o f whul
C·l"; dati ng js.

Page 50
" Rk c seems to have bee n domestica ted in India hy ahout 70(H)
BC as the cvi J cncc rrom Koldihwa in the Belan vllllcy ~h()w\ .
T he author should hav e noted that Ihis clai111 I " IhlW
wluely di~puted
36 Index of Envrs
('age 60
"Like wise the fiddlc.~.shaped figurines lin M:llw8 culllJrcj
probably resembling srivarsa, the symbol of Lakshmi. .. In a
painted design on a pot. a deity is shown with dishevelled httir
recalling Rudra of laLer period. A painting on a jar [ouod from
(sic) Daimabad ... some scholars compare It with th e 'Siva Isit·~
Shival Pashupati' depicted on a seal from Mobanjo Oaro ... Two
figurines from lnamgaon. belonging \0 Jorwe cullOre. h~vc been
ide ntified as prolo-Ganesh ... Several headless figurines found
at fnamgaon have been compared with Goddess Visira of the
Mahabharrlla. "
All these stalemeniS amount to sheer ~pet:u lati (ln; ;JnJ
the reader is never made conscious of the distance in time and of
the difference in actua l depiction between th c c hakolithi c
figurines and e lement s of very late Hindu iconography.

Page 6S
The name of n.R. Sahni is missspclt as "Sailn;" ,

Page 66
"This ancienl civili zation lthe Indus Civil ization} of India like
any other, cannot properly be studied on the basis of its present,
day (l) political boundaries. The geographical distribution [of
what?] s hould be its basis."
Does the author himself know what he wants 10 say?

Page 66
"The tOlal geographical area over which this civilization
flourished is more than 20 t imes of the area of Egyptian anti
more than 12 times of the area of Egyptian and Meso potamian
civilizat ions combined. It covers an area of about 12,50,000 !'IoC(.
km."
The area of Egyptian civi lizat ion covered about 300,000
and Mesopotamian about 400.000 square km , Even if one accepts
Mak khan LaJ's inflated figure for the Harappan cultu re area
(1,250,000 sq. km . instead of just 7+ or 800,000 sq. km.) . ;1
cannbt be 20 ti mes the size of Egyptian civilization or 12 times
that of Egypt and Mesopotam ia combined.

Page 66
+-- " it is clear from the above distribution pattern of .sett lements
 Ancient I"dill (Class XI) 37
that the fo cus of Harappan civiliZation was not the In dus bu t the
Saraswati Ri ver and its {I'ibutarie.s which flowed betwee n 'the
Indu s and the Ganga. lr is because of thi s reason tha t so me
scho lars call il Ind us - Slraswati Civilil3tion and few prefcr the
nomenclature Sara swat! C iv ilizati o n,"
Thi s is a hi g hl y tenJentious statement. What is le/l un s:uJ
is t he fact that no ne of the major Harappnn sites (with th e
excepti o n of Kalibangan), suc h li S Harappa.' Mohenjodaro and
Dhol avi ra are located on or close to Ghagg ar, identified hy
Makkh an Lal as Sarasw:lIi . Moreover, the distnbution pattern
of Early Harappan . Mature Harappan and'Late Harappan !O ite~
dearly s hows a chronolog ical moveme nt from the sou th ·wes t [0
the north·east, from the Indus region to the Ghaggar area, Mo ~ t
of the sit es in the laHe r area belong to th e declining , hl.le
Harappan phase. Hence it IS IIlcorreclto hold th at Sarasvutl Ri ver
and not Indus was the focus of Harappnn Civi lization.

P age 66
" Some of the settlements like , .. Rakhigarh i ( +80 he!;tares) .
Kalib3ngan (+100 hectares), and Dho lavirn (+100 hec tare,,) cll n
eas il y be classed as large c iti es."
Only Makkhan Lal can give s uc h Inaccurat e data' .
Kalibangan occupied an area of 11 .50 hectares, nOt + I DO,
Rakhigarhi , 40 hectares nOI +80 ; and DhoJavira, 60 h ~c lares ,
nOt + 100, See Po sse hl 's list of s ites in his, IlIdu.~ A Rt'. rhe
Btgjnnillgs. Kalibangan could barely make il to Ihe ran~ o f a
small towns hip, let alone "a large c i ty. ~' Th e o ther two coul d
just have been s mall lawn s.

Page 74
" Bones of horses have been repofled from Lothal , Surkoldil ,
Kalibilngan and several other sites. l'erracolta figurine s o f the
horse have· been found at Nausharo and Lothal. "
Thi s is a much di sputed claim. In all fai rness the swdenl
s ho uld al so be informed that as aga in st the controversial clai m:;
of a few horse·bones d iscovered in the Harappan ( more proRerly
late Hu.-appan) layers, bones of thousands of horses have been
d iscovered in the archaeo logical layers dating from 6000 Be in
the regio ns of Ural, the Volga and lhe Ukraine ; and il is
undi sputed that the animal was first domesticated in these area~,
38 Index of Errors

Page 77
"A male deity ' the prototype of historic Siva' is portrayed on it
seal w i th three faces. sea ted on a low throne in the typical pol>IUrC
of Yog i. with two anima ls on each s ide - elephant and tiger on
right and rhinoceros and buffalo on refl, and two deer (sir:)
stan din g under the thron e. T he depiction shows ~jva.(~· ic!) as
Pasupmi (sic!)."
Thi s idc::ntifi carion tentatively sugges ted by Sir John
Mar.dldll ha s been serious ly ques tioned si nce then by a large
number of sc holars such as 0.5 . Ghurye ( 1979, Vl!dic Illdiu .
Mum~a; , p. 156t); H.P. Su lli van (1964+5, Hisrory of Religioll.\'.
Vo l.I V, pp.115-25) : Air Hellebeitcl ( 1978, A/llhrop ()~i, Vo!.? 3
Nos.5-6, pp .769-79); Dori s Srinivasan ( 1984. Jourl/ol of 'h~
Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. No.1. pp .77-81).
and A.L Basham ( 1990, The Origin and Devdopml!lIt of
Classical lfindltislII, OUP, Delhi, p.4) . II is more likely (hili lhe
figure represenls a femnle deit y and what Marshall :.lssumcd (0
be the ithyphallic feature js merely the tail end of the double
waste-band. as pointed out by H.P. Sull ivan. In any case. all
evidence of such doubtful nature no categorical SI:llement should
be made in a textbook . It s hould be noted lhal among the an im als
shown on this seal . Ih e bull , an anima l c losely assol.~i:lled with
PuraOlC Stllva. is conspicuously absent .

Page 78
"Al Kalibnn£an, Loth al. and Bannwali a number of 'fLre-ahar~'
hnlle been found wh ich seem to have been used as sacrificed
altars _"
There is nothin g to show th;lt alltllcse fire-places which
vary in nature, many of them are simple hearths. were 'sacrificlal
alla rs' _ Nor doe~ Makkhan Lal exp lain how with ox-hune!>
indicating cattle-s laughler at sacnfic ial nltars al Kalibangan and
Lothal, the religion 0 1 the Harappan civiliz,ali('n could be the
same as the Vedic, when. according [0 him . cow :.Iaughtcr wa,
ullerly prohibited in the latter.

Page 80
..... the ·baraburian' (.shl ArY:ln!> !phl:he atlributcu tl) Morlim!.:1
Wheel e rl· ····
M"kkhan Lal' s spelli ng '" cCI'I:llnly barh:Lluu,. WIH.'tlll'l
the Aryans were burburialls or not.
 Ancient India (ClaJ'S XI) 39
Page 80
" In fact. there is no archaeolog ical or biological evidence for
in vasion o r mass mi gration from west or central Asia to Ihc Indus
or Saraswati valleys between 5000 and 800 Be. At! ~ke l elon.,
found during lhi s peri od belong to the same. group of peopl!.'. "
This ,argument to comes t the view th at people speaking
Indo- Iranian ("'Aryan") languages entered from the west or north-
west. overlooks. fir s t of all, th e lingui sli c ev ide nce. which
overwhe lmingly suggests such a migration .. The blithe statement
that there is no archaeological ev idence for an Aryan migrlltioll
over looks what the archaeo logists have uneart hed about the horse
- a r~1 mark.er for the Aryans, It is found s uccess ive ly in BMA C
in north Afghanistan (2200-1700 BC), Galighal Culture IV in
Swat ( 1800- 1400 BC), and in Pirak I(b) (1600-1400 Be). Final ly,
the idea lhat pani c ular language -s peakers (c.g. Aryans or
Dra vid ians) have any specific genetic charactertsti!; s (and so form
a "race") is absurd , No genetic evidence testifies to Turkic
migrations into Turkey, a fact lin guist ically and historicall y
establi s hed , There is furt hennore no truth in the ... tatement thal
.!o keletons foun d in the Indus basin from 5000-800 BC ""belong
to the sa me group". Th e population o f Mehrg!lrh III (c.4300-
c.38GO BC) had I.ranian affiniti es whi le Ihat of Mehrgar!l I and II
(c,700-c.4000 Be) shows South-Asian affinities ... 0 that there
was so me change he re around 4000 BC . The s keleton s 01
H3rappa s how c haracteri stics si mil ar to those of Mehrgarh III.
but di fft. r from those of the people of M ohenj o Daro and or
"mode rn Punjabis". Thus Ihe Indus Civilization itse lf had a
geneticall y mixed popU lat ion,

Pages 82 and 83
"The Vedas are ne ith er any indivi<:lual re li gious work nor a
collection o f definite number of books co mpiled at a parlil:ular
time ."
What is meant by the phrase '"i ndi vidual re li gious work" '~
Doc:; thc author mean that the Vedas are neither a ' single' work
rior 'separ:tte' works. o r does he wis h to co nvey thc idea thai
the Vedas arc not wrill en by an ind ivi dual ? What would Ihc
sludei\t learn fro m suc h a clumsy. confused piece of writlllf! '!

Pages 83-84
"Age of the Rigveda"
·IU Index of Errors

Under this heading an effort is made to di s rni~s Max

Muller's dating of the Rigveda by auributin g il to his VICW (1 1
the creation of the world in 4004 BC. "as a (fue'Chri st ian ." Ap:JrI
from the insens itiveness to Christian sen timent in putting the
argument in this form, it is not shown how a Rigvedic dille. say.
of 3000 Be would have conflicted with a dale or 4004 Be for
the world's c reation! Makkhan Lal is so take n up by Ihis ",ruc-
Christian" bash ing thai he says the same thi ng again on page 8-9 .
Makkhan Lal goes on to give a string of names of scholar.!.
who give very early d ales for the Rigvedc.. while neg lecti ng lilO.')t
who give coge nt enough a rguments for a late dale. Th e fa CI thaI
ce rtain gods mGntion ed in the RlglI~da are men ti oned in tt)e
Bog hazkoy in scription of 14'" century Be by no mcans "prove s"
that " the Ri gveda mu st have come inlo exis te nce much before
Ih al date": it could have been composed muc h later also. by the
same token.
F in all y, M:lkkhan Lal coo lly a mi n to tell the reader thai
some like 11lak, who give very ea rl y dates to the Rigveda, argue
that the Rigveda Was composed outside India!

Page 84
" Ri g Vedic geography, the refore. covers pre se nt~day wes te rn
Ullar Prades h, Haryana. Punjab . Rajasthan, G ujaral. who le of
Pakistan and soulh Afghanistan ,"
Thi s is highly exaggerate", There is no proof that G uj arat
and mos t o f Rajas than were included in, a reas the Rigvedic
composes were familiar with, As for Ihe " whole of Paki s tan,"
there is no proof th at Baluchi stan southwest of the Bolan pass
was known 10 them . Th is would be [he case wilh so ulh
Afghanistan if all Rigvedic refere nces to Sarasvati are attributed
to the Haryana stream instead of the Aves tan Harak hva it i (the
Arghandab·Helmand ri ver), as Makkhan Lal does. He can no t
ride twO horses at the sa me time!

Pag~ 86
"The Rig Vedic soc iety co mprised four varnas. nam ely Brahmana ,
Kshatriya. Vaisya (s ic) and Sudra (sic) ... The teacher and pri ests
were called Brahma nas. ru lers a nd administrators ks hatriyas . .
farmer-s, merchants and bankers vaisyas: a nd arli~an s and
labourers as Sudras,"
The Rigvcda o nly once mentions these four categories,
T here (the PUrl4Sh a-sukta hymn) these: categories of people are
 Allelent India (elllSl' XI) 41

me nt ioned w ithout describing the m 3S vamas. Here ~he second

category is called Rajanya, meaning the kinsmen of the Raja ,
and not Kshatriya . Evolution of the Rajanyas into a i;<shalrl)'3
varna category is a later deve lop me nt. The s tatem e nts in tht!
pre sent textbook a re thu s full of a nac hro ni s ms. What is th e
evidence that Rig-vedic people bad the in stitution o f a "'bank "
for Valshyas 10 be des ignated "bunkers"? There is no proof that
a rti sans we re rega rded as Shudtas in Vedi.c times . ' Brahma na '
was the designation o f a priest o nl y. not "teacher" . It IS a different
matter that later the pro fe ssion of teaching became the prerogati ve
of the bra hma na caste.

Page ~6
"Soc iety "
Under thi s heading a practically idea l society is described. The
reader is not told about dasyus (the suppress~d ' non-A ryans')
and dasas or slaves arid the dasis or s la ve-g irls, whom even the
priests desired in girlS-<

Page 86
""The cow was already deemed llgllllya "not to be kilied'·. Tht:
Vedas prescribe a pe nalty of death o r expul sion fro m the kingdo m
to those who kill o r injure cows ."
A majo r defec t of thi s c hapter is tha.1 th e au tho r has
c lubbed together a ll the four Vedas as !f they represe nt an
identical, unchanging phase of Vedic society, although the re is
hardl y any diffe rence of opinion over the fa ct that the Riglledu
reflects a mu c h ea rli er pha se tha n Th e Yaju r veda and Ih e
Arharvaveda.
As for (he killing or injuring of cows being II capital
o ffence in Ved ic times, Makkhan Lal does not menti Olrthe source
on whieh th is state ment is based . Such recommend ations a re
made in later texts and not in the Vedas.
La ter, Makkhan Lal him self realized th e unte nability of
his assertion; and in hi s Th e NCERT Social S,:jellce Books:
F.alse Propaganda, Politica l Agenda and th l' ""E", il/ !! '"
HiSTorians " publi shed by him (Nov. 2002, p.7). he In c!> to make
a distinction betwee n the meat of a ' bull' , ' ox' , male ca lf. th.",
and that of a cow, and asserts '"From RiR veda and Ath~n'ul'e"ll
we know that some of Ihe domes tic animal s like buf(ulu. hu ll.
ox. male calf, eiC . were eaten but NOT COW~ wh ic h was held a ~
42 Index of EI'I'Or.f

sacred all thorugh. "

The fo llowing hy mns of tJle Rigvt'do may hn'1cvc r. hI..'.
consid ered :
Rjgl/tda 11 .7.5 speaks of worshipping the firc-god . Agm'
with barren cows (vasa h ), bullocks ( Ilksha ) and 'kin~ in call"
(llshtapadiblllh). Thi s is the explanation given by Say:tnlH.:harya
of these term s and it is c leM thai nOt only bull M ox bu t abt.
barren cows and sometimes even pregnant cows were sac l'ific.:Li
perh aps for increasi ng fe rti lity. Barre n cows ("Wid'" and \).\CI1
we re regu lar food of the fire-g od Agni, who IS dcsnihecl a ~ Ihcll'
ealer in Rigvtda VII1.43 . 11 . Rig l/eda VI.16.47 IS a hymn III pnm..:
of Agni in whith the poet prays that hi s r.:.ompo~ltu)n may he
acce pta,ble to the god in the sn me fashion as he al'\:cpl:- Ih;:
offerings of oxen (lIkslulIlall) Ilnd cows (vasa /r ). In {he welhhnt;
hymn (X.85. 13) we arc told that in the Magha (Na/c.l'/w /1'lI 1 t:l)W~
(or callie, gavah ) are slain. The Rigveda X.9 1.14 $peaks of Ih.:
offering o f horses (as vasa h). oxen ( ukshollu/r ), oll Trc n cOws
(vasah) and sheep (mesllalr) [0 th e fire·god Agni. The word V(/.wll
is translated as 'a barren cow' or a barren woman . BUllhc conlc-xt
clea rl y shows that a barren cow is meant.
V.M . Aple, Professor of Sanskrit in Karn:m k College .
Dharwar, writing in The Vedic Age, His/Dry (wd Cutrur'e of thi'
India" People, YoU . ed iled b y R.C. Majumdar (pub li s hed by
Bharatiya Vidya Bha va n, 5 11• edition, p.396). recognises th:l.! in
the Rigveda. VO.faS. i.e .. barren cows . were:. sacrifil.:ed . It I ~ we-II
known thlll whate ver is offered to gods is late r ca ten hy the
worshippers . In Rig\'eda, X.6S.3, cows (galr) are descnbed 11\
atflhinih, fit for g uest s. apparelltly refe rrin g 10 the wdl-
documented c uslom in the G,-jhYU-SUUllS of killing a cow IIJ
feast a guest. V.M . Apte Thinks (ibid . ) lllat barren COWl> musl
have been meant in this Rigvedic passage. and he Hnd s il diffi c ult
10 reconcile thi s evidence with the de scri ption of cnw 11:- lI,r<hln'lI
in several passages. But the cow may have been deSCri bed a~
oghllyo owing to' its usefulness and eco nomic impurtant'l! There
is nothing 1.0 show Ihat i.t was considered 'sac red' and thai the
eat ing of cow-meat was prohibiled.
While it may be argue d that th elie details ncctl nUl
encumber a Class Xl textbook . it is improper to make ~s.\ocrtion~
manifestly conlrary to racts, as Makkh:m Lal has tlone . It wuuld
have been enough for him to s tate that thl! reverence for thc cow
increased with tim e in the Brahmanica l trudition .
 Allciel/l India (Class XI) 43
Page 87
"A lcoholic drinks sura and Soma were also consumed, though
t heir cons umption has been condemned because of It S (.11("1
inloxicating effect."
Soma is a divine drink highly ex tolled in the Rig"ftt/a
and offered to gods and even gotldesses sucb as Indrani , Varuntllll
(Rl8veda , 1.22.9- 12), goddess Earth and Aditi (IX,8. J -5) . II...
preparation was a household affair (Rigv~da, VIl1.2 .7). RigvC'da ,
VII1. 31, vividly describes how a hu s band-a nd-wife couple'
(dampatj) wash nnd press out the soma juice and perform the
sacnfice together for gaining 'strength' and 'g lo ry'. Thcre is thu r\
no condemnation of soma consufTlpti on.

Puge 87
"The Rig Veda auached great importance to agriculture. The
p lough ~as drawn by the oxen at times in teams of six., eigh,"or
even twelve,"
There is no reference in the Rigveda to such plough-
teams of oxen,

Page 87
" Barter was' in vog ue ... The conceptio n of money can be traced
in the mention of a gift of 100 nishkas. Money-lendin g was also
known."
If barter ';was in vogue", ho w come there were coins
( n;shkas) and also money-lending?

P age 88·89
"The Rigveda does not give even an inkling of any migrati on of
Aryans from any other area. It does not even have a fai nt memory
of any such mi gration, II does not have any knowledge even of
the geography beyond the known bo und ari~s of ancien! India:'
Makkhan Lal apparently fee ls it is unpatriotit: to suggest
that the Aryans C"arne from outside [ndia. He needs to be reminded
that Lokamanya Sal Gangadbar Tilak . whose patr ioti s m in
leading the struggle against colonial ru le can hard ly be , doubted .
had suggested that the Arctic was the origi nal home o f the Aryans .
fo r Rigv~da 1.76.3 speaks of Mmany days (that] have passed before
t he sunrise" ; and such a phenomenon occurs onl y in the Polar
regions . II is the pr~sent votaries of Hlndutva who see in the
genuine hi storical problem of the o ri gin al home of the Aryans.
44 Ind~x of Errors

or rather speakers of Indo-European la nguages. as an obS l ru(.:tiOn

to their harping on the 'fo reign character' of the non- Hindu
[nd ian population.
A s to the amount of geographica l knowledge In the
Rigvl!dq, the text locates seve ral Vedic tribes in the regions of
Kubha (Kab ul), Suvastu (Swat). Krumu (Kurum ) and.Gomati,
modern Gomal, the rivers of eastern Afghanistan ::md NWFP. It
s hows no knowledge of the Indian territories beyond the we stern
limits of the Gangetic river system in the east >Ind south of Punj ab.
What s hould the students regard as the " known boundaries of
ancient India ?" Did 'ancient llldi a' of Dr. Makkhan L al's
conception include Afghanistan bOt excl ude the enlire sou thern
and eastern regions o f present.day· lndi a?

Page 89
"Many sc hol ars think that the Aryans' were Originally inhabitants
o f India and did not come from outside ... "
, repeat those mllde
T he s tatements made in this paragraph
on page 80; see our comments above under that pag~.

Page 90
To justify the identification of Harappan civilization wi th Vedic
"c ivili zat ion" the author mi stranslates ' Pu,randara', nn epi thet
of god lndra in the Riglleda, as "Lord of CHles". The term means
" destroyer of forls (or town s)" (P urah Satrunam nagarani
darayati khach, V.S. Apte, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, s.v.
Purandara ). Hence t he ep it het is a'lso applied to god Sh lva,
fa mou s for destroying three cities (Trfpuralllaka) .

Page 90
"Most of the animal s kn,own [Q the Indus people are also known
to the Rigllcda."
Rhinoceros was known in Harappan culture bul is nO(
mentio ned in the Rig lleda. It is cu rio us thai the ho rse wh ich
played a very important role in the material and re li gious li fe o f
the Vedic people and is mentioned in the Rigveda 2 15 times, as
against the cow, 174 ti mes. and bull, 170 times. is conspicuously
un t racea bl e in a c lear and uncontroversial ma nn er i n the
Harappan milieu. It is not shown, for example. on any Harappan
seals, an d a horse·seal ' discovered' by one of the saffron brigade
enthusiasts has been ex posed as a fraud.
 Ancient India (Class XI) 45
Page 92
:'The whole question of the Aryan invasion theory has most apt ly
been summed up by Ihe famous anthropologist Professor Edmund
Leach of the Cambridge University. [n his famous article' Aryan
Invasion over Four Millennia' .,. "
The joke is that Leach reaches his conclusion. "The
Aryan invasions never happened at air' , by arguing that the re
had actually been no Vedic culture. not even a Vedic religion .
and that Vedic texts cannot be used as eVIdence for any period:
"the Vedic religion", he says, "is a fictional en tity about w hich
not~ing is genuinely known;" and "The Vedas add up to a
miscellany of undatable doc.umetHs of unk nown origin" . Thu.\,
neither were there any Vedic Aryans nor, therefore, any Aryan
invaders! Makkhan Lal most misleadingly picks up a few
statements from Leach for quotation, while carefully excluding ,
those relating to the crucial nihilistic reasoning of thai author,
equa lly destructive of &fly " Vedic civilization" as of Aryan
invasion. Such a deliberate act of distortion on Makkhan LsI's
part cannot be too strongly deplored.

Page 94
"Upanishads do not believe in the sacrificial ac.quiring
ceremonies (sic)" .•
What is the meaning of this sen tence'? The Upanishads
s how no opposition to sacrifices.

Page 9S
"Wi thin the framework of kingship there were operating certain
democratic elements. These were : ( I) the people's right in
choosing the king ... "
Does this mean that the kings were elected by lA." ,
franchise and the monarchies were not he re(litary in nature? Thi s
is just one example of Makkhan Lal's tendency to so idealj sc
the Vedic Age as to make everything ridiculous .

Page 98
"The Uponishads. being the highest l eve l of inlellectual
attainments, which was no doubt the outcome of the intellectual
pursuits of the time."
What a tautology! Could an " intell ectual attainment "
have come out of muscular pursuits?
46 Index of Errors

Page 100
Correct 'Schoperhour' to 'Schopenhauer '

Page 100
"Vedic people knew the methods or making squares equal in
area to' triangles. circles and c alculate the sum s and di fferences
of squares. The Zero was known in Rigvedic times itself and du e
10 thiS, large numbers could be recorded . Also. the positional
va lue of each number with its absolute value was known. Cubes .
c ubcrools, squareroots and underroots were a lso known and
used,"
The entire statement is fal se and propagandist . made wllh
a view t.o crediting the Vedas with all kinds of knowledge and
scientific discoveries. No doubt, the zero and the positional value
of numerals in the decimal system were invented in India, and
Aryabhata in the fifth century AD was familiar with the system
of writing decimal numerals; but these discoveries were made
some lime in the early centuries of Ihe Christian era, Positional
value of !lumerals was '.lot known to the engravers of the Maurya.
Satavahana, Kus hana and even Gupta inscription s. which use
different ·s ymbols for teo, twenty, thirty, hundred, tWo hundred
and so on. Large numbers have nothing to do with the knowledge
of zero. For a detailed criticism of Makkhan Lal's stateme nts.
see Gunakar Mule in Saffronised and Substandard: A Crifique
of the New NCERT Textbooks (Published by SAHMAT New
Delhi , 2002), pp. 138-- 160.

Page 100
lin the Vedic period} '·they also knew that the earth moved on
its axis and around the sun. T he Moon moved around the eart h."
This is again a deliberate falsehood. Even the great
astronomer Aryabhata has not said that the earth moved around
the sun. His great discovery was that the earth moves on its aXIs .
But this view was not acceptable (0 traditiona l orthodoxy, as in
the Athar'llo'lleda the earth is said to be stable (pruris,ha). Both
Varahamihira in his Pallchasiddhanliko (Xlll.6.7) written in 505
AD and Brahmagupta (628 AD) in his Braghmasl'hl/w ,
Siddhullta rejeet Aryabhata's assertion and describe il as again:-I
the tradition of the Vedas and Smritis .

Page 108
" Bolh [Jainism and Buddhi sm] are organised .:as ascetic urders
 Allcimt India (Class XI) 47
and brothe rhoods. Ascetic ism in fact has its origin In Vedic
thought and has been- directly encou raged by the Upanishads."
Again, an attempt to see the Vedic corpus a~ the
foun tainhead of all subsequent ancient religious thought anLl
pTlu':lice, in cluding Jaini s m and Buddhism . BUI therc is no
suggest ion in VediC tradition of the monastic o rder (.wnK'1lI1
c h;lrac tcri st ic of these two religions. H is furthermore Incorrect
to attribute to Buddhism any element of ascetici:.m .

Page 110
·' He [!.hc Buddha's father, Sudd hodanaJ, was the king of Sakyil
repuI)Jie".
A 'ki ng' of a 'republic' is surely a strange phenomenon .
And it shou ld be 'ShakYIl' not 'Sakya'.

Page 111
··Both lMahavira and Gautama Budd haJ ... derivcd their baSIC
principles from the Upanis hads."
T his belittling of the break that Jaini sm and Buddhism
make with the Upanishidic tradition, is li nked to an Insistence
Ihal these two religi ous arose out of Ihe very system, the Vedic,
that they rejected. What these t':""o reli gio!ls obtained from the
Upa n ishads is not at a ll made clear. Indeed. there i!\ hardly
anything common between them, if we go by the author'", own
summary of the U,Janishads · beli efs on page IU2 and hi~
summary of the beliefs of Jainism and Buddhi., m hc.re, on page,
II 1-12.

Page lJ2
" It may be said that within fi ve hundred years Buddha spread
far and wide in different paris of the world."
' Buddha' or ' Buddhi sm'?

Page 114
No exp la nati on is offered why in early Vedic litcrorun: only
'janos' are mentioned and jallapad(1s figure in later Vedic and
post· Vedic lite rature.

Pa ge 115
Like all other maps in this book, the map on thIS page is also
very poor. Kuruks hetra is shown in Northern Rajasthan . The
48 Index of Errors

upper section of the Ganga is actually that of the Yamuna. whic h

is s hown as rising in lower Haryana! Pataliputra is spell
'·Patliputra". The Brahmaputra is not shown at all.

Page 116
"This extract from Megasthenese's (s ic) ItJdia is in conformity
w ith the posi-Mahabharata war genealogy preserved in the
Pu"'anas. "
Here Makkhan LaJ repeats a stateme nt made also on page
6. fI deserves to be noted that , as quoted by Arrian. Megas lhcnc!>
re ported that " from the time of Dio ny s us to San dracollu s
IChandragupta Mauryal the Indian s coumed 153 kings and a
period of 6042 years, bUI among these a republic was thnce
esta bli shed." There is no reference to Ihe Mah abharat8 War in
Megas lhenes, o n the o ne hand , Bnd none to Dionysu s or 153
ki ngs or a pertod of 6042 years or three re publi can interlude s In
the Puranas. on the o ther. H ow, then , ca n the twp be "in
co nfo mllty" with e3ch other?

Page 120
" [Achaemenian dominions) comprised some te rri lO ry to thc cast
of Sindhu."
The recogni sed name in English for the rive r is fndu ~ (so
also in the Survey of India maps). The const3nt usc of "Si ndhu "
for Indus is unjustified Sansk.ritisation . Yet on the very next page
12 1 Makkhan Lal forgets hi s Sanskrit learning and s peak.s o f
"the Jhelum and the C henab". ~nd on page 32 we even read of
"the Ganges and the Jamuna". No Sanskrit form s here!

Page 125
"Chandragupta Maurya was the first ruler who unifi ed entire
Indi a under one political unit." '
' Entire India'7lf so why did Ashoka have had to conquer
Kalinga or to describe Chola. Pandy a. S3tiyapurra an d '
Keralaputra. located in Tamil N.du lind Kernla, as' fronti e r
Kingdoms? This isjust another example of an inaccurate. slipshod
way of writing. inexcusable in a textbook. .

Page 130
"'11u$ Ashoka tried to instill moral law (Dharm a) 3 S Ihe governing
principle and forced [it?} in every sphere of life. "
 Ancient India (Class XI) 49
What is the meaning of this sentence? Does it mean that
Ashoka ' forced' arbitrarily the principle of Dharma into every
spht"re of life? Makkhan Lal has

Page 131
"Ashoka took for the propagation of Buddhism ,"
Ashoka took what? Makkhan Lal ha s forgotte n tn
com plete this senten ce ,

Page 131
"His (As hoka's) reign constitutes one of ' the rare and lighting
(sic) epochs in the annals or nations.'"
Whatever is a "li ght ing epoch"? Makkhan Lal seems
u s ually to pick out unnamed aut hors for quotation whose
utterances are as woolly-headed as his own.

Page III
" A-shoka i~ the only king in th e history of human kind who
apo logized to his conquered subject (.sic) for having waged war
against them ... The Rock Edkt XlII is a moving document."
This is an obvious misinterpretatiQD of the contents of
Ashoka's Roc k Edict XIII. It expresses Ashoka's sorrow and
repentance over the Kalinga war, but it cannot be construed a~
an apology. It should be noted that thi s particular Rock Edict
does not form part of the royal edicts found in Orissa. The two
separate Rock Edicts sent to different provincial centers, are here
inscribed in lieu of Rock. Edict XlII. It Rock Edtft XIII was an
"apology". il was not tendered to [he people of Kalinga .

Page 131
"Appa rentl y due to concern for the empire a nd 10lal
disillusionment on kings (sic) unworthiness . Pushyarnitra. the
commander-in-chief killed the king Brihadratha while he was
reviewing the army ... This is the only recorded and uAdisputed
incident in the history of India till the twenfth century AD where
the king was murdered and replaced."
The obvious attempt here is to show that whereas regicide
was an exception in ancient Indi a. it became a regu lar feature of
Muslim politics in Medieval India . It may be poimed out that
according to the Buddhist tradition all kings from Ajatastialru .
the kjng of Magadha and contemporary of tbe Buddh.a, to Naga-
50 flldex of Errors

Dasaka were parricides. "The c itiz.ens drove ou l the family in

a nger a nd raised an (lmatya (offici al) to the throne " ( H C
Rnychaudhuri, Political History of Allcie,!r [ndio , OUP, 2000.
p . 19 3). Shishuna ga, the new ki ng had been ac t ing a~ th e
Magadhan viceroy at Varanasi . The vio len t death of KUnlkn
Ajalasalru , w ho had kill ed hi s father Bimbi sara, is confirmed by
{he Jaina sources.
A not he r contemporary of the Buddha , King Prascmlju
of Kasa la. WS'S kille d by his son Vidudabha. who had heen
appoi nted asenapari or a general of a s tanding army by /II S father.
(Fo r more exam pl es s~ comments in Ihi s Lndc.x on M ukl.. han
Lal 's te xtbook for C lass VI). under p.l 02.

Pnge 132
" Bul weak eco nomy does not Rppear to be the cilse, as. [he .
excavation s of Mauryan seltlernents and also ot her evidence point
10 an expe ndi ng (sic) and flouri s hing economy."
Both the language and argument a re poor. In adequalc
s late reso urces a nd a flourishing economy are IWO dirferent
thin gs. In a ny case. o ur knowledge about th e pos i- Ashoka
M : m ryan Empire is so small that anyone can just say anyth in g

Page 135
"A married woman had her own property in the rorm (It bndc-
g ift (slru dlrana), and jewels."
Th ere is obvious cO{l fu sion here between srri -c1I/(U/u ,lIIeJ
kanya·dan . DIJafla means wea hh , prope rty. nOI gift.

Page 143
" He overthrew Nahapana and restruct (s ic) large numPer of hi ...
s il ver co ins."
Correct ' restruct' as ' restruck' and inser! the aTl icie 'a'
after it.

Page 144
"The Yavanas [Greeks] were the firs t ones La establish foreign
su premacy over Ind ian soil. "
Su rely not the fi rst! What of the Achaemenids? For thaI
malt e r, A lex ander was a Macedonian , no t G reek, and Ill S
conquests cannot be he ld to be Greek conques ts .
 Ancien/India (Closs XI) 31
Page 146
In place of "provincial governor C handrag upta Maurya " read
'provi ncial governor of Chandragupta Maurya'.

Page 151
" TJ'oe detailed descripti o n of south Indian states is fo und in
Snngam literature belonging 10 the first fou r cenluri es of the
Christian era",
Here the Sangam. literature is ascribed to the "first .four
centuries of the Christi an e ra," But in the same paragraph after a
few sentences we are told, "The Sangam literature preserves folk
memory about the society and life in South Indi a between third
Century BC and third Century AD,"

Page 154
'The greatest king of the Chera dYllasty was Sengu lluran ',
Read 'Senguuuvan ' for 'Sengulluran' .

Pages 158-160
"Soc ial Conditions"
It is remark,,;b le thaI in this enlire section. the ,statemen ts
the Manusmriti makes on the "mi xed" jar;)' ou tside the four
vamos, of which a long list is prov ided by that text, arc silently
passed ove r; a nd the di sabili ti es im posed on them are nul
me ntioned, Thus the ' dalils' are firmly kepi out side our history.

Pagts 159-60
"Ashramos"
The long passage on ashramas makes curious reading .
It omi ts to mention. that these stages of life were 1/01 open to
women and shudras, let alone dalits. The statement (p. 160) thai
this "scheme" of four ashranllls "was designed to · give a wide
scope to individu als in the choice in a vocal io n of life whi ch
was best suited to the i r in te ll ectual and m'enl"l capaci,ty"
ove rlooks the fact that the "scheme" was part of the cas te syste m.
and the dharmashastra did nOl permit One 10 adopt a "vocati on"
not assigned to o ne's caste,

Page 160
" Marriage between the members of the sumejaris was preferred.
though intermarriage between different jaris was preva lent ."
52 Index of Errors

The fact was that women of a higher \lama could never

be married to n man of a lower "ama. while a man belonging 10
a higher varna had to marry a woman or" hi s own varna and.
lhen only, successive ly women of lower varnas. The statement
t hat intermarr iages were prevalent thu s need s to be great ly
qualified.

Page 160
"Eight forms of marriage are mentioned in the Dharmasaslra.J
(sic!) , These are - bra/,,"a. daivu. arrha. prajapllt),o. as/1ft••
gandl,arvQ, raJcsha sa and paisac/Ja . Among these the last is
condemned by all the Dharmasatras (sic!). Wom en . ,' held
honourable' pos ition in the (s ic!) society and household."
Wtiat is the use o f g iving thi s Siring of te rms for different
kinds of marriages if these aTe not explained ? The (act that the
rabila$a form of marriage - in which a woman is forcibly
abducled against her will and her family's wishes - wa s
recog nised as valid for at lea st Ks halriya ma les, is hardly
compatible with the unqualified s tatement made in the nex t
senten ce Ihat "th e women __. he ld honourable position In the
society" ,

Page 161
" . .. the division of Buddhi s m into two broad sects - the Hinayana
and the Mahayana."
It shou ld be noted that Hinayana (' Littl e Vehide') is
the name the Mnhayan isu give to the ot he r sect. A more suituble
designation is Thcravada for Hjnayana .

Page 162
"the Mahayam sls cons ider him [Ihe Buddhal as God."
The Mahayanists are not theists at all; so this s ta te ment
is not correc tly worded.

l'age 163
..... the Harappan deity know n as Pasupal; [=Pashup8tiJ."
We do npt know,. word or the H(lrappan languIIge; so
how do we know the deity on a sea l, found by some to be ~ im i lar
10 Pashupati, was actually so ca lled.

Page 163
"Saivism", "Saiva", " Siva" "Saktl" are all errors, respectively
 Allcielll India (Clan XI) 53
for Shaivism , Shaivite, Shiva and shak/I.

Page 165
"Money was lent for interest on pro mising rtlle S to be renewed
e.very yoar."
What are "prom ising" rates? High or low'!

Page 167
"The large statues of (th e] Buddha at BamiYlln were o ne (sid
one of the fine st examp les of the Gandhara arc"
The Bamiyan Buddhas , which belonged to a later period
{6'~ century}, do nOt be long to Gandhara art proper.

Page 169
" It was based on the theory of three humours - air. bile , phlegm
- the correct balance o f these gave in (sic! ) a healthy body:'
What kind of comm uni cation s kill s would a s tude nt
acq uire by reading such incorrect expressions?

Page 170
. .
"Charaka and Sushruta w ere the contemporaries uf Kushana king
Kanishka ."
Charaka was a co ntempo rary of Kani s M:a but nOl
Sushruta who is generally regarded as later, than Cha raka and
placed in the fourth century AD

Page 174
"The Lichchhavis (to whom Gautam!l Buddha belo ngs [sic ! IJ
were an old and established Ganaralya."
A blunder. again. Gautama Buddh a did ;1Ol be long to
the Lichchhavi bllt to the Shakya clan. (Compare page 11 6 where
Shakyas of Kapilava s tu and Li c hchav.is of Vai sl1ali are
enumerated separately in a list of the ganaraj),as. Generall y the
latter ganarajya was known as Vajji . and Lichchav is formed a
part of it.)

Page J90
"This period is characteri zed by a remarkable growth of the loca l
self-govern ing institution s such as village committees and district
commiltees. Their existence from a very early period has been
nOlieed, hundreds of in scl:,i ptions and Iile ralure (sic) of thi s
54 Jndex of Errors

penod from driOUS parlS o f the country throw a nood of light

on their nature and activities and testify to the m O~1 wunJerful
organisation Ihat Ihe nncient Indian s evolve(I."
Makkhan Lal is characlcrlsl ic:ll1y long. On ddJe(>lIvc.~ and
"hon on facts. If a "flood of light " is, indeed . thrown on thc_'c
"se lf~govcrning inSlllutions" il is surpri sing. thaI he has not caug ht
eve n a ray of it 10 provide th e reader with sultle spedne
description. He has no time 10 consider that the mass of pcaS<lm ...
were excluded fr om these instituti o ns (e.g the well-known
passage In Milirida -pollh Q) and thaI the poorer Slr:HlI were
subjc(,led 10 much personal oppression and humiliation by higher
rural elements (see Kamasutrll. 5.5.5-6 ).

Page 190
" 11 appears thtlt royal powers were more ...· Ircum~cribcd In the
Gupta period and later during the Mauryas."
Were the Mauryas later than the Guplas?

P~ge 190
"Evidence that the king maintained a l>landlng army is cf)nl"irmcd
from the conquest!. of Samudragupta and Chlindraguptu fl ..
Another instance of wooJty-headednesl>. There have hecn
t:onq uerors who made use not of stand ing armies bul uf spe.... lal
levic~ (or their campaigns. like Chinggls Khan and Timur.

Page 192
"The . . ommentaries on Buddhist text s were writtCll in Pali.·'
in the period in question (Gupras to Harsha). Sanskrit.
and not Pali, W:lS the language in which Buddhi st ..... ommentnric~
were mainly written in India . Pall wa s mainly used by Buddhists
in Sri Lanka during this period.

Page 196
"The Study s hows that t he to tal area given ill land grant IS
between 0.017% and 0.026% of the total fand area of lhe
kin gdom ." .
No records ex ist by which such statistics . . an be worked
out. In any case we are not even to ld , which kingdom is the
s ubject of suc h a remarkable slatistical study.

Page ] 99
"Lingayata was anolher important sect of Saivl:-m (~'icl ) in South
 Allcient India (Class XI) 55
India. whose ph ilosophy was influenced both by Sankara (~'i(' / ~
a nd R:lmanuja."
The {jates or Shnn ~ a r a and Ramanuja are eigh th and
eleventh centuries respectively Th e Lingayat sect came. in to
prom inence in the twelrth century AD . It is not clear why II
should be discussed in a chapter tilted ··SOCIETY. ECONOM'Y
AN D CU LTURE. FROM THE GUPTAS TO HARSHA ."

Page 207
·'Varahamihira . w ho flourished in the court of Cha ndr:lgu pt ~\ II .
has preserved in his Panchasiddhamika, wriuen in AD 505. the
accounts of five astronom ical works . .. "
_ On page 178 the reader is to ld Ih at C handraguptn II died
abou t AD~413 _ As the Panchasiddhantika c lea rl y mentions a
date corresponding to AD 505 , how could Va raha mi hira have
adorned the Caliri of C ha ndragup(8 n ?

Pa ge 212
"Nagabhatta {II] defeated Sultan Vega. who 'was Ih e son of the
Governor of S ind under Caliph ~ AI - Mamun ".
No ' Sullan Vega ' is heard of in the sou rces of Arab Sind .
' Vega' is . in a ny case, nol a possible Arab name, nor i:i Su ltan a
like ly ti tle for anyo ne al that lime . ft is s in gular that w hi le
Makkhan Lal describes other kin gdo ms. he does not si mil a rl y
o ffer any separate description of Arab power in Sind and southern
Punj ab. Even the Arab conquest o f thi s area 0 11 - 14) is passed
ove r in si len ce. It is. therefo re . not surpri s in g th ai he also
maintain s s ilence over the conside rable body of Indian scienlitic
le'a rning and philosophi cal thought that reac hed Ihe Arabs via
Sind.

Page 1.14
"The History of Bengal from the Death of Harsh a up to th ~
ascendancy of the Palas remains in (.fic) obscure" .
Note linguis tic e rrors.

Page 224
On thi s page the four dictionaries composed by Hemachandra
are described as " famous dramas" . In fact, the Abhidhaflu
Chi"taman; contains synonyms; Duhinamamala is a Pra.k rit
dictionary; An~k.Qrlhasamgraha contains a li st of homonyms:
56 Index of errors

and Nighantushesha is a a botanical glossary.

Page '227
The Sai lendra Kings arc abruptly mentioned on Ihis page without
te lling the students who they were, where they ruled, etc.

Page 228
" In this way it is also connected with Saka·Sak,j CUll."
There is no cult known as Saka Sakli c ult .

Pages 228-29
..... because of popular demand for a morc personaf religion
(sic) deity",
What is to be understood by this phrase?

Page 239
" From the days of the RamayonQ India had Jinks with Sri Lanka .
which was popularly known as Lanka in Ramayafla ."
Does this mean Ihal the existence of the ralcsha:m ruler
Ravsna and his overthrow are hi storical facts with which llur
links with Sri Lanka began?

Page 250
It is perhaps not strange to find in the Bibl iography a title by
"S wami" David Fraw ley. Vedic Aryans and the Origin (If
Civilization, in which as all civilizations of the world , including
those of Pre-Columbian America, arc attributed to Vedic Aryans.
N.S. Rajaram. the publisher, of this book. is the person who
invented a "horse-scal' to prove Ihat there were horses in the
Indu s Civilization. Of a similar kind is Bhagwan Sing h's V~dic
Harappans , its title conveying its propagandist character. Is thi s
the kind of reading 10 be suggested to C lass XI students and
their teachers?
NOTE: This textbook contains so many 'spelling mi stakes of
Sanskrit terms that one begins 10 wonder if the author knows
even clemef1tary Sanskrit. Many have already been noticed
Listed -below are others which will have to be correc ted ror
students. The text has:
Page 17: \lYakarna for \o)oakarana.
Page 18: Mudfarakshasha (or Mudraraksha.m
 Ancient India (ClllS~' XI) 57

Page 84: Purushani for Pumshlli.

Page 85: grami"i for gramani. Thi s mi stake is repeated on page:.
92. 93, 96 and elsewhere.
Page 85: rajana for rajan.
Pag~ 85: yadva·janaha for yadava .•jtHWh and 'Bharma·jwlllh(,·
for Bharata·)Imah. (How the Visa rga of Sanskrit language came
to be transliterated as ' ha', only the author can e;'l;plai'n.)
Page 87: Maruta for Marut.
Page 95: Vajpeya for Vajapeya and' Rajsuya ' for Rajasuya.
Page 96: Vajsan eyi Samhita for Vajasan ey i Samhita.
Page 'ffi3: Janan for jnana.
Page 114: Pundara for Pundra.
Page 116: Apranta for Aparanta .
Page 157: Asvaghosha should be Asllvaghosha·. correctly given
on p. 16 1.
Page 164: sresthies for shreshthis.
Page l 74 : Lichcha vis· dauhitra (or Lichchhul'j·duuhitra.
Page 178: and elsewhere - KaUda.f for Kal ,dasa.
Page 19]: Abhijnashakunralam for 'Abh ijnonashaklUllalcwl'
Page 209: Nayanarcu for Nayana rs
Page 223: Ragha vaphandavija for Raghavap(wdaviYu
Page 223: Dhanajaya S hrutokriti for Dllananjaya Shmwkirli .
••• Kuarapalacharira for kumarapalacharita.
Page 224: Rajma riga nkll fo r Rajamriganka.
Page 240: Kaudinya for Kaundin ya .
 3
Meenakshi Jain, Medie.'af./n.dia
- A,Textbook for Class XI
Publis hed : Nove mber 2002

Page :2
[Of Yashovarman of K lInauj:] " A reputed w arn or. he i s even said
to have allied with C hina ag ain st the g ro wing power o f the Ara bs."
The suppos iti on borders o n fantasy. The only fat'l know n
to us is that according to C hinese sources, ),as hovarm an (' I-c ha-
ron-mo' ) sent an e mbassy to C hin a in AD 731 .

Page 3
" Buddhi sm was for all practical purposes absorbed inlO Hindui sm: '
Such a statement is not ju stified: What the author shows
is o nl y that some e le ments of Buddhi sm (and Jain ism) li ke uliimslI
came greatly 10 influence Hindui s m. Thi s does not mean thai
Budd hism thereby went out of exi s tence by abso rption . Otherwi se
one might s ay thai Buddhis m. because of its taking over some
elements of Brahmanis m. "absorbed" Hindui s m!

Page 5
"The countless new towns in the Gurj ara Pratihara domll.in s ha ve
been linked to a realignment of trade routes in consonance with
agrarian and merchantile e xpans ion ."
The word "countless" is an exaggeration . The aUlho r
totally ignores the contrary view. that of a decline in commerce
(the basi s of the concept o f "Ind ian Feudali sm"). AI class X l such
a one· sided view of (he period c .650-1200 ought nOI to be
presented.

Page 8
For "Fawadul Fawnid" read "Fawa idul Fawad" .

Page 8
"Medieval Indian historiography fall s into three neat phases with
the first covering the works of medieval chroniclers who wcre
usually court historians."
 MedievlI/lfldja (e/IUS XI) 59
Th e s tateme nt that medi eval historians were usually
·'.court" historians is often made, bu t it needs 10 be t:xp lained that
several major hi stori ans. like Barani and B~dauni. were /l Of ct)ur
his(o~ian s and wrote from a s trongly critica l po int of view.
Si milarl y. the further stateme nt ,,on the same page. thai medi eval
hi s torians "exa mined no source ma terial" (when many o f theil'
hi s tories were actual ly based o n official "news-report s'!, ear li er
histories, e tc . ) is equally untenable.

Page 8
"Their [medieval hi s torians ' ] histories were court-centric and
generally took no note of tbe world beyond the royal durbar:'
This sta tement again is fa r too sweepi ng as is shown by
the author's own reference to Abu ' ) Fazl and Ali Muhammad Kh an.
Such works as go beyond court-centred polit ical his tory are fair-ly
nume rous1a nd include works like Ma ~har-j Shahjaho1li, Nuskhl'-I
Dilkusha, Mir 'atu 'l Haqa 'jq, etc .. and cannot just be dismi ssed
as a n ·;exceplion."
A notab le omission in the author's account of sources IS
the category of autObiographical memoi rs (e.g. of Babur and
Jahangit), biographies of no bl es (including suc h biog raphi cal
dictionaries as Zakhiralu '{ Khaw{Jllin and Ma 'asiru '/ Umara ). a nd
coll ections of notic~s of poets. schol ars. e tc. Suc h lite rat ure l ml
had no precedent in pre-med ieval times.

Page 9
" Despite the authoritative nature o f hi s (Moreland 's ) monographs .
which included the Agriculture of the United Pravinces f 19(4),
The Revenue Administration of the UI~ited Provinces ( 19 1I ) .. . ··
These two works are not hi storical in nature, and their
inclusion e nge nders the suspicion that the author is mentiuning
books she has never herself even seen.

Page 10
The separate classification on thi s page of Muslim and Hinuu
hi sto rians is very tendentious. C learly, Tara Chand (author 01
Influence oJlslam on Indian ClIlwre) (who is not at all ment ioned!)
and R .P. Tripathi (Stu.dies in Muslim Adminis.lrariall) ought to have
been classed with M . Habib and K.M . Ashraf. on th..: hasis ofihei r
point or vie w. No r Will it be acceptable to all to pl ace Faruki "JO
book on Aurangzeb among important historical WClrJ..S.
60 Index of Errors
Page 12
II is strange to see in the chapter heading (Chapter 2: "Struggle
for Chakravartitva") the use of a Sanskrit word of purely modern
coinage (from the genuine term chakravartilt ), when "Po li tlcnl
Supremacy" would have se rved as well.

Page 23
" Scholar s have therefo re viewed the new religion a s 1l
manifestation of Arab nationalism."
A doubtful proposition, since the concept of "nalion" was
not preSent al the lime ; nor is it supported by any verse in the
Quran. The sentence should at least be qualified by saying "Some
scholars" instead of "Scholars".

Page 2S
''The Arab forces were vastly superior to those Gf King Dahir, in
numbers and equipment ,., Even so heavily outnumbered , It was
the information supplied by a traitor that finally tilled the ~c3 l e s
against Sind."
These statement.~ have no s upport from either the
Chachnama or Balazuri, our two main sources and arc Invention s
modelled after the usual explanations for one's hero's defeat. .
namely, the opponent's larger numbers and the aCIS of a traitor.
A singular omission in the textbook is that of any rererent:e
(0 Sind after the Arab conquest (c.712-c . IOOO). The ract that In

the IOtbcentury Mansura. covering an area ofabouI400 heGtares.

was the largest town (archaeologically attested) in India till th:lt
time is nowhere mentioned; nor is the importance of Sind undt'f
the Arabs as a conduit of cultural trans mi ssion between India and
the Arab-Iranian world touched upon .

Page 26
"The Chachnama says that the king of Kashmir had estahlished
suzerainty over Zabul."
An utterly baseless statement: there is no reference 10
Zabu l in the Chachnama .

Page 26
"S ubuktagin ... became master of the region Up lO thl" SinJhu .··
The name of the river In English is Indus. lind there IS !Ill
need ror the Sanskrit form
 Medie\'Ql india (Clan· XI) 01

Page 26
··Thus from the first Arab foray into Sind 10 the Tu rkish ~onqilcst
of L~hore . it took the invaders fou r hundred year!> 1(.1 e .. tabli~h 11
footho ld in the continent."
The statement is doubl.y rallat:illus· ( t ) The Arabs he ld
Sind and soulhem Panjab from earl y 7th century onward .... and
that was s urely enough of a " (OOlhold ·'; and (2) thl! Arabs and
Ghaznavids are lumped together as "invaders": lhe authul' might
have st ill better gone back to Alexander; then she l,;ould have sa id
that it took thirteen hundred years for the invader.s to estahlisil 1\
fOOlhold here!

Page 26
"Muhammad Ghur's Indian ven tures ... "
Mu hammad GhUT is a piece of illiteracy, and the illiler.te
fo rm is t.i ~cd throughout the book. It shou ld be " Muhammad uf
Chur" Or "Shihabuddinl MU'lzzuddin of Ghut'''. Ghur' is the name
of a district: so 'Ghuri' would also do.

Pages 26-27
"Mahmud Ghazn i invaded India seve nteen times .
"Mah mud Gha.lni" is again a piece or il li lcracy Should
be "Mahmud o f Cha7.ni"

Pilf!es 27-28
While the destruction of ido ls and lem.ples by Mahmud of Gha;.ni
needs to be mentioned , there is liule rea~on to go Into de[ad~ ,
such as. the doubtrul assertion (page 28) that Somnath ··dunng lun ar
ec lipses drew as man y as tw o to three lakh pilgri ms." or the
particulars (page 28) as to wh ich part of which idul went where (a
long quo ta tion from Alhcrun i). I t is notewo rlh y I ha! o t her
s tatement s suc h as those rega rding Indi an · sc ience or the caste
syslcm made by .l\lberuni are passed over in silence.

P age 29
"The rarn()u~ l.;ol1ege of Ajrner built by Vigrohar:lja IV Visa ladeva
wa.~ converted mto a mo:.q ue by the invading Turks :tntI hct:amc
J..nown as the Adhai din kaJhompra.'·
The s tatetm;,nt (repeated on page 381 IS tty n(l rncilns
c:,tJbI J~ hed. Clearly, the bulldlllg of the mosque IS ~'l '3~ritcen i t:'
design. though making use or ma terials of Hindu bu il dings . which
62 Index of Errors

include an inscription of Vigraharaja. It does nOI nece~ s 3ril y

occupy the s ite of an earlier "co ll ege."

Page 30
"Meanwhile another slave Bakhliyar Khalji .... '
Bakhtyar Khalji was nol a slave. but a free-born man of
the Khalji tribe.

Page 30
"In one expedition he [Bakhtyar Kh a lji I reached as far ,\S
Uddanapur Vahara. a university town inhabited by monks. h was
destroyed, as were the famous mo nasterie s o f Nalanda and
Vikramslla ."
One vihara alo ne is said to have been destroyed by
Bakhtyar Khalji (vide Minhaj Siraj), Meenakshi Jain makes it three
without any basis', Nalanda was in fact visited bY,a Tibetan monk
soon afterwards.

Page 30
" the colonial period when the British for the fi rst lim~ di sarmed
the Hindu peasantry."
The statement that the British 'disarmament' of the
peasants was Hindu-specific is absurd .

Pace 30
"The kshatriya varna had always been an open-ended category ...
the Rajputs ..• well into tne Britisn period married into armed
groups like the r-asis to augment their military might ."
Rajput-Pasi marriages were s ure ly so rare as to be
insignificant. Throughout the textbook the author adroitly avoids
admitting any defect in caste society. She is entirely si lent over
'What the dharmashaslra texts prescribed for outcasles, This is in
sharp contrast to her readiness to underline all the imperfc..:tio ns
in Islamic society.

Page 30
"There i s n oth in g to show that Islam mitigated socia l
discrimination against low-caste Hindu converts. Certa inly thc;:y
(sic!) did not regard the converts as social equals,"
Apparently, the author seems convinced th 31 Musljm law
has the same rules for lower castes as the DharmaslWSfra. In fact.
 Medieval India (Class XI) 63
a mitigation of circumstances for low cas tes wou ld have been an
obvious result of any app lication of Muslims law, though mitigation
does not mean elimirfation of all disabilities.

Page 31
"The Arabs ... In fact had developed a hi ghly refined system of
rac ial discrimination ... White slaves, des ignated Mam luk s. were
entru sted with hi gh office .. Black slaves, howe ver, were used
mostly for hard labour."
The autho r seems to labour under the false impression that
Arabs [i.e. the ori gina l people of the Arabian peni nsul a] were
whi tes, and that the word mam/uk was o nl y applied to no n· African
('White' ] slaves. The extent o f colou r·di scrimi nalion in the Is lamic
world is thus described in unnecessarily exaggerated terms . The
autho r also forgets thaI in the 13th century she has to deal wi th
Turks. Tajiks, and Indi an Mu slim s, not Arabs!

Page 38
•.... Turkish troops of the ruler of Sind [in mid·ninth centuryJ."
There is no reference anywhere in o ur sources to the am in:
of Sind emp loying Turkish troops in the ninth century.

Page 62
" [The Delhi Sultanate rul e rs] effec ted an ex ploit:uion of Ihe
peasantry unparalleled in the ann als of India".
There is no proof that peasants were any less ex ploited
before the regime of the Sultans.
Il is also worth nOling that while treating the establishment
of the Delhi Sultanate as '"a landmark in Indi an hi slOry," the author-
onl y notes as reasons their religion and exploitation of peasantry,
and ignores altogether the cultural contributions of the Sultanate
or the cons iderable infusion of new production technIques (geared
wheel , spinning Wheel, paper, arcuate construction , ~tc .)

Page 64
" He Ultutmis h I settled two thousand Turkish soldiers in the JUllb
region ."
There IS no statement in any source that the ;qtu '·holding
soldiers were Turks.

Page 66
"Meos (inh ab itants of the reg io n of Mewat corresponding roughly
64 Index of Ermr.I'

10 nOllh·eastcrn Rajl!.sl han and said to be Yaduvanshi RaJpu!li) .....

The terntory of the Meos also included southern ,Huryana:
and the author tries needle"sly to 'RaJputiloc' them. for WhH.:h (hl!rc
is no contempo rary authority.

Page 67
" Hulaku 's successors, the II-Kh an Mongols held a kingdom of
scarce resources and were hurdly a force to reckon with .. . '"
The Il-kharid emp ire was by no me:lns a well" pllwcr ;,1,
suggested by the author; and the statement IS seemtng ly ITlad~ to
suppOrt "some s,,;ho lars" (whom it is diffil,;ul, 10 identify) whu wi~h
simp l y to run down B alban. lind suggest thai he was not al all
th reatened by the Mongols. The Il-khanid Empire extended from
theOxus and Indus to Syria during Ba lban's time. and so CQnt:lim:d
Iraq. Iran and Afghanistan. and was I1m!1 well mto the 14th century
one of the great empires of Asi a.

Page 67
"Balbal1 appears to have been a poor military le:luer. ... The dbnl:J1
record o f Balban's army ... ,"
These state ments :'Irc hardly borne out by the facts. No
ev idence of "dismal record" IS provided by the authur. There I~ no
known military campaign by Balban in whi c h he s ustatned
discomfiture.

Page 67
"Despite his c:taggerated praise o( Balban, the medieval chronicler
Minhaj us Siraj is unable to present him as a patron of cu lture,"
The author obviously does not know tfrat Minhaj wrOte
his Tabllqll1·i Nasir; some six years before Balban came 10 the ·
throne!

Page 68
.. .. .. the polity included other foreign groups s uch a~ free Turki sh
nobles. Khaljis. Ghurids find Tajiks,"
"Tajlk" w as now the name for all' Per s ian- s peakin g
peoples, and thus Tajiks included Ghurids and, by thi s lime. Khalji s
as WeU.

Pagen
" He tAlauddin Khalj iJ returned with immense trcusures and In
 Med;e~'a f India (Class XI) 65
the evocative. words of a modern hi SlOflon, 'the inevitable idol to
be trampled under the zealot's feet' ."
if a contempol1lry historian cannot be found , let It ' modern '
scho lar be used to underline Muslim fanatici sm.

['age 73
•.. ... the first inst ance that a Turkish arm y had intruded In lO
southern India."
The anny was by no means Thrki sh in composi tion. Why
no l " Delhi Army" , its usual name (Lashk.ar-i DeM;) among
contemporaries.

Page 75
"The rate of taxation in pre-Is lamic India was usually one-s ixth of
the produce and appears to have been far less than the exact ions
under the Delhi Sultans."
This is a characteri st ic piece of allributing ideal conditions
to ancient India and presenting medieval India in dark colours.
No serious historian supposes Ihe burden of taxation to have been
Just one-sixth of the produce in 'pre-Islamic ' times.

Page 78
"A convert of the Parwari caste, it is sa id that ... he (Khusrau
Khan) reverted to his ancestral faith ."
There is no proof at all ort he reversion to "ancestral faith :"
lhe author seems exceptionally co ncerned all the time with
conversion and reconversion .

~age 79
"The near unanimous contemporary condemnation of the Su ltan
could perhaps be auribuled to his [Muhammad Tughluq's] open
consorting wi th Hindus andjogis, which provoked chroniclers like
h am! and Barani to denounce him as irreligious ."
Such s tatements tend to portray medieval writers as far
more communally inclined than they aClUally were . Burani , our
major historian, never castigates the Sultan or hold s him to be
irreligious on the ground that he consorted with Hindus. On the
contrary. he criticises him for encouraging rationalism. Similarly,
Ibn Batluta whjlehc saw him consorti ng withjogis, docs not at all
criticise 111m for this . Il is QlIl)' Isami, who makes the 'consorting'
3n issue ; and he is a partisan of the Bahmanis who had rebelled
66 Imlex. of Errors

aga in st the Sultan . Thus Jain's statements are here fac tu ally wrong
and. in purport, mi s leadi ng.

Page 82
" ... . And according to Ibn Battuta, [Muh ammad Tugh luq 1 himself
s hi fted to Swargadwari ... "
Not o nl y according 10 Ibn BaitUia. but also according 10
Barani and !sami as well. It i$ specifically menti oned in these
sources that the Hindi nainegiven to the place by the Sultan mea nt
" Door of H eaven", The cu ltural significance of thi s nome nclature
is passed over in s ilence here by Meenakshi Jai n.

Page 82
"amiran-i soda or amirs of a hundred vil lages (cen!u rians) ."
"Centurians" are captai ns of a hundred men , not m as ter~
of a hundred village!i! The most plausib le view also is that (III/iral/ '
i soda meant captains of a hundred troopers.

Page 83
"S·ar:mi pith ily com mented, "at l:lsi the people got rid of him :lnd
he got rid of the people" ."
T he quotation is from the much later historian Sadauni ,
not Sarani , w ho never says such a thing.

Page 84
" He [Fi ruz TughluqJ then blockaded an Is land near the sea coas t,
where nearly a hundred thousand inhabi tants or Jajnagar (Orissa)
had taken refuge and 'converted the island infO :1 ba sin of blood
by the massacre of the unbelievers'."
T here is no isla nd off Orissa coast which can possibly
con tai n o ne lakh people o r a tenth of the number.

Page 85
"A Barlas Turk., Timur, wound up the remnants of the Chaghal:l ),
Mongo l kingdom ... "
Whatever does Jain mean by T illlUr 's "w i ndi ng up" of the
C haghatay kjngdom 's remnanu ' 1

Page 85
"The Mugha ls were acwa lly Barlas Tu rks. n\l! Mon gols, though
mey also ack now ledged thei r link s with the hmer" .
 Medieval India (Class XI) 67
The Barlas tribe was a genuine Mongo l tribe and traced
il s descent from the legendary Mongol ancestre.~s Alan Qua. with
whom the imperial line of Chengiz. Khan also orig inated. Such
Mongols as mo ved into Transoxania, includ ing mem bers of the
C hengisid house, Barlas and other Mongol c;lans took to the Turkk
tongue, and so became Turk icised , bu t co nt inued to reg ard
themselves as of Mongol origin .

Page 87
"Thi s limited support base obl iged him (Ghiyasuddin Tughluq ]10
cou rl Alauddin 's nobles in his carly years, but the alliance wa ~
s hort- lived and ullimately many Alai nobles were executed ."
Ghiyasuddin Tughluq did not kill off any group of nobles.
in his 4-year long reign, except those few who had revolted again st
hi s son VI ugh Khan during the Warangal expedition. Most of hi s
nobl es were those con tinuing from the Khalji period, and thu!>.
like him, were "A lai s·'.

Page 87
,
" Indian converlS 10 Jslam, related to the Su ltan ]Firuz Tughluq)
by marri age, were al so represented in the nobility, as were a few
,princes."
The qualifying phrase "rel rHcd to the Sultan by marriage"
. is uncalled for. Kannu , Khan-i Jaha.n , Firuz 's Prime Mini ster and
a convert from Andhra , was not at all Qriginally related to the
Sultan. As to the "princes". Jain fails to mention that th'c princes
(ra'is) mentioned by her here, were Hindus, a point that deserves
to be noted, since she ot herwi se enlarges upon Firul. Tughluq' s
policy of religious intolerance (on pagc 86).

Page 91
"Vira Ballaln []I , ofte.n described as the champion 01 Hindu s 10
the south ... "
Described by whom? There is a constant harpmg over
the Hjndu-Muslim st rife through statements such as this one.

Page 92
..... the Bahamani kingdom , founded in 1347, byAlauddin Ha~an
Shah Bahman, an Afghan rebel oflicer. ... "
The correct spe llin g is ' Bahmani ,' n OI Baham:)ni, as
followed in thi s book throughoul. And Alauddin Hasan was not
68 Index of Errors

an Afghan .

Page 92
" Bukbl ._ , freed practica lly the whole of the sou th from foreign
dom ination."
The author's view clearly is ro e qual!: Musi[ll1 s wilh
foreigners.

Page 9S
" Ouring the 175 years of its ex istence . the Bahamani kingdom
had witnessed the re ign of eighteen kings , fi ve of whom were
m u rdered , th ree deposed, two bl inded ; w hil e two died uf
inte mpe rance"
A ll this may be true. Bul if the studen t... need to be told
about s lJch tellI ng fac ts about the wickednes s or the ruJingc lasses.
th e aulhor s ho uld have told them also of the practice of burning
ail ih e wives and s lavegir ls of the dead rulers in Rajpul a nd other
dynasties: in the Vijayanagara E mpire 400-500 women were thus
ki lled al the death o f every rule r II is important that balance be
mai ntained 10 such maltc rs.

Page 100
>'Ti mur repeated ly states in hi s me moi rs. the TII :; lI k - j Timllri .. . ,
These so-ca lled "Memoirs" are not genuine, an9 the lex!
tra nslated by Elli ot and Dawson and quoted her~ was ex pli cit ly
written in 'autobiographic' form in the reign of Shahjahan . The
ca rli er 'aulObiography', w hich these especially crafted memoirs
sought to replace. and which might or might not be genuine. SlOpS
a t a point much earlier Lhan Timur's in vasiqn of Indi a.

Page 101
"Some modern sch<1 lars assert that the re is no reason 10 assume
tha t Muslims were spared in th is massacre Iby Timu r!,' ,
Not only " modern scho lars" : Yazdi, our main sou rce. says
'>kalima-reciting in fidels" [i.e. Muslims) were sla ugh tered. Yahya
Sirhindi, the contempo raneous Ind ian historian , "I ~ o s peaks of
MusliplS as the victims ,

Page 101
"Khi zr Khan was appointed governor of Multan by Firuz Shah
Khalji,"
 Medieval India (Cla.u XI) 69
l a laluddin Fjru z Khalji ruled a hundred years ea rli er
(1290-96) and had nothing to do with Khizr Khan

Pngl' 102
"The l:.Ist ruler o f this dynasty wa~ slain in the battle 01 PtlnipUL'
The name of fbrahim Lodi should be inserted hcrl<. W :lVoid
needles~ obscurity.

Page 105
tllc renowned Rana Srl ngha __ . ,.
This spelling of the famous Mewar I'uler·.~ name I~ wrong;
the c()rrCI.' l spel lin g "Rana Sanga" is given on page 132,

Page 111
" At till S pomt, the iqtadars ( holder~ of ii/tas ) also served us
governors."
The governors werc ac tu ally ca lled //Iul/,a's or mUl/li'~
never iqra 'dars. a term reserved for small asslgnment-holders_

'''age 116
"Th e famous Iron Pillar. uprooted from Malhura .
There is no certainty thaI the Mehrauli Iron PiU ar WIIS
brought from Mathura.

Page 117
.. Its [Alai Darwaza '~ 1 refined appearance has neen um ibuted to
the Influx of Mus li m artisans and craftsmen Lo Indi a lollowing Lhe
coll apse of the Saljulo. Empire ."
The Seljuq Empirc had co llapsed in the 12th century. How
cQuld this have anything to do with the building of the Alai
Darwaza in early 14th century?

Pages 119-120
"Persian Literature"
It is si ngular thaI Amir Khusrau is jusl passed ove r in o ne
sentence (p . 120); "Among the prominent poets of the age were
Amir Khusrau, Amir Hasan Dihal vi and Malik Muhammad lais l : '
Jaisj was nor a poet of Persian . The author omits to refer
to Amir Khu srau 's ve ry Important metri cal accoun t of Indian
c.u lture in Nuh Sipihr. perhaps since thi s wou ld hav{:!: clearly
70 Index of Errors
indicated the evo lu tion of a composite c ulture.

Page 121
'"The new [Islami c] identit y became so pervasive Ih al all traces of
pre- Islamic forms were erased from pub lic memory ... the,Egyptian
conver\S, who even forgot their Pharaohs,"
These comments show profound ignorance. The author
does not seem [0 have heard ofFi rdausi's Shahnmnll (11th cenlUry).
which is regarded as Iran's National Epic and is concerned en tirely
with Ira n's pre-Isl amic greatness. As for Egypt. s he fo rget!> that
the Pharao hs had di sappeared morc th an 1200 yea rs before the
Arab conqu es t. at w hi c h lime the bulk of Egyptians were
Ch ristia ns: Isla m practically e ntirely adopts the pre-Is lamic Biblica l
tradi tion, which it shares with the C hri ~ ti ans. And Pharaohs are
remembered in that trad iti on: Meenakshi Jain s hould read up the
stories of Joseph and Moses.

Page 122
"The extreme racialism [contempt of recent Hindu convert!.1
reac hed its pinnacle under Balban , though s uch s enlimcnb
pers i ~ t cd we ll into thc seventeenth century."
This th eme, Invoked more than o nl;c. is ce rta!!ll }
overstressed. Balban himself was a conven. Khan J ahsl) Muqbul.
the powerful Pr ime Milllster of Firuz Tughluq , wa", a Hindu
convert. No~o n e held him in contempt.

Page 123
" It was only after the Bntis h a rri ved th at the IdeSlhat Isla m ro s t c r~
social equ ali ty, as opposed to religious merit . was floa ted:'
T he state ment is so one-s ided as to be lotall y misleading .
It is mainly fI questi on of what o ne means by l'soc ml equality."
Is la mic law does nm fo rmally distinguish betwecn men on bi1'1l>
of birth for purposes of judging crime a nd puni shment ; nor does it
countenance anything approachi ng caste-hierarchy. Women are not
treated as equals, but are still assigned rights to mheritance (ha lf
that o f men), a nd are definjte legal persons. As early as II th centu ry
( long before the Briti sh conquest). A lberuni, writing on the Ind Ian
caste system . contrasts it with Islam 's secular equa lity. Thus Jain's
stateme nt that "eq uality" in Is lam I S a modern idea. is factually
in correct. .
It is remarkabl e that this bQQk now here cd nl ains a
 M~dil!vallnd;a (Clo.ss XI) 71
description of the treatment of dalilj' or of untouchability under
the caste system, 3~ if the da/iu' have no part in our heritage.

Page 123
"Scholars note that Islam registered Its greatest gains in wt!stern
Punj ab and eastern Bengal. both areas on the periphery of settled
agriculture ... Commun iti es of hunter-gatherers ... took to the new
fait h in both regions' .
The argument has. no basis, nor logi c. East Bengal ha!>
been a rich agricultural region, and the history of Indian agriculture
began in the Indus basin (mainly Panjab and Si nd). No reason is
also advanced why "hu nter-gatherers" s hould rush to become
Mus li ms in Punjab and Ben gal and nOl e lsewhere

Page 124
"Sagun Bh akti"
Kabir appears only briefly in this book and in a sub-chapter
on Saguna Blwkli.' Only one sentence is devoted to him : "The
nirguna school was best represented by Kabir. cons idered the
spiritual preceptor of all subsequent north Ind ian ptJ,ntl!s."
Comp le te sil ence is thus maintained over his low ly
profession (weaver) and Muslim o rigin. hi s rcjct.:tion of bOlh
Hinduism and Is lam. his denunciation of caste disabilities and
ritual. and his popular vibrant verses . Ravidas, the great dalit sa int ,
and Sain, the barber, both disciples of Kabir. and g iving ven t to
simil ar ideas , are totall y ignored . The omi ss io n of such a vital
aspect of our common cultural heritage is clearly pan of hin's
design to exc lude all inlegrative or t.:ritical c le ments Frum our
history.

Pages 126-127
"Guru Arjun ... "
The proper spelling of [he Guru '5 name i~ ' Arjan· .

P,ge 127
" Sufi Movement"
Strangely, S ufism is nowhere described : The student is
nowhere told that Sufism lays emphasis on Luve of God, holds
(orlh no expectation o f reward in afterliFe. and aims at :1 t.:Ol1lp !cle
absorpti on in God wit h the annihilati o n IjUlW) of st ir. ThI S
definition would explain why sufism is distinct from urthtldux III
n lildex of Errors

theological Islam , where there is a strong stress on earning reli g i o u ~

merit for reward in aflerlife . Without s uch an ex planatio n the
s\Udent wou ld have no notion of what kind of thuught is being
talked about. Mere mention of importilnt sufis' names i~ of little
use.

Page 127
" By the twelJth century. Su ri sm had been com pletely integrated
into orthodox Is lam as a resu lt of the effort s of al-ChaZ'lli. al·
Hallaj and Ibn a)· Arabi."
Thi s is an Ignorant piece of nonsense. Sufi s m had by n{l
means been "completely in tegrated into orthodQx [sl:.lm " lly till'
12th century (ortill date). The question then was how far it ..:ould
be tole rated by the orthodox. Ghazali (d, 1'111 ). indeed. pl:lyed ,[
part in securing for it a limited tolerance; but Sl!li~, like Nizamuddin
Auliya of Delhi (d 1324), conti nued LO pour scorn 110 G hat:;li· ...
own ritu ali stic "uilude. As for al-Hallaj and ibn al- · Arah •. th ...
inclu s ion of their nam t:s among those who hrou ght !)U fi ~ m neare r
to o rthodox Islam is ju st absurd. Hall aj w as execu ted In earl y t (hh
ce ntury for exclaiming "I am God ITruth '. 1i nd (hll " coull.! hanll)'
be deemed to have striven rOT peace with the orthodox. Ihn al·
Arabi (d . 1240) en unei:1tcd his theory of ' Unity of Ex i s l ~ n c e ·. by
whicb both tbe world and rel ig io n were held to he an illusion .
Thi s proposition convulsed Is lamiC tbought, and ··to the urlhodox
theologians Ibn ai-Arab i was little better th an an infi del'· ( H ,A.R.
Gibb). Hallaj and Ibn ArabI thus co ntr ibuted no t 10 any
reconciliation with orthodox Isl am . but 10 · a fundam en tal break
with it.
Incidentally, Meenak shi Ja m 's chronO logy IS .lIrnciuu ... .
Hallaj is placed after Gbazah. 311d ibn .II- Ara bi be fore ( Ir in the
12th century,

Page 127
"In the Indian contex t, Suri;; m.:'ticulous ly reso lved their djrfcrence~
with the ulema, and cmpha:-;il.cd the need to foll ow the Sharia"
This s ta teme nt 100, wilh words like "mclicul\)l.l" ly" and
"emphasized" , seems to be drive n by a desire!U s how lhat ~ u fi ~ nl
wa:-; jus t Ihe other Side of the coin of orthodox bl am. While the
sufis"nad no qll3rrcl w ith the slwria as perceIved by th~'orogian~
per $e, the y did not regard themselves as bou nd by it in truly
s pirilUal or even moral matters. How would ~IOC otherwise e xplain
Ni zamuddin Auliy:.· .. critica.l attitude (oward:. IhMe who went 011
 Medieval lndia (Class XI) 7J

Haj pilgrimage. or hi s approval of the freeing of co nve rto!d s l ave~.

even when this meant co lluding in their apostasy.

Page 132
"The death of Rana Sanga and severa l Rajput leaders 0 1 note lul
the battle of KhanuaJ considerably weakened the possibility of:t
Rajpul resurgence ... :
An inexcusable blund er: Rana Sanga was not kil led at th e
baule of Khanua. but ned from lhe fi eld.

Page 134
" Th e~J{e s [for Babu r's mosques I were carefull y l>clected
Sambhal was where the tenth a nd last Ollalar o f Vis hnu was to
appear at the end of the J'uga, and Ayodhya was rcvered as th e
birlh place of Rama."
It is most implaus ibl e thul Babur knew (unlike Mce nab;hl
Jain) where Vi s hnu 's last allllla r would a ppe ar atlhe end (If tllne;
as fo r Ayodhya, it was then the headquarters of a large provi nl:c.
and there is no indication from the Babri Masjid inscnptlonli' thaI
a ny particular des ire to bu ild a mosque in a Hindu holy place was
being entertained. Such baselesl> s peculation.~ s hould have no pla..:t'
in a sc hool textbook .

Pase 13S
" He (S her Shah) al so real ised jaziya from the Hindus",
There is nb e xp licit state ment In the sou rces that he did
so. The correct spelling is ji~)'a .

Page 139
"He tHemuj then dec lared himse lr independent. and Invoking the
sanskriric traditions ass umed the title of Raja Hemchanura
Vikramaditya."
The fact of Hemu declaring himself independent is by no
means certain; and there is a statemen t in one source that he had
rc;ceived the title of Bikramajit (Vikramaditya) from hi s sovereign
Muh ammad' Adil Shah after a n earlier success at Chunar. Thai he
bore the name Hemcha ndra I S a pure piece o f speculation . h I ~
thu s not al all clear that he himself had invoked any 'sa mkritLI,
traditions' ,
74 Index of Errors

Page 140
" Abdu l Rahim Khan Khana ..
The tille was ' Khan-i Khannn ' C the khan of khans') no r
;K han- i Khana" (the Khan of the house).

Page 148
" Little wonder thatsuldl-kul, peace w ith all , was Akbar' s mono",
The correCt spell ing is s/llil-; kill. a nd the meaning i~
' absolu te peace', not 'peace with all' .

Page 149
'' In 1579. Akbar abolished the jaziya".
The jjzya was abolished in 1564, re- impos ed (on ly
nominall y) in 1575. and finally aboli shed in 1579. Since mosl text
books g ive (correctly) the date orthe abo lit ion of thcjiZ}'Q as 1564,
an explanation of why 1579 is bei ng g iven as rhe da te of its
abolition is necessary.

Page 149
" The sam e year [1579J, he [Akbar] issued the controve rs ial M ahz.ur
. ... The Mahzar was a decree, which enti tled the Emperor to
choose one of the interpretations of Muslim law ... ,.
The author here continues to commi t. an error long refuted .
Mahzar means a statement, a decl aration o f facts, attes ted by
witnesses, or opinion. on a point of law given by au\n ori tative
exponem s of law. By its very name, it could not be ttn imperi al
decree. The mahzarof 1579 was, in fact. a declarati on of opini on
by no ted theologians on the enti tlements of ajusl !>overeign in the
rea lm of legal interpretation . It was fl ot issued by Akba r. but
presented 10 him .

Page 149
"The move that has attracted the greatest alten(ion, however. h:
Akbar's proclamation of the Din-i /lahi. "
There is no state ment in any of our source!> thaI Akbar
ever proclaimed a religion known as Din-i Ilahi . As ,has been
repeatedJy pointed out, the term appears obliq ue.! y through Ihe
q uotation from a sycophan t's document. Akbar himself believed
both din (religion) and dun.ya (world) 10 be illusions, as Abu \l
Fazl makes clear; and so the question of hi s es tablishing a religion
could hard ly ari se. He had only a limited c ircle of disciples to
 Medievalilldio (Class XI) 75
promote his views ofS/4th·i Kul (derived from Ibn 'Arabi ) and Ihe
iIIuminalionist doctrine of Shjhabuddin Maqtul. As for "c laiming
propl)ethood for himself' (author's words on the last line of the
page), the author should have noted that in a saying of his (recorded
by Abu' l Fazl) Akbarexpressed<iisbelief in both proph.ethood and
divine incarnation .

Page 150
"But Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi ...• who often criticised the Emperor
for failing in his duties as a Muslim ruler, never accused him of
apostasy...
Sirhindi called Akbar '·the Opponent of the Cause of
Islam" (ma na '.j daulat·; Islam ); so the above s tatemen t is hardly
accurate.

Page lsd
"Akbar' s Hindu nobles preferred to remain aloof [from Akbar's ·
eircle-of disciples] ......
So, indeed , did Muslim nobles: the c irc le was nOI
apparently intended to be a duplication of the durbar.
Here it is important to note that Jain totally ignores Akbar 's
views on social mailers. She ignores his prohibition of slave .trade
in early 1560s and hberatlon of his own sla\tCs in 1582. Still more
curious is the total omi~sion of any reference to Akbar's harsh
disapproval of sati, and prohibition of il1volunlary sari. The author
tends to gloss over this practice everywhere, and so avoid!>
mentioning it in connection with Akba'r's social reforms. She also
omil:.; t.o mention Akbar's prohibition of child marriages, an
institution so strongly entrenched in India.

Page 151
..... the mjr saman was in charge of the supply department" .
He was actually in charge of the Imperial hou seho ld,

Page l53
"Given that India was almost free from the scourge of foreign
invasions during Mughal rimes it is apparent that this awesome
military apparatus W3S directed towards conquering and
reconquering the sal1)c old territories and restive peoples.·'
The author supposes obviously that. other states were nut
as: militaristic as the Mug-hal Empire. Yet how c lsl:, then . cuul{1
76 Index of Errors

the Rajputs have been "the swordarm of Hmdu society " ( the
author's own words on page I 50)'! One may also wonder why an
army shC?uld reconquer a country already conquered . There is no
logic in such flamboyant statements. As to the freedo m from " the
scourge of foreign invasions." s hould not .the c redi t for thI S he
placed al the door of the very "awesome" Mu g hal mi litary
apparatus, which discouraged any auempl al in vasion'! When i\
co ll apsed, invasions like those of Nadir Shah and the Abdali s.
and, of course, the Briti s h could altain success.

Page 153
"The overwhelming majority of the beneficiaries of s uc h (mat/lId-
j rna 'ash) grants were Mus lims ."
While it is true that the majority orthe benefic iaries were
Muslims, Akbar and his successors also gave larg¢ gran ts to Hindu
temples and divines. a fact which s hould 31 least have been
mentioned here.

,Page 154-5
On Ihese pages under the subheadings "Magnitude of Revenue
Demand" and "Rural Taxes olher than Reven ue'" Meenakshl J;.IIn ,
constantly slresses th e oppressive nature of Ih e Mugh ul
administration. free ly using statements relating 10 late r reigns for
the reign of Akbar. with whic h Ihis chapter ("India unde r Akbar")
deals. On the other hand, she does not refer anywhere 10 the sys h!rn
of laceavi loans. reduced la .l tation rates for newly c ulti vated land
and incentive s for c ultivating highe r-value c rops, which were
important ways of developing agric ultural resou rces under Akhar
and his successors . Her omission here may be contrasted with hc r
treatment of Sh ivaji's fiscal system on p . 191 . The re Shi "uji is
praised for "extending developmental loans (i .e . laecavi loansl to
agricuhurisu"; and his high rates of taxation are passed over in
silence.

Page 160
lIIustralion : " Meeting of Jahangir with the Persilln king Shah
Abbas."
It should have been nOled that the meeting is ~m imag in ary
one.
 Mediemllndia (Class XI) 77

Page 162
" .. . lahangir was attracted to·the greaf Vaishna~a as.:ct ic, Gosain
Jadru·p ."
Jadrup (::::Chadrup) is the popular form o f Chitrarupa , U
Shaivile y ogi , who beli eved tn Shankaracharya ' ::; ve r.')lt.n HI
Vedanta .

Page 162
" Many learned Mu slims .. . rejected hi s (Ahmad S ,rh'lldi 's ) cI,lim
to be a manifestation of thi:: Four Piou s Caliphs."
Shaikh Ahmad Sirh indi ne~et c laimed lO he ""
manifestation" of the (jrst four Caliphs in any form whatsoever.
HIs high claims to have access to God in the s piritual sphere. were
naturally not accepted by those who were not hi s foll owers; but
Ihi s contr.ovcrsy did not.. in~olve any daim to caliphal incarnation .

Page 162
"The new queen soon becllme the favourite of the Empe rors' (.fic)
wives."
Favourite of the Empe ror's other wi ves? The author
perhaps meant to write simply: "favourite wife of the Empe ro r."
She sho uld have done so.

Potge 165
"A I no point cou ld the Mughal s Ihr'eaten th e Uzbek ca pital
[Bukhara] or even co me clo se t(] th e It c h erish~d cit y ('i f
Samarqand ."
, The two ci ties were not the objective in the Mug h:.11
expedition of 1645-46 (the dates are not given by the author) . The
MughaJs aimed at seizing Balkh and Badakhshan (modern northern
Afghanistan), which they occupied , but cou.ld not hold o n to

Page 166
"The shift in the imperialist IShahjahan 's] attitude was reflective
of the growing ascendancy of revivalist forces within the wld,r
Muslim community,"
It is a noticeable trena in this book to reserve the word s
"orthodox" and "revivalist" for Muslims alone. As for the ~ta l emenl
or
made here, had Shahjahan been as orthodox intolerant , he would
s urel y not have favoured Dara Shukoh , who made a PerSIan
translation of the Upanishads, and o therwi se s howed great intcrest
78 Index of Errors
in Vedanta (see pages 167-8 of the book).

Page 167
.. . .. Dara's apparently less than conformist behaviour earned him
the ire of his coreligionists."
This statement has no basis. Dara Shukoh's cause was
supported by a large number of Muslim nobles. and none is known
10 have deserted him for rcasons of his 'nonconformity'. The most
prominent person who changed sides with a vcngeance was Mi rza
Raja Jai Singh; and Rana Raj Singh favoured the cause of
Aurangz;eb as against that of Dan Shukoh almost from the
beginning of the war of succession.

Page 168
"Assisted by Murshid Quli Khan. a talented revenut:: officer,
Aurangzeb substantially improved the outflow of resources from
the Deccan."
There is no proof that Murshid Quli Khan ' s measures led
to any "outflow of resources", Rather, the sources suggest thal a
'modest and fair assessment led to an extension of cul~jvatjon.

Pale 1458
"His {Aurangzeb's} plans for a joint invasion of Golconda with
Mir Jumls were not approved by Shah Jahan. who also withdrew
from a proposed invasion of Bij apur. At this moment Shah Jahan
fell ill, triggering off a war of succession among his sons:'
The political history as given here is all wrong Aurangzeb
not only planne'd , but undertook an invasion against Golconda in
1656 aDd imposed a harsh treaty on it. S hahjahan showed his
approval by summoning and appointing Mir Jumla as his Wazlr.
Bijapur too was. invaded with his approval in 1657, and Bidar was
seized; this war was not yet over when Shahjahan fell ill.

Page 171
"The imperfect integration of several parts of the subcontinent
with the Mugbal Empire necessitated repeated expeditions 10
conquer the same regions,"
Only two regions. Assam and the Afghan tribal area are
mentioned (pp.171·2) after this broad statement. These do not make
up "several" parts. In fact. most provinces of Mughal Empire
during the 17th century witnessed 3 remarkable state of peace .
 Medieval India (Class XI) 79
Page ]72
"[Aurangzebl replaced the solar calendar by the lunar hijra."
The solar calendar for calCulating the regnal years had
already been replaced by Shahjahan in his tenth regnal year. For
revenue collection as weil as salary payments Aurangzeb continued
the use of the solar calendar as hitherto. S.H. Hodivala long ago
explained that what he dispensed with was the annual fixation of
fJauroz (the first day of the solar year) by the astronomers.

Page 175
,. Aurangzeb's religious interventions provoked wides pread revolts
in the empire."
It is arguable whether under the heading "Political
Ideology " the author needed to go into all Ihe det<lil~ o f
Aurangzeb's measures of intolerance, without adequately
exp laining their limitations. The s tatemenl thallhese measure!> led
to "widespread revolts" is certainly not borne out by facts.

Pages 175-76
"The Jats" and "The Satnamis"
Lisdng the lats among revolts reflecting "Hindu
resistance", the author omits to mention lhal exped iti ons against
them were undertaken by the Kachhwaha Rajpuis. Nor is the fa ct
ment-joned that the Salnamis destroyed both mosques and temples.

Page 178
" ll is said that the Guru was a devotee of Goddess C handi."
We have a claim here reminiscent of the RSS's old claim
that "S ikhs are Hindus ." It is characteri stic of the author ' s vein
that wh ile she thus inlerprets Guru Gobind Singh's lilerary
compositions Chandi di \lar and Chandi chariuar ufwt i?ilas, she
does not quote Guru Gobind Singh's ZAfarnama (also in Dasam
Graflfh) where he declares that while the Hindu chiefs "are ido l-
worshippers. I am an idol-breaker." Elsewhere too. the Guru
forbids hi s followers to believe in gods and goddesses . He can.
therefore. hardly have been a "devotee" of any goddess.

Page 179
.' ... an Afghan, linked either with Wazir Khan or with un imperial
officer. mortally wounded Guru Gobind Singh ."
There is no proof that [he Afghan had anything to do with
80 Index of Errors
any Mughal noble or officer. including Wazfr Khan. Th eakhbanll
show that the Emperor sent a mourner's robe to the Guru 's <ldopteJ
son in token of condo lences.

Page 180
"The Emperor offered to confer the title of raj a on him lAji l Singh I
w he n he attained adulthood on the conditi on that he be rai sed as a
Mu slim .. . "
The sources ment ion no suc h condition hav ing been laid .
When lndar Singh was made the raja after the spir iting. away or
Aj it Singh. hi s appoinlrnem was not made subjecT \0 any such
cond ition eithe r.

Page ]80
'Th e cornered Rajpuls urged Prince Akbar La revo lt against hi ~
father, whose an ti-Rajpul and anti-Hi ndu poli cies. they daimcd,
were ruining the Empire ... bOI the Emperor's tri c ke ry foiled thei r
joi nt attack .. ."
The words "anti-Hindu" are gralUilous ly att ributed to the
Rnjpul s by the author. About Au ran gzeb's "tricke ry " , the reader
is g iven no clue . It is, perhaps, a reference to the long di scredited
Story of a false letter fTom Aurangzeb that was allowed 10 fall into
the wrong hands. [f so, instead of using a pejora tive word, whatever
happened should have been directly s laled.

Page 180
·' In his panoramic The Discovery of India , Jawah a rla l Nehru
prcsenu::d a graphic portrayal of Aurangzeb . .. "
In the quotation that foll ows the po int s th at Ne hru
discourses on, are all those which the author has already underlined
wi th much d"elai!. II is characteristic that Ihe only quotation from
Nehru taken should be on this theme, and not on Ihe evolution of
common cuJture or on Akbar, where his ideas are at total varian ce
with the NCERT author's approach.

Page 183
Exercise No.6: It will be seen that the mate-hing exercise is rea lly
poinlless , with C hh alra Sal atone being a personal name, and so
obviously linked to the o nl y answer requiring a pe rson on thc
matc hing options. It is not even a test of commo nsense.
 McditvallntJia (Class XI) 81

Pa~ e 186
"Groups like the Mararhas, Sikhs, and Jals '--took on th,e mighty
Mug~'lIl ls a nd splintered and shattered their domains,'"
The Iranians... under Nadir Shah und the AfghrlO s. who
played'"a miljor part in weakening and splinlering the Mughal
Empire. are here ignored. presumably just because they were
Mus lims, -

Page 186
" Bijapur had a sma ll Muslim e lite because thc Portuguese
occupation of the WeSI coast cut off migration from Arabia and
Persia, while the Mughals disrupted immigrati on from the nonh, "
This is a baseless slt1lement. The Portuguese ceased
interfering with much of Asian sh ipping by latcr decades of the
sixteenth century, and the Mughals never slOpped travcl to the
Deccan through or from their empire ,

Page 190
"Several administrative denomination s were taken from the ancien!
pas t 311d Sanskrit technical terms coined .. ...
In fact, the offices or departments were largely those
instituted in the Deccan kingdoms of the lime , and the Persian
disignation s (ralher than their Sanskrit equivalent~) continued in
use, as for al least six. of the Eight MInisters , viz. .. Peshwa,
Majmu 'adar. Waqia ~ navis. S h urll~navis, Dabir. and Sar·i Naubal.

Pages 190·91
[n the description of Shivaji's administrati on on these pages no
refe rence is made to chaulh (one~foUrih of revenue) a nd
sardeslmw.khi (additional one· tenth) exacted by Shivaji from areas
not under hi s cont rol, under the threat o f putting them to sack - in
whic h event no difference was made between Hindl..l and Muslim .
The dCJscription of Shivaji's adm ini stration and fiscal sys tem is
thus seriously incomplete.

Page 192
"The Brahmin and Telugu officials or the two states [Bijapur and
Golkundal, however. were almost to~lIy discharged from service".
The author does not make the qualification that Marntha
olTicia ls of Bijapur were taken into Mughal service in large
82 ·Index of Errors

numbers. As she formulate s her s tatement s th e reader would

ass ume that in both slates after anne.'lati on H indu official s were
universally di scharged . As for TeJugu officia ls or c hiefs, eight of
them are known to have obtained a mansab of 1000 or above before
1707 . So they 100 were nOI excluded.

Pag~ 193
"'A':urangzeb now declared jihad on the Marathas . •,
Aurangzeb conduc ted campaigns against Marathas wh ic h
m ay be described as jihad in the sources. BUI ttJere was no
particular point at which Aurangzeb " decla red jihad on the
Marathas." Such rhetoric need s to be avoided .

Page 193
"European trading companies in turn began to e ntrench themselves
in places such as Bombay and Madra s",
Th is is a very confused kino of statement. Only the En gli sh
llJdia Company en trenched itself ill Bombay and Madras; no other
European Companies had their ' factori es' there. The major Dutch
factory was at Puli (:at; the Frenc h at Pondicherry.

Page 194
"Aurangzeb died at Aurangabad ..
The author seems incapab le of accuracy_ Aurangzeb died
at Ahmadnagar; his bOdy was taken later ~o Khuldabad near Ellora
where he lies buried.

Page 197
..... offi cial documents like Daslur-ul Amal-; Alamgiri
The Dasturu'l 'Amal-i 'Alamgiri is nor an o ffi c ial
document but a privately compiled exp lanation of offic ial
.procedures.

Page 198
" Population , too, sc holars say, grew at a low average annual rate
of 0 . 14 per cenl during the years 1600- 1800. "
Shireen Moosvi , giving the most thorough calculation yet
availabl e works out an annuaJ growth of 0 _21 pe r cent fo r 1600-
1800. This was not " low" by world standards. The rates for 1600-
1700 in Europe were : Fran!?e, 0.08% ; Britain, 0.31 %; Spain and
Portugal, 0 . 12%, Germany. 0.00%; and Ru ssia, 0.12%. We b-ave
 Medieval India (Closs XI) 83
absolutely no knowledge of the rates at which population had
grown in India in earlier times.

Page 198
,•.. . the muqarrari raiya", .
The correct form is either ra 'iyat or ri 'aY(l, not rtliya. The
term ri'aya-i muqarrari is not found in the Persian documents,
but may mea!) peasants paying a fixed (muqarrari ) rale of tax.
The author does not herself explain what the term nlllqarmri stands
f9r.

.Page 200
"Thousands and thousands of peasants were enslaved and deported,
many sold to countries west of India ... Kabul became the centre
of this trade."
In support of this statemcnt, with its "thousands and
thousands", the author gives (page 20 1) two instances on ly from
the whole of the Mughal period: one of Jahangir ens laving ··poor.
mi serable theevish people thai li ve in woods and deserts" wh il e
hunting (Finc h) and the other a tradition about Abdullan Khan
Firuz Jang capturing and selling away captu red peasants and their
families to Persia in course of military operations in Kanauj -
Kalpi area (source not -stated ). In fact. however, slave trade had
declined great ly in Mughal rimes. and there is no statcment about
thero being any large mart for Indian slaves at Kabul from Akbar 's
time onwards. Indeed, information about Indian slaves imported
inla Central Asia dries off after the early years of Akbar's reign.
The author ought to have men'tioned that in 1563 Akbar totally
forbade export of slaves. and orde red harsh punishment s, lik.e
cutting the ears of merchants engaged in thi s traffic .

Page 201
"When asked by a visitor how many infidel heads he (Abdullah
Khan] had cut off ... Scholars believe that the account , though
possibly exaggerated, may contain a grain of truth."
This en tire passage has nothing to do with "Sluve Trade"
under whi ch headmg it is placed. It was in a conversation with
Farid Bhakkari , author of a biographical dictionary o f Mughal
nobles, that Abdullah Khan claimed to have slaughtered 200,000
persons . Farid Bhakkari clearly shows that these claimed numbers
included both Hindus and Muslims , and "ot simply tho se of
84 Index ofErlVr.l

"i nfidels" as Meenakshi h in tells her readers. The claims were

undoubted ly exaggerated in terms of numbers. but these ~pparently
serve the NCERT author's purpose in presenting as dark:l. si de o f
the pic tu re as possible. w ith an appropriate communa l message
attached.

Page 201
"The Mughal s adopted tI policy of seali ng Afghtills in a reas 0 1
i nsurgence,"
This is no t at all true. The MughaJ s, by a nd large, were
wary of Afghnn elements even in the ann y, although they we re
recru ited as soldiers. That Jah angir seuteJ Dilzak Afghans in India .
or A u'rangzeb invited Afridis 10 Muzaffornagar DIstrict IS by no
meanS based on reli able reports. Aurangzeb himself had been fated
by a powerful Afghan rebellion. In any case [hl' fe is no rcason
why thi s paragraph , like the precedi ng one, should appear under
"S lave Trade".

Page 205
"Wate r a nd wi nd power W~fC not unknown" ,
This state me nt is incorrect In respec t of wind power,
Windmills (e mployed in Sislan outside the Mughal Empi re) nre
not known to have been used in India , except for a s tray reference
to a disused win dmill at Ah mada bad .

Page 200
"S ince grain pri ces incrcased by more than a hundred' per cent
during this period, the re was a ,eal decline in earnings of the lowest
paid workers,"
The year 1637-38, whose pri ces arid wages at Agra arc
being compared w ith normal prices and ~ages at the Imperial
Court, Lahore, 1595-96, included a period of,great scarcity ; so
the in ference of a decline in real wages over the who le period i!o>
not a jlJ:jlifiab leone, especial ly if one notes 111C facl Ih:lllhe plac ~
concerned a re at much distance from eac h oth er.

Page 206
" Money'"
In the text whether under (his headi ng or elsewhere in the
c hapter o ne would have expected a refe rence 10 deposi t-bunking.
the deve loped ne twork of bills o f exchange (hl/fldi;),) and insurance ,
 Medieval India (Class XI) 85
which are noteworthy features of the financial sys tem of thi s
penod . Meennkshi Jain has nol a word about them .

Page 2J2
..... Jodh a Bai's palace ... and Raja Birbal"s home ..
It should be pointed out that the bui'ldings al Fatchpur Slkn
have been given these names in the 19th century by ignorant guides

Page 216
··Shah Jahan forbade the construction of Hindu temples and
destroyed several others, as ror examp le, the te mple const ru cted
by Bir Singh at Oreha."
Statements to this effect Rre already made on pages 164
and 166. in much more detai l; so their repetition here IS ... urely
dictated more by the author's brief than need.

Page 217
"Auran.gzeb destroyed several Hindu temples ... the Emperor"s
attention."
The entire paragraph is a mere repetition of whal has been
said in much greater detail on page 173, See the precedIng
comment .

Page 218
"Early projects of Akbar's reign include the/-lhmzallomu, the ~tor)'
of Amir Haml-a, an uncle of Prophet Muhammad , who Iried lu
convert the world to Islam" .
Haml.a was killed at the battle o f Uhud in the lifetime of
Prophet Muhammad; and he had earlier cons tantl y kept company
with the Prophet - so there WitS no time for.~im to try to convert
the world! Later on, Imnian folk-tales of chivalry got attached tIJ
hi s name: and it was !.hes!! tales (rrot Hamza 's alleged status a~ II
missionary) that attracted Akbar and his painters.

Page 218
"Translations of Arabic. Turki sh and Kashmiri works were also
undertaken fat Akbar's court) ."
No. book in the Kashmiri language was translated

Page 220
" Pe rsian literature in this period, they ['some scholar... 'I say. wa.,
86 Index of Errors

uninfluenced by Sanskrit , even as Sanskrit and Hindi rema ined

immune to Persian cultural tWllins."
It is the same siory of e mphasizing tne belief thal lhe twain
ha ve never met! How can it be said that Persian lite rat ure remained
uninfluenced by Sanskrit., when Akbar's poet laurcilte Fai zi wrote
the lo ng me trical rom ance (masllawi), Naf-Daman. on the Jove of
Nala and Damayanti ? As for Hindi it is e nough 10 point to the
considerable amount of Persian influence on its vocabul ary and
idiom.
One major omission in ' Literary Developments ' is the
absence of an)' attention to Persian poetry and of the ri se of Urdu
and the first phase of its literature. Another o mi ssion IS in respect
of reg ional literatures . The peri od represen ts a ric h ph ase in
Bengali , for ex ample. It also saw the flowering of Malayalam after
its separation from Tamil,

Pages 220-21
" Bhakti Movement Continues"
The author thinks 'this th e me is the o nl y o ne from th e
re ligious sphere that needs to be described .. S he thu s ignores the
interaction o f religious thought at higher leve ls whi c h is suc h a
feature of the cultural developments of the Mughal period. It is
seen not o nl y at the Mughal COUit (unde r the pall'onage of Akbar
a nd Dara Shukoh). but also outsi de. The Dabistan-i Ma zaMb, ::l
book on reli gions writte n in c. 1655 by a me mber of the Si pas:i
sect of Pars is, is an unbi ased account of the major rellgions. unique
in the world during its time. Surely th is needed a mention, if nol
an adequate description _

Pages 221-24
"G lossary"
T he G lossary is rather unbalanced with several obvious
te rm s mi s sing , especially from vario us regio ns. for example: IIr
(Cho la Empire), pa/aiylIkkartls or ' poligars' (Vijay anaga ra
Empire), swarajya (especiall y with reference to Snivaji), Wllftln
or vantha (Maharashlra, Gujarat), GIlru (Sikhism).karon· (Mugha J
administration). Eyen the word sati is missing, Many meanings
are ra,ther inaccurate, e.g. amin (meaning official concerned main,ly
with revenue assess me nt. not collection), or ulama (spell IIl emu
in t he Glossary) w hich means si mply learned men, from 'if",
(know ledge) , Waqf is not a grant to religi ous bod ies, but a trust
established for a parti c ul a r purpose. Sarkar was not o nly u
 Medieval India (Class XI) 87
territorial division, but also an official establishment (such as that
of King or a noble). The correct spelling is khanazad\ literally
' born in the house', not khanazada.

Pages 22S~28

" Bibliography"
One marks a notable omission: Tara Chand. Influence of
Islam on Indian Culture.
 4
Hari Om, et al. C01Jte'~lporary India
for Class IX
lSI edition', August 2002; reprint edit ion , Oclober 2002

Unit J: INDIA IN THE

TWENTIETH- CENTURY WORLD

Note: Page No from the reprint edition IS given only when differcrH
from that of the first ed ition .

Page J
" India in the Twentieth-Century World: .. , Some of the mos t
nOleworthy [developments] were the completion of [he age-o ld
process of colonialism in Asia and Africa",
European colonial domination has by no means been " age-
old" , having begun 10 lake shape on ly after 1592 (the yea r of
Co lumbu s's epochal discovery of America, soon to be followed
by Vasco da Gama's voyage 10 (ndia, 1498 ).

Page 1
" (Other 20th century developments included] Worl d War I, coup
ill Russia . World War n ... The lsic ] Communis m also represe nted
almost a simjlar trend (like " Fasci sm and Nazism"] in Ihe sense
that il stood for the dictatorship of a particular class".
To describe the Soviet Revolutio n of 1917 al> a "coup"
s hould su it a very cheap Right-wing propaganda sheet rather than
a school textbook. And if Commu ni sm and ils deadliest enemies,
Fascism and Nazism, are to be equllted . thi s hold hypothesis
demands more than a reference to the Communist theory of
dictatorship of the working class, since the Fa~cists and Nazis. or
course; had an absolutely opposite be lief.

Page]
" All these developments consti tute just one side of the world
 Contemporary India (C/as.r IX) 89
picture. The other s ide is the liberation movements in Asia, Arrt ca
and elsewhere in the world. This s ide is :I renection of the rise
and growth of national ism and freedom struggle ill Indi a,"
To say that aJi lhe nat ional liberation mo veme nt s in Asia
and Afri ca an4 "elsewhere" were simply a "reflecti on" of the Indian
National Movement is fantasy taken to the extreme. What ought
to be said is that the National Movement in India drew inspiration
from s imi lar movements elsewhere. s nd vice versa,

Page 3
" Man ~ cenlUrie s before C hri st. Europe was importi ng [ndlan
tex tiles, spices , jewellery and other lu xury goods."
111ere isj ust no evidence fo r such Indian exports to E urope
"many I.:en lu ries before Christ."

Page 3
.. .. . The Pope, the supreme head of the then Chnstian wo rld . by
an order c alled Papal Bu ll, authorised the two European States -
Spa in and Portugal - to explo re alt ernative all ~ wlHer routes to
India .... With Pope's b less ings and authority, kingdom s of Spain
and Portugal acqui red monopoly overthe newly discovered lands,
their wealth and maritime trade:'
The Pope was not the ht:ad of "the then C hri stian world ".
un less aJithe Christians ow ing alleg iance to the Eas te rn Orthodox
Chu rcht:s ; as well as Syrian C hris tians, Copts and Ethiopians, are
exc luded from the Cll n stian worl d. The senlences by attrihutlng
Spani s h and Portuguese co loni ali sm to the Pope's "blessings and
authori ty" totally misreads the actual mo ti ve rorces behind
coloniali s m. But what the author says here is in li.!le wi th an
ex.tens ive sn iping at Christianity ,hat the new NCERT His tory
books indu lge in ,

Page 3
"yasco da Gama, taking a round of the African continelll. landed
at Calicu!. .. "
Vasco da Gama did not take "8 round of the African
continen''',
, he sailed round the Cape of Good Hope.

Page 3
"They [the Portuguese I also indulged in a large sca le conversion
of Hindus to Christianity. As 8 re s ult th ey 10,;1 the Indian
90 I"dex of Errors
sympathy .... "
One wonders why the Portuguese had gained " Indlan
sy mpathy" earlier. Or why Had Om refers on ly to conversions of
Hindus, and not also to similar conversions of Mus lims by the
Portuguese.

Page 3
"Coincidently, protest (s ic!) for religious reforms led by Mart in
Luther, Knox a nd Calvin was also taking shape,"
If one takes cudgels- against Chdst~anj lY, one shou ld at
least lake care nqt to di splay one's ignorance in so gross ll' fashion.
The correct order should be Luther ( 1483-1546), Jean CHlvi n
( 1509-64) and John Knox (1514-72) not only chronologically, but
also because Knox was a follower of Calvin. Incide ntally. while
the Reformation is touched upon, though in this inadequate manner,
there is not a word here about the Renaiss.ance. so vital for the
st uden!'s understanding of (he development o f modern thought,
science and technology.

Page 4
"In 1600 A.D. the English East India Company was established
jn lndia."
This stupid mistake has been rectified in the reprint edition
by deleting the words "in India."

Page 4
" ... Madagascar. an island in the Arabian Sea."'
So in the first edition of the book. In the reprint ed .. thi~
gross e rror, pointed o ut even in newspaper reporiS, has heen
removed. We now read: "Madagascar, a french (sic) po.~scssion in
the Indian Ocean":

Page 5
" tn 1765. steam engine was iovented in England"
The correct date is 1769, when James Watt patented his
steam engine.

Page 6
"Trade led to politkal conq uest and potitical power was used to
propagate Christianity ... The English Ellst India Company in the
name of religious neutrality was giving maximum support and
 C(lmemporary I"dia (Class IX) 91

encouragement to Christianity."
The idea that the major aim of co lon ialism in [ndia was
the spread of Christianity is in line with the anti-Christian bi:!s of
Ihe book . The East India Company in fact had generally been wary
of miss ionary activity in India, seeing it as a possible cause of
popu lar unrest.

Page 6
"What is relevant here to remember is the failure of this upheav al
11857 Revolt] and the famous theory of evolutio n by an E ngli sh
thinker Charles Darwin ." In the reprint edition we find· a fUrlher
e laboration: "The British success rn suppress in g the revo ll of 1857
was seen as a victory of civ il ization over barbarism in those days.
It was also associated with the 'Theory of Evolution ' by an English
thinker(!) Charles Darwin."
The link between th e two eve nt s ( 1857 Revo lt and
Da rwin's scientific discovery) is not at all clear. Darwin 's.theory
of the evolu tion of species is wrongly equated with the theory of
"whi te man '5 burden" onhe notion that the B ritish victory ;nI8'.57
represented the "victory of civ ili zati on over barbarism ." That
others used Darwin's theory to evo lve racist theories has been
confused with Darwin 's genui nely path-breaking dl scQveries. In
any case. the notio n o f the 'w hite man 's burden' did not bave 10
wait for Darwi n's theory of evolution (which came with rhe Origm
of Species, 1859) si nce both the Briti sh victory in 1857 and the
raC ial th eories lon g preceded il. (Sec: T ho mas Metca lfe, The
Aftermarll of Revolt, c.g . pp .309ff. ) App3rently, Bari Om thinks
that the Darwinian theory o f Evolution of Species is not to be
believed !

Page 6
" Max Muller ... till his death in 1900 aeted as an intel lectual hridge
between England and Germany".
This is a statement of7extraord in ary exaggeration .

Page 6
"Max Muller did his max im um to popularise the idea of an Aryan
race and the Aryan invasion of Ind ia ... hi S theory laHI the
fo undation of a rac ial interpretation of India's manifold diversity
... Th is Aryan in\:.as ion t heory was used as an iCllcll ect uul
instrument to furthe r the well-known Br;tish p~ li cy of divide and
rule as we ll as convert the Briti s h political conq ues t intn a
92 Indu uf Errors
permanent c ullural conquest."
These s tatements reflect the current tirade of the ~afrrnn
brigade against Max Muiler, who promoted with great dedication
a s tudy of ancient Indian cultu re. He him self rejected the conce pl
o f racial .superiority. It is also not clear how a con..:cr' of "ArYlln
invasion" should be divisive in its effects. Sal Gan£adhar Til:!k .
the great nationali st, himsel f held [hat the Aryans had corne from
an Arctic homeland .

Page 8
The map (Fi g.I .2: " Alliances and World War I") IS technica lly
very incompetent. Spa.;n is shown as one o f the Triple Entent e
powe~s and a large non-exi s ting isl and en is show n in western
Mediterranean . How Morocco and Tunisia already occupied hy
France before 1914 cou ld be " neutral " in Wo rl d War I is nOI aI all
clear. While Italy is shown as an ally of the Triple Entente, Sardini:i,
the large island belonging to ii , is show n as " neutrJ.!." Fin ally. the
line patterns in the refe rence table do not til those aClUa ll y used;n
Ihe map.

Page 9
"Generations-old rule of the Czars was s wept away by a cuup Jed
by Lenin, the leader of the Bols hevik party. Thi s event is popularly
known as the Russian Revolution."
There are twO majo r errors here:
(a) The rule of the Czars was "s wept away" nut hy Ll!nm
and the Bolsheviks in their October Revolu tion of 19 17. bul ('arllcr
in the February Revolut ion, led by other po litl c,,1 panLe~ and
factions.
(b ) The Russian revolution of OClOber 19 17, the firlol
soc ialist re volution. o ne of the most important cvent5 01 20t h
century, is described by the author as simply a 'coup' Jed by Len in .
Thi s revolutio n aboli shed landlordism and capita lis m. and began
the construction of a socialist so(.~ i e t y; so it is not o nly populm
usage. but also s ubstant ive ch ange. that makes hi s l o rian ~ nIl! it II
" revolut ion", in the sa me way as. say, the French Revu lution .

Page 9
··tAfler World War [J , Europe 's map was redrawn and a n..:.w Slate
ca lled Czechoslo vakia was c reated in her heart (s i c)".
Not only Czechoslovak ia . other new s tates wer-= ;.t "n
created. no tably, Po land . Yugos lavia and the three Baltic ~Iutc~ .
 CQmemporory I ndia (Closs IX) 93

bes ides th e sepa ral~ states o f A ustria and Hungary,

Page ,9
'·Wha tever success it (the League of Nations) I;ould ach ieve wa !>
at the cos t of smaller coun tries li ke Ethi opia and Manchuria
( 193 1)."
What Ha ri Om wishes to sa)' here is not clear, The League
of Nations won no "s uccess" at the cost o f Ethiopia or Manc huria,
but s imply faHed to protect them from aggression. Manc huria was
incide mally nOt a "s maJl country" but was and is a pal'! of C hina ,

Page 10
"The ideology of the Nazi party was a sort o f fU ~lO n of Ge rman ~
nat io nal is m and socia lis m,"
Thi s amounts 10 uncrilicnl ly accepting the clanns o f Hi tler
Hnd the Nazi ,party who ca lled themselves 'Nat ional Social ists',
In fac t the Nazis promoted the total control o f capita li sts over the
workers, h is also astonishing that the most well known aspeCts of
Naz.i ideology like racialism and anti-Semi thm which led 10 the
I-dling o f about seven million Jews IS not even mentioned I

Page 10
" Mu ssolini a nd the Fascis l Party attracted many sccl ions of socielY
because, as he himse lf said, he aimed 3 1 rescuing ' Jlaly fTO m feeb le
government' ,"
The feebleness of the Italian governmen t lay pre:dsely in
not confronting Ihe chaos a nd disorder created by the . Fasci sts,
who overthrew tbe co nstitution al government by force an d the n
suppressed Ihe opposition by a campaign of terror and murder.

Page 10
"Nazi~m and fa scis m were a sort of counterpart oj' the dit.:tatorship
of the proletariat '(working class) imposed upon the Soviel Un ion
by Joseph Sialin ,"
The words "imposed upon th e Soviel Union by Joseph
Stalin (not Lenin!}" are de leted in the reprint edition, so now the
innocent reader would nOI e ven kllow wh¢re Ihe "d ictutorship of
(he pro le tariat " had bee n es ta bli shed! 111 : m y ca .. e. In any case,
bOlh the Nazis a nd Fascists we re inveterate fo~s ut COlllmLlnlst~
w ho m the forcib ly s uppressed. with IO rturc and e.llccutlOl1l>, and
so how cou ld they be a "cou nlel'part" of tht! CommuOl~ 1 tC!,!i lllc III
Ihe Soviet Union?
94 Ittdex of Errors
Page 10
"It is also interesting to note that Stal in was the first Euro pean
le ader to enter into a peace agreement with Hitler ... "
What is interesting is only the lac k of I..nowledge of
elementary facts displayed here. The first European leade rs ()f
major European powers to enter into an agreemerH with Hitler
were Joseph Cbamberlain. Prime Minister of Britain and Eduardo
Daladier, Prime Minister of France, who signed ~hc MUflh.:h PUCI
in September t 938 , in effect giving away Czechoslovakia 10 Hitler,
whereas the Soviet Uni on had offered aid LO that country. The
Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact came almost a yea r later in
August 1939. and followed the failure of Anglo-Frend
negotiations with the Soviet Government ov~ r a deren sive alliance
against Hitler.

Page 10
"For the first time Hitler carried the fury of war lo'tO the very house
(sic!) of England, England had always fought the war of de fence
on the soil o f others and n'e ver had to suffer destruction in her
own home. It was for the first lime that the Germans bombed British
cities, including their (sic) capital London ,"
Hari Om 's admi ration fo r Hitler is again very perceptible ;

Page 10
"The German invasion of the Sov iet Union in 1941 pushed Ru ssia
and the believers in the concept of Communis m all o ver the world
into the anti-German camp ., ...
The sole significance of Hitler's attack on Soviet Unio n
for Hari Om seems to be the opportunity it offers to him (or
sneeri ng at Communists for supporting the war against Hiller, He
seems to forget that the Congress leaders too were in "the anti -
German camp ," even while issuing the Quit- rndia call. See al~o
co mment under page 54 ,
So hostile is Hari Om to the Sov iet Union that now here in
his account of World War II does it appear that it was the Soviet
army which turned the tables against Hitler by it s victory first
before Moscow in 1941 Rnd then at Stalingrad in 1942 .

Page 11
"While Japan ' s moral and material su pport he [Subhas Bose l and
his Indian National Army was (sic!) able 10 liberale the islandlo til'
Andaman and some part or Manipur."
 Contemporary India (Class IX) 95
The statement is entirely inco'rrect . The Japanese had
occupied Andaman Islllnds early in 1942 and refused til hand over
its administration to INA, except in name. The attat:k o n Manipur
in 1944 was launched mainly by the Japanese forces. with INA
g iven a qUIte minor role (with forces comprisil"!g less than 10 per
cent. of the e ntire attacking force and the command placed
exclusively in Japanese hands).
Note: Having learnt some history of the INA by the time
o f the reprint edition. the author restricts the areas " liberated" 10
"some parts of Manipur." Even this, as we havc just seen, is u
piece of fantasy,

Page 12
·' Britai n . becau se of her internal weaknesses as well as prcssure
from the tWO super powers [US and USSR] was not in a position
to relain her hold on Indi a. Hence, she decided to whhdraw."
This view completely denies any role to the Indian
Nationa l Movement (of which RSS was never a part) in creating
the situation in wh ich Britain "was not is a position to rctuin hcr
ho ld on India" and was forced to withdraw. The position taken by
Hari am is quite similar to the colonial view, which too atlcmpted
to ignore the role of the Indian National Movement .

Page 12 (Page II in the reprint edition)

"But independent India chose to carve OUI a path of Non-Alignmcni
foc hersel f."
Strangely. Hari Om omits to mention the architect (If this
policy, lawaharlal Nehru . Thi s is in line with his policy of making
Nehru practically a non-person in modern Indi an hi story,

Page 12 (Page II in the reprint edition )

This just o ne paragraph , desc ri bing the "O lh er sigmncan l
developments" of the post-1945 period up to virtuli lly the end o f
the 20th cen tu ry, f inds place on ly for details on 1he retreat of
Socialis m forces in the world. namely the unification of Germany
in October 1990, the collapse of the Soviet UnIon and th e
conseq uent eme rgence of II unipolar world led by the USA . No
mention IS made of the Chinese Revolution of 1949. of the Korean
War and of the prolonged struggle in Vietnam leading to the vicwry
of lhe Vietnamese people and defeat of the USA. The Cuban
Revo lution. the Palest ine Issue and the eAd of lhe Apartheid
96 Illdex oj E:rm,..~

regIme in South Afri ca and many such equa ll y impo rt an t

developments that occurred in thi s pcriQd are s imilarly ove rl ooked.

Page 14
"Soon India became a land of free loorers" (lSI cd. )
Thi s rema rkable obse rvation about the [odiftn peopl e has
thankfu ll y been removed in th e repri nt cditon .

Page 14
"Il is inleresting to note ,h al the rise and gro'wlp of British rule in
Ind ia coi nc ided w it h the indust ri al revolUlien in Europe. The
immediate resull of the revolution was the need of new mark cl~
and more of (sic) raw materials"
Here the author links the beginning of colon ialism wilh
th e industrial revolu tion a nd the search far markets and raw
malerials. Th is rather limited view of colonialism ignores theentire
firs t stage of co lon ialis m wnere tne metropoli tan coun ty was nol
yet indus tri alized and instead o f loC!ki ng for markets so ught
products including manufactured goods from the coloni es, whic h
we(c approp riated fully or partially wi thout pay me nl throug h a
sys tem of tribute or drai n of wea lth. [n Ind ia thi s s in ge of
colonialism belonged to the secon d ha lf of the 18th century and in
the case of the Dutch in IndQl'lesia illas ted fo r nearly two centuries
(17th to 19th centuries) , Colon ialism of thi s stage strongly aided
the .process of industriali zatio n in the metropolitan countries.

Page ]4
'"In certain cases, dutieS lev ied were as higl"! as 400 per cenL"
It is not made clear that the duties he re men tioned were
customs duties imposed on imports from Indi a into Eng land , or
ex.cise dulies On Indian goods in India. Such ex.ci se ratc.s are not
known to have been levied. [t is true, howe ver, thal fro m 172 1 to
1774 import of all [ndian cotton fabrics into En g la nd was
p rohi bited. Th is shoul d have been mentioned.

Page 15
"The British used to call them [Indians] ·Niggers ·." (1st. ed.)
The British used to call fndi a ns ' natives·, not · ni ggers'
(The quoted stateme nt is removed in the reprint ed ition).
 COIllImtporary India (Clas.f IX) 97
Page 15
'·Bes:dcs. it [British rule} also created among the In dians Ii dal'S
o ( loyali sts. first in the shape of landlords . and then the middle
classe s .. . British policies had offended all sections of indilln
socicty ..,
Extreme ly s implistic assertions lead to bllllant
contrad1ctions as one can see when these tWO statements on the
same page are juxtaposed. It is, in any case. certainly wrong to
assert that the Indian middle classes were, as a rule. made up of
"loyali s ts"

Page 15
"These had led to the pass ing of the Religious Di sahili(ies At: t
( I 851) , the Widow Remarriage A c t (1856) and large sca le
unemploy mc nt of Indians. "
One is at a loss to see the interconnection between the
three fac ts, and apt to wonder why removal of religious di s abilitic ~
and proyi slOn for widow remarriage are to be co n sider~d bad amI
anll -Indian.

Page 15
" Lord Curzon a nd severa l other administrators committed many
provocative acts." (1st. Ed.)
Hari O m forgclS th at Lord C urzon came to India a ~ Viceroy
over 40 years after the 1857 Rebellion and so hi s "proyocat iyc
acts" could have had no role to play in the popul ar reyolts and the
1857 Rebellion with which this chapter dea ls. <Lord Curzon's name
is now omitted in the reprint edition!) .

Page 16
"Recent researches have estab lis hed that the 1857 rebellion was a
well-planned affai r. II had all India dimensions ... Nana Saheb.
son of l3.sl Peshwa Bajirao II was {he brain behind the Whole plan."
The abs urdity of these assertions is patent; and the desire
to raise Nana Saheb (who had nOlhing to do with the crucial ri s ing
at Meerut and the sepoys ' occupation of Delhi) above all the 1857
rebel s, is ridiculous in the extreme.

Page 17
The name of Bakh! Khan. the famous rebel co mmande r' at Delhi ,
is wrongly spell as "Blilkhat Khan".
98 Index of Errors
Page 17
" H oweve r, th e most important hClO r which cO nlribul cd
cons ide rably to the collapse of the upheaval (sit) was Iha l il 11hc
1857 Rebe lli on) lOok place before the rixed date (31 MflY 18S7):'
We are not lOld, who fixed the dale of 31 May <'lnd why.
All thi s is myth , pure and simple.

Pages 16-18
In th e lo ng descliprion of th e 1857 revolt, H ari Om vcry
significantly o mit s to underline one aspect 'wh ich man y freedom
fighters as we ll as a number of historian s have repealedly
hi gtllighted: th at of Hindu- Mus lim unity. Indeed on page 26 Hnri
Om specifically says thaI Muslim s shed their blood In the 1857,
rebe lli o n o nl y " to regain the lost grou nd lor their powe r
presumab1yJ and restore the Mugha! Em pire ... " In olher words,
he ho lds tha t their motives were different fro m those of the Hindu s.
See comment under page 26.

Page 18
While discussing ·'several anti-Britis h revohs" wiwr.!s:.cd in ·'India
aftt;r 1857", the author sta rts with the Benara s protests against
imposition of house tax which occu rred in 1810. The author, whu
him self does not g ive any dale, has again nOI tollowed the
e le mentary rules of chrono logy.
H ari Om's selection of an ti-British uprising:. I:' also rather
strange. The indigo disturbances, the Wahabis and Birsa Munda
find no men tion here.

Page 19
"After a prolonged st ruggl e likendraJitlaid down hi s Ilfc··.
He was, in fact , defeated and executed.

Page J9
lo In Maharn s htra Vasudeo B nlwant Ph adke o rganis ed a
revolutio na ry society ( 1879) in o rder to overthrow Briti sh ru Ie,"
Phadke did not organise a revolutionary soc lely. He had
some 300 men lIod raided hou ses of the rich to buy arms. 1879 IS
the year of his capture by the British, afler a shorl spate til'
disturbances the same year.
 Contemporary India (Class (X)

Page 21
"Chapter 3 Congress, New Spirit and Muslim League"
The t ill e of thc chaptcr itself is biased. Wh y include
Mu s lim League in the titl e and not Hindu Mah asabha. A lso, as we
will sec be low, "Ncw Sp iri! " (a strange description of a po litical
stran d ) is wrongly treated as a strand di s tinct from , if no! opposed
10 Ihal ofille Congress and secul ar mlli o nal ism, and prcl':cnlcd a:;
an exclus ively Hi ndu pheno me no n.
Page 21
" Thi s [the failu re of the " repress ive measures" imposed hy Lord
Lyttonl made the British government to (sic!) befri end the In dian
nationalists and landl o rds."
He re thc author is factually wrong. The Briti s h ttl no stag.e
in [he co lo ni al period "befriended" Indian nationalis ts. Even Ripon
cont inued 10 remove aJl import du ti es o n British cl oth. despite
Indian pro lests. As fo r "befri en ding" bi g landlord s. taluqdars. CIC.,
Ihis was all e mpted precisely to c reate break wate rs aga in ~ 1 thc
national ists, not to ' befrie nd ' th em. Also, the strategy of making
concess io ns to th e big landlords was adopted much e;,rli c r.
following the 1857 revoh. and was part of a wider st rategy 01
co~b inin g concessions with clear assertion of Briti sh su pre macy.
The ;be fri ende d' landl ords were nOll eft in doubt as to who ca ll ed
the s hots . The lands of tht" \aluqdars in Oudh " for example, were
confiscated after the Mutiny and tben restored o nl y in return for
su bmi ss io n and lo yal ty.

Page 21
"The s truggle over [his (l1ben Bi II ) and severa) o lher such issue:.
led Ind ian nationa lists to jo in ha nds a nd make the ir ca mpaig n
nation-wide."
If " the Briti sh Go vernme nt ... befriend{ed) thc Indian
Nationalists" then agai nst whom were the Indi a n Nationalists
j o ining hands to mak.e a nation-wide ca mpai g n? The paragraph
suggests that it is against th e opponents of the IIlle rt Bill. This is
an extremely inadequate explanati on for the rise of I~I:: Indian
National M ovement , which emerged because o f thc confli c t o f
econo mic, political and other inte rests of the Indi an people wi lh
Impe riali sm.

Page 21
" The establis hme nt of Indian Associati o n wa~ nOI to th e liking 01
100 bIder ofError.f
several Englishmen, both in India and England. He nce they thought
of an alternative to Ihi s org:.misation [by the formation o f the Indian
Nationa l Congress )" ,
The who le paragraph is f3 c wally wrong a nd does nOt lake
into account the advances in indian hl slon ograph y on Ihis question
made decades ago, especia lly after the ope ning or the DulTe rin
papers. The points to be noted are:
First. the Indi an NatIOn al Congress was not anullern a tive
to the Indian Associat ion. The In dian Associat io n JeaJcrs suc h as
Surendranat h Bane rjea played an important.role in the e mergence
Of the Congress. In fact they hosted the 2nd sess ion of the Congr!!,,,s
in Cak uLtu In 1886.
Second, Du fferin did not give Htlme " hi ~ full suppo n " in
the fo rmutlo n of the Congress. He In fact did not want the Indian s
10 form any politi c.al orga ni zation but to engage in sodal refurlll .
He was critical of the Congress virtually si nce its incepti on and
became quite lilJspicious and coo l towards Hume.
Third , no sig nIfi cant s trand of "Briti s h opinion saw the
Congress as an organisai ion ·which would play the role o f a sa fcty -
valve. II was seen by a nd large as an irritant, if nOl, at the beginning.
hostile. Even ifHume and a few like him did project the Congress
as a sa fet y-va lve. in realit y the role played by the Congress was
quite the opposite. To hi s honour, Hume him se lf strongly .defe nded
the Congress again st allacks by Lord Duffe rin in ' Flgg

Page 22
Tht descriptio n of t he In dinn Na tional Congress be tween 1885 -
1905 is extremely s light f' ll in tone and inaccorate ab\)ut it s leaden•.
" Mosl of them" djd nO[ conside r " Briti sh rule. as a bless ing for
India" , Th e fact Ih al t he. Moderates produced a very stro ng
economic cri ti que of imperialism (among the firs t in the world to
do so) is not me ntioned by Hari Om, at all. The Mode rates brought
home to the Indian people the evil econom ic: impact of British
rule thus questioning a l:Iasic ele ment of impc ri ali st ideo logy
s pread assiduous ly in India. The Moderates' role in popularising
and fighting fo r key issues suc h as civil liberties, freedo m or Ihe
pres s, democracy and popular sovere ig nt y also is altogeth er
ignon; d here. Some of the tallest Moderate leaders like Dadabhai
Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Go khal e a nd M. G. Ranad e are no t
me ntioned as leaders of the Congress by Hari Om and Moderatc
leade rs like R.c. Dult, G. Subramani ya Iyer, Badruddi"n Tyabji,
K. T. Te lan g. Phe rozes hah Mehta, all household names in the
 Coruemporary India (Class IX) lOt

nationalist pant heon. urc nOI mentione.d at all. This is not

accide.ntal. as a mention of these names would nol accord wilh Ih e
projection of the Moderates as virtually loyalists and ' mendi~anl ~'

Page 22
"Th e British ru lers did nOI pay any heed 10 the Congress demand s
which were modest by any standard." (The reprint cd. J'ead s "very
modes t")
To deSCribe the Co ngress demands in the Moderate phase
as "modeSl by any standard " is not. to understand the meaning o f
the Moderatc domands at all . Even some of the demand s described
by Harl Om himself in Ihis and the previous paragraph . ~uch as
"reductio n in land revenue and army expenditure and usc of In dian
wealth for the Indian s themselves", introduction of "democratic
instituLions in India" and .refo.rm of "the legi slative councils. by
inducting in them elected indian s", were hardly Illodest "by an y
standard" .

Page 22, col.l, lower portion

" Lord Curzon even went to the extent of saying thut the peopl e of
India were ' the peasants, whose life was not vne of. political
aspiration' . This had it tremendous impact on the Indian freedllm
struggle".
Writing in o ne's sleep?

Page 22
"A parallel wave of sprituaJ and cultural awakening .. . popularly
known as 'Indian Renais sance'. Its ground had been prepared by
Bankim Chandra Chanerjee. Swami Dayannnda Saraswati and Sri
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ."
This misleading sentence needs [0 be corrected. The
ground was prepared almost half a century earl ier by Ram Mohan
Roy. the Young Bengal movement, etc. Whal i'S truly ashtonishing
here is the complete omission of any reference to Keshav Chandra
Sen. the dom.i nant figure il) ~ocial reform movement in the laller
half of the 1 91~ Century. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar is also
similarly ignored. In fact the whole paragraph describin g the 19'h
Centu ry renaissance in India is totally distorted and one-sided.
Major social reformers from Maharashtra and South Jndla are also
ignored, among them Jotiba Phule. Syed Ahmed Khan and
Dadabhai Naoroji (in his role as Parsi social reformer) arc al so
102 Index of Errors
not treated as representatives of the Ren:Hssancc. Obviously. th e
' Ne w Spi rit ' is secn as purely Hindu, and that al so o f the mo ~ !
conservative kind .

Page 22
"S imilarl y, Swami D ayananda's slogan ' Back to the Ved as' h:ld
insti ll ed a pride in the ideas o f Swadeshi and ancien t cu ltural
he rit age ..,
It is charac teri stic that a purely religious projec t o f s haping
Hindui s m accord ing to the original Vedi c princi ples is he re seen
as a slogan for swadeshi, which Daynand never put forwa rd. Fo r
thai mailer he neve r opposed or c riti cised Briti sh ru le. unlike Ih e
muc h mal igned Moderates.

Page 22
"Thi s year Swami Vivekananda .. " al Chicago ( USA) ... es t:lbli shcd
the superiority of Indian though t a nd c ulture over the western
mi nd", L ast four words removed in the reprint edi tio n.
Vivekananda's speech in C hicago no doubt made many
reel proud of t he Hindu tradi tion, but to say thaI it "estllb li s hed "
(to whom?) the superionty of Indian thoug ht and c ulture over the
wes te rn mind , or over a ny other religio n or tradition is cx tr..:rnel y
tendenti ous.

Page 23
"A urobindo Ohose wrote a senes of arti cles under the title 'New
Lamps fo r the o ld ', di scardin g (sic!) the Cong ress policy as
mt!ndicancy' .. '
The reference to Aurobindo alleged ly" dil'card in g(!) the
Congress ( note. not Moderate) poli cy as me ndica ncy " is n(1t
innocent. The Congress is he re equated with Moderates a nd since
the lauer are said to resort to mend icancy, the former is ;1!s0
assumed to do so, The position that e merged within the Congress
led by Tilak , S .C. Pal . Lajpat Rai. etc" whi c h at that time used to
be ca ll ed t he "Extremist" position. is tre ated by Hari On1 as
so me! hing outside the Congress, and is treated as virtua ll y a nti ·
Congres s,

Page 22·23
The author makes 8 feu ish of 1893 as "a major landmark in the
evo lution o f ideology of our freedom s trugg le", the first even t o r
th at yea r in th is rega rd being Vivekananda 's exposi ti on 0 1
 Contemporary II/dia (Class IX) 103

Hindu ism - at C hicago, USA ! T he. last event li sted is Gandhi's

departure for South Africa, with no reference to his s ubsequent '
strugg les for Indian ri ghts there. In (act Gandhi's immen sely
impo rtant work in organ ising and leadi ng strugg les for the defence
of Indi an civ il rights in South Africa is not touched upon anywhere
except for a casual reference on page 34.

Page 23
" Both of them [Tilak and Aurobindo C hosel believed in and
advocated cu ltural nationa lism ... They also held the view lhul
Moderates we re only pl ayi ng with "bubbles" (sic!) li ke th e
legislative councils and not taking up t.he issues capable (sic ~ ) or
protecti ng and promoting the (sid) Indi an cu lture."
The ' Extremist' position take n by T iJ ak, Aurobindo, etc ,
is thus by a sleight of hand described as "cultural national is m" , a
concept associated with the name of V D , Savarka r in hi s Hindu
com mun al phase! Whil e thi s stratagem seeks to give the Hind u
communali sts a fal se linkage with Indian nati onali sm, it does grave
inj usti ce to TIlak and other leaders whose nat iona li sm was deeply
rooted in the po liti ca l and econom ic critique of coloniOJli sm and
had nothing to do with the Hindu communa l st ream. The vitriul
poured o n ' moderate s' is to be attributed mainly to a de~ire to
condemn a ll elements in the National Movement that stood ror
modern and secular values. It is a calumny on Moderates like
Gokh ale to say that they merel y stood ro r ':bubbles" ( Hari Om's
Eng li sh for 'baubles') like Legislati veCounc il s, and nothing e lse.

Page 23
..... S.N . Paranj ape's Marathi weekly Kal con tril:luted a \Ot in
arous ing natio nali sm and ant i-Britis h sentimen ts_The immediate
fall -out was the murder of Rand .. ,"
Paranjpe's week ly began a ppearing in March 1898. Rand
was shot on 22 June 1897. "The immediate fall-out" thu s actually
lo ng preceded the cause!

P..age 23
"Tilak de fended the Chapekar brothers stoutly in KI.!.Wlri nod inv il ~d
the charge of sedition against him se lf."
Had Om here open ly glorifies individu al vio len t res istance
to the British as against non- violent mass resistance. In the prO\.c~s.
he presen ts a g rossly misleading account. First. Ti lak was ,)0 1
prosecuted for sed iti o n because he "defended " the C ha rd ir
104 Index of Errors

brothers.' He was prosecuted for writing articles before the murder

of Rand, for which the Chapekar brothers wcre'arreslcd, S::cond,
while appreciating the nationalist spirit of the Chapekar bJblhcrs.
Tilak strongly crit icized their aclion as the "ho rribl e" action of a
fanatic. Tilak was criti ca l of the path fo llowed by the 'pnny of the
bomb' or indivi-dual vio lent resistance . In fact many other
nationalist leaders often defended against B.ritish repress ion an ll +
Briti sh po litical elemeniS wi th whose meth ods of stru ggle they
totally disagreed (e.g. c.R. Das's defence of Aurobindo Ghose).

Pages 23-24
"Simi larly, in Bengal. the return of Swami Vivekananda und
founda ti o n of the Ramakrishna Mission electrified the who le
political situat ion ."
The author thus tries to link Hindui sm. especially
Vivekananda. to this strand of violent resi stance or the cull of
assassinations, which he calls "the new spirit", He then adds that
after Vivekananda's death the carrying forward (I f hi .~ mi ssion by
sisler Ni vedita (described as "an Irish by birth hut (one who]
adopted Hinduism as her faith"), wh o wrote books like \. Kali Ihc
mother", "contributed considerably to the growth of (the} new
spi rit.·' These statements overlook the fact that the Ramakrishna
Miss ion was and has been a totally non-politi cal o rgan isati on.

Page 24
" He [Curzon] took this divisive step [P:lrtilion of Bcn ~alJ as lhc I
was alarmed by the Impacl of cultural nationa lism on the
Indians .....
Not nationalism, not the National Movement, but the so.
ca lled "Cultura l Nationalism" on ly, is thought 10 have troubled
C urzon!
Si nce the author takes "cu ltural nationalism " practically
as "Hindu Cuhural Nationalism", it Is very strange that Curzon
s hou ld have had to try to create, a Hindu-Muslim divide in Bengal.
as presumably H indu Cohural Nationalism mu st have already done
so on its own , Cunon's plan of Partition made !>eo!>c for
Imperialism only if if was aimed al breaking up an emergin!! /If/ilt'd '
Indian nationalism,
Page 24
.. Aurobindo Ghosc ... s tarted with Sepin (sic) Chandra Pulu pal"'"
Ballde Marra", . ..
 Contemporary /tulia (C/rus IX) 105
Aurobindojoined, but did not co-establish, Blpi" Chandra
Pal's paper Bunde Mlitralll. He himself staned the Yug£lll(lIr.

Page 24
·'Ouring the Swadeshi movement, Aurobindo Ghose emerged a~
the chief architect of the philosophy of our freedom struggle.
Deriving ins piration from Dayananda, Bankim Chandra and Tilak,
he gave a cultural orientation to the freedo m struggle."
This statemenl is wrong and mi sleading on sevei'll I count~.
There is no ev idence of Aurobindo being influenced by Dayannnd
Sarasvati: Ihi s is juSt a piece of nourish by Had Om. On a more
general plane, il is absurd to make out Aurobindo In his phase of
Hindu Nationalism as " the chief architect of the phi Josophy of
ou r freedom strugg le." The period of rhe SwadedH movement
witnessed extremely rich and diverse political trends - moderates.
extremists. revolutionary believers in violence. incipient socla lh ts.
those that argued fol' boycott and passive resistance and so on.
Aurbindo represented -On ly one trend in thI S movement and could
certain ly not be called its "chief architect." (Naturnlly' his later
total abandonment of freedom struggle is not mentioned by Hari
Om).
Also, what is meant by "cultural orientatIOn to freedom
struggle" is not made clear 31 all. The author again by innuendo
seeks to link lndian nationalism to v. hal he calls "cullural
nationalism" which he identifies with Hindu "nationalism" In thi!;
effort he repeatedly tries to distort and overe mphaSize the role of
people like Bankimchandra and Aurobindo, who are prOjected as
Hindu Ideologues and leaders.

Page 24
"Almost simultaneously Gandhiji was penning down (sic!) hilo
great classic Hind Swam) wherein he rejected the western machine
civiliza tion and western institutions s uch as parliamentary
democracy."
Gandhiji penned Himl Swara) In 1909 - nOt
simultaneously witli, but well after the Partiti on of Beng.a l. Whilt::
Hind Swaraj condemned a number of evils in Western Civilizat ion.
it projected a secular image of the Indian nation, a vIew totally at
variance with that of Hari Om . Religion, Gandhiji said in Hind
Swara), had nothing to do with the idea of nation, and so Hindus.
Muslims. Parsis and Christians "will have 10 live in unit y" .
106 J"dex of Error.f
Gandhiji neve r conde mned democracy, whef her parliamentary o r
any othe r fo rm of it. Lt is extremely objectionable that the NCERT
te,xtbook should be used 10 deni grate the concep-l of parl iamentary
d e m oc r acy~ by putting the denigration in the mouth o f the Father
of the Nation,

Pages 24-25
Bipin Chan dra Pal throughout has hi s name mi sspe ll as Bepio
C handra Pal.

Page 2S
"Il fthe Swadc.sf\i Move me nl} even shook th e fa ith of such great
Moderate leaders as Gopal Krishna Gokhale and malic them ·waver
in (hei r lo ng-cherished faith and belief in the clemency and justice
of tht':; British'."
Not the Swades hi Movement . bUI the Briti sh su ppression .
of iI , surely I ~d the Moderates momentarily 10 lose their alleged
faith in "the clemency and justice of the Briti s h". The s hoddiness
of express ion apart, these assertions arc i n line with H art Om's
consistent denigration of the Moderates ,

Page 26
" Dadabhoy Naoroj i, thl! grand old man of [ndian poli ti cs ... "
Naoroj i was affecti onately called the Grand Old Man o f
Indian nationali sm, not poli tics. Thi's was because he was correctly
held to be [ndia's first nationa li st spokesman, a stri ngent cri tic of
B riti sh rule since 187 1, Even in such s mall matters Hari am wishes
to belittle the role of early Congress leade rs, usually ofa ~ec u l ar
slamp. There is no pic ture of Dadabhoy Naoroji in the book.

Page 26
"Afte r the Sural split ... Sardar Ajit Singh and Lala Lajput Rai
were de ported."
Factually incorrect: Both Ajit S ingh and Lala Lajpal Rai
were deported in April 1907 much before the Sural Congress.
When Lajpat Rai went abroad after the Sural Congress, it was a
vo luntary act on hi s pan .
Page 26
.... . the Mus li ms had part icipated in the- 1857 Upris ing in a big
way. They had taken part in the anti-Britis h struggle in order to
 Colltemporary India (Class IX) 107
regain the lost ground and restore the Mughal empire to its pristine
glory."
. Indeed! So, while the Hindu sepoy died for the freedom
of the country, the Mu s lim sepoy lighting the Briti sh along with
hi m, died on ly fo r the sake of tne Mughal Empire! Mus lims, it is
thus insinuated, could not have loved thi s country or fought for it s
freedom . What deadly venom is he re sought to be transmItted to
the. young readers of the book!

Pages 26·27
"B ut the failure of the 1857 uphep.val ended whatever existed in
the name of Muslim rule in fndia and established the supremacy
of Ihe Briti sh:'
The stateme nt is wrong as 10 faclS. No Mu slim slale of
any s ize was an nexed as a result of the Mutiny. As ror rfle
depositio·n of the Mughal 'emperor'. he did not , even .as titular
'emperor ', control Delhi , which was governed by the British
British supremacy e:tuted already before 1857.

Page 27
"The other [Muslim trendl was in the form of the continu ation of
the Wahabi movement which mobilised fund s and vo lunteers for
the an ti ·British struggle in the North·Western Fronti e r areas ."
When the Wahabis were thus engag ing in urmed action
against the Bri ti sh and (what Hari Om Qm its to mention ) suffered
heavil y in terms of lives lost and puni shments awarded. it is strange
that their struggle should be passed over so casually and not treated
as part of the "New Spirit" or of rhe revolutionary phase of the
Fre~dom Struggle. However, given the author's communal bias ,
the hurried way in whi c h the Wahabis are denll wilh is qui Ie
understandable.

Page 27
·'The third tre nd was represented by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. , ...
By puuing the [\\,;count of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan unde r
"Emergence of the Muslim League", Hari Om clearly wishes 10
link him with the Muslim League, although he died SOme eight
yearll before it was founded . and he had nothing (0 do with I'"
rorm.llJ on _ Syed Ahmad Khan 's cOnlribulfons to the spread or
SI:Ii.!nlifi ed ucation arId hi s essentIally modern Ihougtll a.re totally
Ignored III Hari Om s accoutlt, despite the fa ct thlt t Ih(')1 wer.: ~o
108 Index of Errors
closely anuned to the spirit of the Indian Renaissance.

Page 27
"He [Syed Ahmad Khan] reali ~ed that {he British rule hau corne
to slay and its hostility to the Musl im s will (sic~) only help and
strengthen the rising Hindu elite."
[n other words, Syed Ahmad Kh an set our IU educate
Muslims oul of only spite for the Hindu s!

Page 27
"The Briti sh welcomed these mlliallves comi ng trom Sir S)'cd
Ahmad Khan . They invited him to England . ,"
Sycd Ahmad Khan visited Eng land in 1869-70 al hi:. ow n
expense and nol at anyone's invitation, least of all (hat of the Briw.!1
Government.

Page 1.7
"This college lM .A.O. ColIge) became the nodal point of the
Aligarh Movement started in 1875."
The sentence is misleading. The Aligarh M ovement I1td
not start in 1875: if a date is to be provided for It!' beginning It
should be 1864, when the Trans lation Sol'iety. lat er called.
Scientific Society, was established. II was the M A.a . College
which was eSlablished at Aligarh in 1875 .

Pag~ 27
"One of the aims of the Aligarh Movement was to ' milke Ihe
Mussalmans of India worthy and use ful subject s o f the British
Crown' ."
Hari am does not say whe re the quotation is taken from
Sinee the Aligarh Movement was not a formal asslKJatiun there
was no question of any such declaration on its be half. What IS to
be remembered is that such stateme nts were made ,by most
educational and social organisations at the time. and by fairly fiery
'tationalist leaders as well . The essential feature of the Aligurh
Movement was the spread of modern and scientific education, fur
which reason its detractors called it ntcharl. i.e .• preaching 11 belief
in Nature. In politic!:, it contained both Io.yali st and nall on"li SI
elements.
 COl/temporary India (Clem IX) 109

Pnge 27
" His ISyed Ahmad Khnn 's] Meerut anq Li.H.:;know speec hes lof
18881 present hi s thinking very c learly."
Whatlhese speeches present is cert3inly an eliti st critique.
of the Congress: but these spee~hes called for both Muslim and
Hindu gentry to unite. against the Cong r ~ss . Indeed, Syed Ahmad
Khan subsequently formed an "Indian Patriotic Association",
including both Hindus and Muslim::i , Hari am makes short .worK
of these nuances in his aim of presenting Syed Ahmad Khan as
simply a loya lis l and communakst. He has naturally no word about
the contemporary Hindu movenaon( around the cause of Hindi !
Nagari propagalion . including the Hindu Samaj (establi Shed , 1880)
of Madan Mohan Malavi ya. where profess ions of loyalty to the
British were quite as profu se ly made as his denigrations of Urdu .

Page 27
" Developments in Muslim Politics Arter 1898"
Again, a communal category is used here. The use of the
words "Muslim poli ti cs" suggests that all ~u sli ms had the same
politics or al least that all Muslim s had..polilics separate from that
of the Hindus or other religious groups who presumably fo llowed
politics of their own religious denominations . SIgnifica ntl y.
though. there is no'section in the book called 'Hindu Politics'.

Puges 27-28
The aUlhor gives an unusually long description or t he
formation of tbe Muslim League and j'ls loyalty to the Briti sh, its
efforts to mobilize Muslims separate ly from the Congress, etc.
The book however does not discuss the formation of the All-India
Hindu Mahasabha which took place with much fa nfare at Lahore
in 1906. Apparently, the students are to be prevented from
suspecting even remote ly that there was a Hi"hdu commu!1alism as
well. along with.its counterpart. Muslim communali sm .

Page 29
Pulln Das, the leader of the Anushilan Samitl. has been
wrongly called Pulin Behan Bannerji ; and ~imilar l y the name of
the well-known revolutionary Satyen Bose is wrongl > ~ pelt Satyan
Bose,
G.D, and V.D. Savarkar were connl!..-:.Ied With the society
called Abhinav Bharal, nOI Abhinav Bharli .
110 Index of Errors

P.g~ 29
"Those who played a crucia l tole in thi s regard ("revolutionary
movement abroad" ] were Shyamji Kri shna Varma , V.D. Savnrkar.
Madanl~ 1 Ohingta. Madame Bhikaiji Cam a, Sard!lr Si ngh Rana.
Tarakanath Das, Lala Har Dayal. Virendranat h Chauopadhyay and
Sohan Singh Bhaha, Subramania Bhatti and Champaka Raman
PillaL."
Thi s li st is both tendentious and inaccu rate as almost
everything in the book. As (or in accuracie s: Subramania Bharali
had nothing to do with the revolutionary movement abroad , unless
Pondicherry is thought to be outside Indi a. The tendcnt ious nes!; is
apparent in a remarkable exclusion: BarkalUlIah Khan (died. 192K)
was an I.mrelenling revo lutionary nationalist and propagandi st in
US. Japan, Afghanis tan. Soviet Russia and Ge rmany, cOnlinuously
hounded by the Briti sh. He is not mentioned here, nor in the section
on the G hadar Party ( page 30). One need not wonder, why.

Page 30
" Kamagata·Maru renamed Guru Na"uk Jahal. ... "
The fa mous s hip Komagata· M aru is wrongly spe ll ' Kama·
gata·Maru'. Similarly the ship Toshamaru is here called '·Tasu
Maru" .

Page 30
"Rash Behari Bose, who earlier had escaped to Japan under a fake
name, .. ..
'Rash Behari Bose escaped to Japan after the failure of
the plan of the mutiny in the armed forces and not ·earlier· as
stated here.
Hari Om makes no reference to the GhaJar·inspired
mutiny at Singapore which took place almost s imultaneously In
February 191.5. Forty·seven of the mutineers were sentenced 10
death by firing and 175 o th ers received long term s of
imprisonment. The leaders w~re Subedar Dunda Khan and Jamadar
Chishti Khan. who "marched erect and steadi ly 10 the execution
pOSlS/' Mosl of the rebelling sepoys were' Sikhs. ls sueh inter-
communal nature of the Mutiny a reason for Hari Om 's sile nce
and relegation of such a large number of martyrs to ohlivion·'
 Conumporary India (Class IX) III

Page 33
" Bal Gangadhar Tilak, 13epin (Bipin ) Chandra Pa l and Aurobindo
Ghose critjcised as futile and impossible the aim of the Congress
to convince the British and obtain for the Indians self~government."
Again the author here equates the Congress with the
Moderates. The impression is created that the Extremist leaders
(called "Radicals" in Ihis book) were not Congressmen, whereas
the fact is that leaders such as Tilak and B. C. Pal while being ·
critica l of the Moderate strand were themse lves eminent leaders
of the Congress.

Page 33
"It (the Lucknow Pact of 1916) unwillingly began the constitutional
process lea~ing to the partition of India." .
If the reference is to 'communal electorates' beginning.
the process leading to. partition then this process began with the
Mo rley -Minto reforms and not the Lucknow Pact . which accepted
separate electorates in a situation of restricted electorales (the right
to vote being restricted to property-owners, tax~payers of status
and graduates) and as a measure with the immediate objective of
achieving Hindu-Muslim unity. Later on, everyone practically was
agreed that separate electorate would not be necessary once adult
franchise was establiShed, for that would aUlOmatically result in
communities being represented among voters according to the size
of the ir populations . But throughout British rule , the electorates
remained extremely restricted .
AlsQ., it is absurd to say that the Pact led to the })artition.
The Pact, on the other hand. was a major step forward in achieving
Hindu-Muslim unity. It brought the Muslim League to accept the
goa l of Self~Ru l e and join the nationalist platform along w~ the
Congress.

Page 34
"D ut between 1915 and 1918, he [Mahatma Gandhi} did nOI play
any active role in Indian political )ife under the advice of hi s
political guru, Gopal Krishna Q.o.k1lale."
This is factually -wrong. 'Ookhale asked Gandhi to S l~
the situation for one year. which he did by travelling all ovedhe
country. To say that Gandhi did not play any active political
between 1915 - 1918 is ridiculous as he led three major struggles
~u ring the course of 19P and early 1918, invoiving the peasants
 112 Index of Errors

of Champaran district in Bihar. those of Kheda chslriCI In GUJl.trill

and the induslri al workers of Ahmedabad.

Page 34
"The title of' Mahatma was given Ito Gandhijll hy Rahindlunalh
1'113lo:.ur. "
"Rabindranath Tagore" was hOw Tagon: ~pcl l his Ill1llH' III
English and he is thus known allover the Wllrld Till" spel lin g
should be followed.

Page 34
"Wedded to the ideology of Pan-Islamism. the (.I'it') Muslim upln ion
in India felt very much concerned about the- fute ur the defeated
Thrkey .... They were also up!>et because or the wl!akening of the
control of the Sultan of Turkey as he carried the dc~ignalllH1 ul'
Khalifa also."
Once again Muslims are wrongly treated as being alt {(lr
in majority) wedded to Pan · [slaml srn. Also. the auth9" tot ally
ig nores the fact that the British ove r a IOrlg period cn~'ourageLl
Indian Muslims to look upon the Sultan o f Turkey a~ the Khllhfa
of Mus lims. Thi s was when the British had an alliam:e with Turkey
and they wanted to project this among Ind ian Muslims a!o It pro-
Mu slim act. Later, in 1919, when the Briti~h betrayed Tur~cy in
the terms of the peace settlement following the end o f the First
World War, the resultant anti-British sentim en t was prujel:tcd by
the British as Muslim pan -Islam is m, a view that Han am "CI;Cp ' ~
and enlarges upon .

Page 3S
"Gandhiji simultaneously fused the national urge for S~araj wilh
the Muslim concern for the Khilafat. He in a pact with the Khilafat
Committee clubbed the two issues of the protection of Khilafat
and the protection of cow."
The author here has counterpoised ' the national concern
for Swaraj' to 'Lhe Mus lim concern for Khilafat ·. The Mus limli
accordi ng to him were not concerned with the n at i ona~ urge for
swaraj ! They were on ly concerned with religious issues, that too
those which are located outside the national boundaries. confirm ing
their being "~edded to ... Pan- Islamism". This is both maliciou s
and a-historical.
The author in tile second sentence .goes one s tep further
and Jinks the national concern to ' the protection of the l:Ow', whilc
 COlltempomry India (Ciaj'!) IX) ILl

the Muslims. who apparently do not share Ihis concern . are linked
to ' protection of Khilarat' .

Page 35
"Gandhiji's support to the Kh il afal was not acceptat'llc 1O;:a scctlOn
of the o ld Congress leaders suc h 3S Tilak. Annie Bc!'ant, Sriniv:t!>a
ShastrL ... "
The opposition to Gandhi that emergcti frnm su me
Congre ss leaders was not on the issue of Khilafat hut un the
programme of the Non Cooperation Movcmel1l. especia lly tin the
question o f boycott of e lections. tn lhe 1920 manife sto of the
Congress Democrati c Party that Tilak drafted. ~u ppurt fur the
Khilafat was clearly and unambiguou sly stated.

Page 36
"Gandhiji ' s emphasis on Swodeshi did not find fa vour With linnah
from the very beginning ." .
This is incorrect. linnah 's difference~ with GandhI In the
early Siages were related to the laller's attempt 10 convert the
national movement into a mass movement , and (0 re .~on to Nvn-
cooperation .

Page 36
"Thiru Vi Ka supponed four-month long strike al the Buckin gham
and Carnalic textiles mi ll s."
The full name Thiru V. Kalyansu ndara r Muualiar shou ld
be given . and not just the initials .

Page 36
"The British gesture of revising the Treaty ofSevres (May 192U)
in favour of Tu rkey considerably mollified the Indian Muslims.
But the subsequent abolition of the institution of Khilafm by Ihe
Thrki ~ h revolutionaries under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal
Pasha weakened the whole Khilafal Movement. The Muslim
fervour for agitation died and they w ithdrew from the Non-
Cooperation Movement. '·
The whole parag raph is based on demonstrably false
statements. The Non-cooperation Movement was withdrawn on
12 February 1922 after the Chauri Chaura incident by Gandhiji.
and thi s had nothing to do with any supposed withdrawal of
Muslims from the Non-Cooperation Movement. The Treaty of
 114 Index oj Erron,'

Laussane by w hich the Treaty of Sevrcs was re vised - an act which

is supposed to have "mollified" Mus lims - came on ly in J 92J.
more than a year after the wi thd rawa l of Non-Cooperalion and
onl y after spec-lacular mi l itary successes of-the Turks in Augu st-
September 1922. The K hil afat was abolished by Republican Turkey'
in 1924. How could a ll these later events ha ve impl!lle d Musl im s
(0 wi thdraw from the Non-Cooperalion Movement? Actually. there
is OQt a sh red of ev idence of such withdrawa l.
O nccan onl y explain such invenlions. runnin g againSt the
si mple force of chronology, as based on a simple in sat iable bias .
Th i"s a lso leads Har' Om to overlook the role of major KhiJafu\
leaders such as Mohammad Al i, Shaukat A li and Hakim Ajmal
K han . The young readers are not even told that HlIs rat Mohani
moved a resolution at the 1921 session of the Congress that Swa raj
be defined as Complete Independence, a position which anticipated
the posit ion the Congress was forma lly to adopt nine yeurs later.

Page 36
" However, the participation of the Mu s lim s firecLby' a religious
fervour gave the Movement [ N~n-cooperation Moveme nt\a new
_vigour and aggressiveness. At the same time, the outburst of this
religious zeal in Malabar, in the form of Mop/all riots on (sic!)
ag rarian/tenancy problem s . .. resulted into a (sic!) large scale
conversions a nd murde r of Hindu s."
The author he re tries to link the Moplah (Mappila) riOts
a nd the "m!lrder of H indus" with the Muslim support to Khilafat.
the a lleged 'religious fervour ' generated by the laue r taking Ihe
for m of r iots in Moplah territqry. Thi s is far-fetched and
tendentious. If religious fervour among M uslims was to inevitably
lead to riots it is strange that the author never find s any li nk between
Hindu rel igious fervour and riots! The Khilafat and the Mappi la
rebellion were indeed linked though not on religiou s g rounds bul
as a result o r the Khilafal movement closely iden tifying with the
cause o f the Mappila tenants against landlord oppress ion. Often
Khilafat meeti ngs and the tenants' meetin gs merged . Hari Om also
has no word a l a ll for the brutal way in which the uprising wa~
s uppressed, w ith su m mary executi ons: 2,337 Mappila s we re
ofricially reported k,ill ed; unofricial estimates look Ihe numbe r 10
10.000.

Page 36
" This phase also witnessed a spate of Hindu-Muslim rims all over
the country from Kohal to Ca lcutta ,"
 Contemporary I"dia (Class IX) 115

This is factually wrong.IJ"This phase" refers 10 the Non-

cooperati on days (1920-22) and the Moplah riots (192 I). the
coun try was by and large remarkably free of riots in this peri od.
The phase of riots was after the Non-cooperation Movement was
c:OUed off, i. e" from 1923 to 1926-27, and this, therefore. l'(lu ld
have had no role to play in the alleged detaching. of "Mus lin1 :>
from the Non-Cooperation Movement", stated to be the aim of
"British diplomacy " in the preceding sentence: Incident.'ll ly, tha t
sentence is both id iom atically and gramnlatical1y defective
("work in g in (sic) deepening th e dissentiolls and detach the
Muslims", e tc.)
II is significant th ai while all observers. incl uding British
offic ial s. were impressed by Ihe s igh t of Hin.du-Muslim unity
displayed in the Non-cooperation Movement. Hari Om .nar.ps ;ln ly
un the "aggressiveness" that Muslim participation lent 10· the
Movement, and o n the riots that actually belonged 10 .the post-
Non-Cooperation period.

Page 38
Chapter 5 "Struggle for Swaraj and British Techniques"
The tttle is thoughtlessly framed. ;'8rit ish Tec hniques"
seems an. awkward way of say ing " British Tactics", which to\)
woul'd be hardly suitable here .

Page 38
"But the debate continued between the ' changers' led by I C.R. ,)
Das and ' no-changers' led by C. Rajagopalachari ."
The Swarajists led by C.R. Das we re actually ca lled " Pro-
changers". The word "Changers" for them has been co in ed
apparently by Hari Om himse lf.

Page 38·39
The names of Ramprasad Bismil and Rajcndranath Lahi1't
are repeatedly misspell as Ramprasad 8isma l and Rajendranath
Lahri. The revoluti onary Roshan Singh tS referred to as Roshan
Lal .

Page 38
"The result was the estab li shment of the Hindusllln Republican
Associa tion at Kanpur in October 1924 under the inspiration of
Chandrashekhar Azad .'·
116 lruiex of Errors

This is incorrect. The Hindustan Republican Assoc ialion

(HRA) was no t estab li s hed in 19 24 unde r lhe inspiration of
C hand rashekhar Azad but was eSlablished under the leadership
of older revoluti onaries like Ramprasad 8 ismi!. Jogesh Chatterjee
an d Sac hindra nath Sanyn l.
It was the Hl nd uSlan Socialist Republic:.n p,.. rmy (HSRA).
which was formed in Sepiemberl92R under the leader~hip of
C hand rashek har Azad, Bhagal Singh and others. The author with
his clear hostility towards the vcry concepl of socialism has In
facL not even mentioned this major event of the HRA being
lranst:ormed into the HSRA , whereby the revolu \l Qnarie~ now
adoptcd socia lis m as their officia l goa l. SOme of the Inlles! among
the n:voJutionaries like Bhagal SlIIgh and B.K , Sinha had openly
proclaimed their transifion from the cult of the bomb and individual
heroic acts to the creed of socialism :lnd anli-l 'npena)lsl ma )s
sCli on.

Page 38
"On Augusl 6,1925, for instance, these revolutlonanes under Ihe
leadersh ip of Rampras:ad Bismlll (.lifo) successfully der:a lled a Inlln
near Kakori railway Siall on ... Till S incident was ~nown as the
" Kakori Conspiracy Case' ,"
Bi5mi l and his colleagues did not de rail the tmin bUI pulled
the chain to stop it. They cared for the lives of passengers .. Kakori
Conspiracy Case' referred to their subsequent tn al. not the incideOl
itself.

Page 39
"The Congress under the Presidenlship of Dr. M .A. Ansan
demanded complele indc;>e-ndence in 1927"
Had Om fails to menlio n that the ;" independence "
resolution in 1927 was the work of lawaharlal Nehru . "Comple te '
independence" (puma swam) was finally adopted as it's goal by
the Congress al Lahore in December 1929.

Page 39
" Ho\,Ycver the attitude of the Punjab Unio~i sts led by S ik andar
Hayoe Khan , .. was somewhat different"
It is strange that only some Muslims are mentioned as
cooperating with the Simon Commission. The Hindu Mahasabha
(Jed by Bhai Parm ana nd) and 8 .R_ Am bedkar. who also did so,
 Contemporary India (Cla,u IX) 117

arc overluoked. This is lende ntiou sne!,s with II vengeance .

Page 40
"The British repression and the death of Lala LaJPal Rai on 11
November 1928 did not demoralize the. [ndian~. On the t:ontr:aI"Y.
they decided to give a new orientation to the freedom struggle .
Re.volutionaries like Sardar Bhagal Singh anQ R:.jguru even went
to the extent of avenging the. death of Lain Lajpat Rai an ll ki lieu a
British officer, John Saunders."
The "new onenlation to the freedom struggle" referred to
by the authors was not born out o f the need for avenging of the
death of Lajpat Rai . Such acts of violence had been happening
ever s ince the Chapek:u brothers killed Rand in U~97. The nc.w
o rientation lay in the revolutionaries now adopting SQ\: i3li sm and
the strategy of mass mobilisation against imperiali sm a~ their goa l
.. nd in their st rong c ritique or communali sm.

Pages 40~41

"The Parting of Ways"

··However. Mohammad Ali Jinn(lh .... rejected the I Motilal Nehru I
report ... Thereafter, hejoined the Mohammad Shafi group, which
s tood for two--nation theory. The Congress, the Hindu Mahasahlm
and other members or the AII·Party Conrerence regarded all the
demands of Jinnah (as] communa l, divisive and harmful for (he
cou ntry. Some of the demands of Jinnah included one· , h,rd
representation to the Muslim s in the Centra l Assembly.
representation to the Muslims in proportion to their population In
Punjab and Bengal , and creation of three new Muslim-majority
provinces (Si nd, Baluchistan and North-West ~rontier Province )."
The Shafi·led Muslim League stood as much for the Two
Nation Theory as the Hindu Mahasabha (with its slogu'1 "Hindu-
Hlndi · Hindustan") and the RSS ("Hindu Raj "). Much for the
reason of rejection of Jinnah's proposals lay in the intransigence
of the Hindu Mahasabha, which rejected Muslim representation
proportionate to population in Bengal and the Punjab as well as
the creation of the three new Provinces, wh.ich had fuJI linguistic
justification and whose creation was accepted by the Congress at
Karachi In 1931. Tej Bahadur Sapru . the Liberal leader, argued
against the rejection or Jinnah's proposals. The heading "Parting
of Ways" (Ji nnah 's depiction of the break) is especiallY ironic.
s ince the Hindu Mahasabha !OO deserted the Congress at the same
 Index. of Errors

lime and refused to join it eithe r in the ' Civil Disobedience

Movement o r in the boycott of the First Round Table Conference.
Indeed, allhe lattef Conference in 19 30 its leaders happil y rubhed
shoulde rs with those of the Mu slim League . These fi~t: I S are. of
course, convenie ntly overlooked by Hari Om ,

Page 41
"Aga Khan and Ali Brothers gave their full support to Jinnah and
promoted the pOlitics of separatism."
It is characteristic thatlhe "A li Brothers" (docs Hari Om
expec ts. all boys and girls 10 know beforehand that by these words
he means Mohammad Ali and Shaukat Ali?) are brought in on ly
when they are to be censured. A veil is drawn over Ih«ir earlier
contribut ion s to the Freedom Movement that are 110t simply
mentioned, Nor docs the author care to mention the oppositIon 10
the Muslim League from the large group that came to be known as
NationaliS I Mu s lims .

Page 42
"llie Civil Disobedience Movement started by the Congres.~ under
the leadership of Gandhiji to achieve Puma Swaraj was differem
from the Non ~c ooperation Movemenl. It s goal and methods to
ach ieve it were different. Th e goa l this time was compl e te
independence. It was to be achieved by breaking the law."
This is too simplistic. The differences were neifher in goals
or methods but in the wider reach of the movement and in the
more effective use of certain methods and better implcmcnllition
of programmes. Purna Swaraj had been adopted in J 929 as the
goa l of the Congress. It was nOI in actual fact the immediate goa l
of the C ivi l disobedience Movement. Gandhiji had put forward ,
hi s famous II demands before launchlng the move me nt in 1930.
and Puma Swaraj was not one of them.
Besides, breaking o r the law or Civi l disobedience was
used as a weapon or stru ggle in the Non-cooperation Movement
as well. Banned literature was sold in derianceof law, local taxes
as well as land revenue were not paid in some-areas suc h as Andhra.
The sca le or civ il disobedience was much bigger in the 1930-32
movement but it was by no means new.

Page 43
"The Palhan Muslims of North-West Frontier Province (now in
Pakistan) under Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan . a disciple ofGandhiji.
 Contemporary Illdia (Cum .IX) 119

made the (sic) things very difficult for the Briti sh."
There is unnecessary and excessive concern here with
re li g iou s iden tificati on: so not simpl y "Palhan s" but "Patha n
Muslims"; and one sim ilarly reads below in the same page o f
"Hindu so ldiers of the Garhwal Rifles." Moreover, 10 desc ribe
Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan as "a disc iple of Gandhiji " is not very
accurate, He 'had deve loped the Khudai Khidmargar organisation
on hi s own and then establ is hed links with the Congress in 1929
and 1930. Hi s position as a close associate of Ga ndhiji and
I awaharlal Nehru developed thereafter, Had Om overlooks entire ly
th e remarkab le nature of the Khudai Khidmatgar move me nI.

PageA.4
"Communalisation th['ough Constitutional Process"
The paragraph with the above heading has nothing about thi s theme
at all.

Page 44
.• . ,' Lord Irwin, Governor - General of India, made serious errOl'lS
in early 1931 to ensure the Congress part icipa ti on in the Second
Round Table Conference. It was a strategic move to trup Gandhiji
and snatch from his hands the who le po litical initiative. As a resul\
the Gandhi- Irwin Pact was signed."
Much controversy and debate centres on the Gandhi -Irwin
Pact. But to see the Pact as a trap laid by the BritI sh to lUke the
politica l initiative out of Gandhi 's hands (a trap an un.sus pctting
Gand hi supposed ly walked into) is an over-simp le exrlanat io n.
The Pact which for the first time put the Congress on an equal
footing with the Government was seen by the British as a major
concess ion wrenched by Gandhi and the Indian national_move ment.
The Indian people too gene rally saw it as a viccory ove r the British
government , though some of the younger leaders o f the Congress
were disappointed at the temporary pau se in the ma:.s movemenL.

Page 44
"Gandhiji tried hi s best to persuade these [mino rit yl groups n(lt to
make a demand for separ3.tc e lectorate but failed. Hence GHnd hij i
returned to India, and revived the C ivil Di sobedience Movcmenl. ··
The main reason ror Ga ndhij i·s di sappointment was ove r
the British Governm ent's failure to promise any subslamial gran I
of self-government to India at the Second Round Table Conference.
120 Index of Errors

and not just over the issue of scp:lTatc electorates. If Gandhiji

wis hed all Indians (Including Hindu communal leaders) tu speak
wi th one voice. thi s was owing to his desire nOI to' al low the Brili ~ h
Government to exploit their differences in order to rejet.:1 the
principal nationalist demand for se lf· rule .

Page .as
"The period after 1930 also witnessed the growth of trade union ~
and peasant activities •. .. "
The author gives a most cursory treatment 10 trade union
and peasant movements in th is paragraph. Also. he does not even
mention imporlatll deve lopments in Ihis sphere before 1930 ~ ut'h
as the Kisan Sabha Movement in UP during the peri od 1918-22,
the Bardoli peasants ' struggle (J 928). the establishment of (he
Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association by Gandhiji in 191~. the
launchmg of the All India Trade Union Congress in 1920 umler
the Icadership of Tilak, Lajpat Rai etc " and the eme rge nce ot' a
powerfullrade union movement in the lale 1920s culminating in
the siJl month long general strike by lCJl lile workers In Bombay
led by the Cimi Kamgar Union, a develo pment which became a
major cause of concern for the British.
It may also be menlioned here that Hari Om totally ignurc.s
the early hislo ry of the Communist Part y which was so ..olmeJy
bound up wilh the rise of the peasant and work.ng-clu s'l
movements . The Bri tish persecu ti on of the Communists (t he
Peshawar. Kanp ur. and Mecrut Consp iracy cases cuming. In
succession in the 1920s) is a lso passed over in si lence .

Pages 44-45
A very serious omission in Had Om's treatment or the
events of 193 I is a total absence of reference to the Karachi sessio n
o r the Congress where the Gandhi- Irwin Pact was ratified . A ITItljur
product of th at session was the Resolution on Fundamental Rights
(later known as the Karachi Resolution) which hcc am e an
embryonic Constitution and Programnte of the fuLUre Free India.
Its democratic and secular chsract<!r nee ds 10 b¢ und erlined. Su..:.h
3. document, it would seem . has nil place in the NCERT ' ~ new
saffron ised History.

Page 46
"Some of the popul ar leaders and publ ic spirited persons who had
played an important ro le in princely Siaies were Sewa Singh
 Contemporary India (C/au IX) 121

( Punjab ), Sarangadhar Dns (O rissa). Balw a nt Ral Mehta and

Jam nalal Bajaj (Gujarat) and Manikya Lal Yenna and Vijay Singh
P a th ak Isic! P atik] (Rajasthan) a nd Ramananda TH th a
t Hyde rabadl."
O ne mi sses here the nam e of the most promincnt o f the
state people's leaders , Shaikh Abd ull ah. founder and leader oflhe
Ja mmu and Kashmir National Conference. This i~ all the more
object ionable, since Hari am on the same page slngles Out for
praIse, the regime of Han Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashm ir,
which knew o f no de mocratic ri ghts a nd supp ressed oppos ition
w ith draconian measures.

Page 48
"Jinnah called the Mu s lim Leag ue sessIOn in 1937 at Lucknow.
where he dubbed the Congress rule tiS th e H iruJu rul . . llnd
deno un ced the Congress as a fasc ist party. H e aho d·ubhct.l
Ma hatma Gandhi as a Hindu revivalist:'
Once again. Ha ri Om has given a long dcscripllon (It
Jinnah and the Muslim League's attack on the Congress and
Mahatma Gandhi but characteristically railed to mCnli on thul the
RSS and Hindu Maha sabha and th eir leadcrs Golwalkur a nd
Savarkar a lso attack.ed the Congress and Gandhiji in Ihe same
manner except that they accused them of being pro·M uslim nnd
anli·Hl ndo_

Page SO
"This war [World War III was conduc ted on Imperialisl lines and
was meant to consolidate im peri al ism in India and elsewherc"
Does Hari Om mean 10 say th at Britain wenl 10 war with
Germany to consolidate ils ow n control over India ? Hi s is, indeed,
a strange explanation o f the Second World War, w hic h docs not
even mention the struggle against fascism . The author 'S dis like
for socia li sm is matched only by his sympathetic altitude loward:-
rasclsm .

l'age SO
" It (the Mus lim League Sessio n or 1940) was presided over hy
linnah . Addressing his rollowers_ Jinnah said that that Ihe H i ndu ~
and the Muslims were 'two distinct nations' and thUllheir -inlercsb
were not common'."
122 Index of Errors

In keeping with the author's practice of repeatedly holding

the Muslim L eague as so lely re s pon sib l.e for sp reading
com munalism in Indi a llnd not even mentioning the Hindu
Mahasabha or the RSS, here again he fail~ to mention that Savarlar,
the Hindu Mahasabha leader, had propagated the two-nation theory
in 1937 much ~fore Jin nah, and thai in 1943 he sa id, " 1 have no
quarre l with Mr. Jinnah's two nation theory. We Hindu s are a nat ion
by ourse lves and it is a hi storical fact that Hindu s and Muslims
arc two nations."

Pages 50-51
'; Howeve r, what'was most distu rbing was the Pakistan reso luti on
. .. adopted on 23 Marc h 1940. This resolution demanded a
sove rei gn and independent Pakistan for the Muslims. According
to it, all the Mus lims-maj ority areas in the North - WeSler~ and
Nort h-Eastern regions of India would form Pak istan . These areas
were North-West Frontier Province, Sind. Baluchistan. Punjab and
Bengal. "
Har' Om see ms not to have read the Lahore resol uti on. If'
he does so, he would find that it talked onl y of the Mus lim majorit)"
areas forming "independent states" (in the plural). Also, speCific
arcas such as North- West Frontier Province, Si nd, Baluchistan ,
etc .• arc not mentioned in it, nor is the name " Paki stan" found in
it.

Page 51
"The immediate result of the Pakistan Resolution was It ch:.tnge III
the attitude of the Congress to the Dritish as well as Ihe Indian
co ntri butio n to the war."
There was no ch:mge in the Cong ress alti tud e to the war.
immedi ate or otherwise, as a result of thc Lahore Resolution or
March 1940. Rig ht through Apri l 8nJ May of 1940 s:ltyagraha
co mmittees co ntinu ed to be form ed. It was on ly the reve rses
surrered by the Allies. such as the coll apse-or Fr:IhC\.' ill June. 1940.
the possible defeat of Britain and the panic generated about th e
securi ty of [ndia, which led a sectIOn or the Congress lendersill p
to argue in July 1940 that conditional cooperation should bc offered
by the Congrcss to the war effort.

Page 51
··A ugust Offer (1940)
" You have already rcad that lndia had rcfu~ed It) heIr th\7.
 Contemporary India (Class IX) 123
Briti sh in the war"
What about the Hindu Mahasabha and the Mu s lim Leagu e
both of which s upported the British War EtTon and coope rated
with British Government1 Were the communal parties. Hindu and
Mus lim , who fully cooperated. not a part o f Indi;l ? It wo uld be
corTect to s ay. ' the Congress haa refused to help in the war'.

Page 52
"'vinoba Shave was the first ' Satyagrahi' [in the Individual
Sataygraha movement]. who came to a public place and opposed
(he war. He was arrested. Thereafter the government arrested a nd
jailed about 30,000 Satyagrahis ror s imilar reaso ns. These al so
included some important Congress leaders like Saojini Naidu .
Aruna Asar Ali. C. Rajagopalachari and Mian Iftikhar-ud-Din ."
The author's c lear bias against Jawaharlal Nehru is e vide nt
here. Nehru who was the second Satyagrahi after Vinoba Bha'Ve
does not get a mention either among the "i mponant Congress
leade rs" or even among the 30.000 oth er Satyagrahi s arrested and
jailed!

Page 52
"The e ntry of lapan into the war and the successes it achieved
again st England in the early stages of (he war cha nged the 'whole
s ituation . Encouraged, the Indians decided to use this opportuni ty
to do a way with the Briti s h rule and achieve freedom ,"
This is incorrect. Worry was expressed in lndia' after the
fall of Singapore to the Ja panese, in ei!rly 1942 (note. not in ' the
early stages of the war ') that thi s coul d be he r fate as well and that
the Japanese might re place the British as still worse co loni al
masters. Presenting Japanese success as an "encouragement ' to
the I nd ians is to first as sume that Indian nationali s ts were nOl
c ritic.al of the Japanese fascist and imperial ist designs. Second, it
is an indirect way of saying that Subhash Bose 's pos iti on with
regard to cooporation wit h the Japanese was shared by other
sections of the nationalist leadership, which was not at all the case,

Page 53
';The failure of the of the vario us reform schemes. the utmos t
e mphasis of the British Government on communali sm and the bitter
campaign of the MU'slim League agai nst the Cong ress and the
Hindus provoked the Congress to adopt more radical methods to
achieve swaraj. [i.e .• launch the Quit India movement}"
 124 Ind~x of Errors

The factors here mentioned for the Quit-India Resolution

are ridiculous jn lhe extreme. The Muslim League's campaign
against "the Congress and the Hindus" had nothing to do with il.
It was not also "the failure of the various reform schemes", but
the refusal oflhe Briti sh to trans fer power 10 the Indian people - a
far more substanti ve issue as is made amp ly clear by the ALeC's
resolution itself. There was a threallo India from Ihe Axis Powers
(Germany Italy and Japan), and it was thiS which lent urgency to
the demand that a free India should confront the~.

Pale 54
"The Indian Communists and followers of Jinnah were perhaps
the o nly -political elements who did nOI suppo rt such a strong and
widespread movement (the Quit India movement] . The Mu s lim
League eveD went to the extent of offering cooperation to the
government on the conditions lhat the Briti s h authorities wou ld
divide India on communal lines and finally quit. As for Ihe Indi an
Communists . they gave their full support to the League's views
and British war efforts. They blindly supported Russia. ignori ng
the interests of the Indians and their fight against Briti s h
·colonialism ...
The paragraph is largely factually wrong and illu strati ve
of the author's partisanship. I) While accusing the Comm"llnisls
and the Muslim Leagueofnot supporting the Quit-India movement
Hari Om makes no mention of the fact thai the RSS and the Hindu
Mahasabha as well as B.R . Ambedkar and his followers also stayed
away from the movement. 2) In the second sentence the Muslim
League is accused o f offering cooperation to the British
government bui no mention is made of the faci that the Hindu
Mahasabha did the same . In faci the Hindu Mahasabha even
cooperated with the League in forming provincial governments in
that period . Savarkar while Offering cooperation to the Briti sh
government expressed satisfaction at the British s uppression o f
the Congress. which was seen as the main enemy. Ambedkar
accepted a position on the Viceregal Council. 3) The Communists
did not give "their full support to the League's views". The
conditional support of the Communists fc ~ the war effort during
the Quit·India movement was for reasons completely different from
those of the League or the Mahasabha, being explicitly designed
to strengthen the fight against fascism , an objective whh:h was
shared by the Indian nationalists including Gandhi and Nehru.
Their support did not arise out of the inevitable loyali s m' of the
 COlltempora lY India (C/o.Sl· IX) 125

comm un al parties, which saw the secular Congress and the 'Other '
communi ty as their chief enemies . 4) While here accusing the
Communists of ignoring the anti-colonial struggle. Hari Om. as
previously noted, has nowhere referred to Communists' active
participation in the Freedom struggle ri ght from the 1920s. They
acti vely participated in the Satyag raha of 1940, and, u~lik:e lhe
leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha an~ other commun al pari ies, most
of lheir leaders were sti ll in jail in 194 1-42 .

Page 55
.. According to an e minent hi storian S.N. Sen.• II was V.D. Savarkar
who on 22 June 1940 advised Bose to leave India, organise the
Indian froces and invade British India as soon as possible ."
This claim on behalf of Savark ar hus no basis. Bose had
met both .J innah and Savarkar at this time, and was dissati sfied
with the responses of both of them with regard to Indi a's struggle
in the contex t of the war (Subhas Bose. Indian Struggle. 1920-42,
pp.343-4. cited by Leonard A. Gordon. Brothers Against th e Raj.
New York. 1990, p,4 10). The advice would in any case ha ve
appeared hypocritical comi ng from the lips of fa man who was
proclaiming all the time his support of the Briti sh and their War
Effort.

Page 55
"He [Subhas Bose) travelJed secret ly through Peshawar and Russia
in disguise and reached Berlin (Germany) on 28 March 1942".
Since Germany attacked the Sov iet Union in June 19~ I I
Subhas Bose could not possibly have crossed fro m Russia into
Germ any in 1942! He in fact arrived in Berli n by plane from
Moscow early in April 1941.

Page 5S
"The Indian Nation and the At.ad Hind Fou l. suffered a great
setback in Augu st 1945 (when Bose was reponedly killed in a
cras h) ."
"A2.ad Hind Fauj" is the correct spelling - FQlI" is sheer
illiteracy.

Page S5
"Thei r (INA prisoners' ] sentences, however, were..remine'd. The-
British aulhorilies had to do so in view of the mass ive harw/sj
126 Index of ErnUl'

.strikes and protests organised by the agitated Indians, purtlcuJarly

the students, against the trial."
The author's bias again comes through. No mention is here
made of Congres's support to the defence of the INA accused or o'f .
Nehru who in a dramatic gesture once again put on ~arri s ter' s
robes to argue in favour of the accused. The Muslim League also
demanded the freeing of the INA accused .

Page SS·S6
"This upri s ing [RIN mutiny] fesulled in clashes between the naval
ratings and the British troops and the death of no les!'> than 300
people Bombay"
il}
The British troops actually clashed with the peopl e of
Bombay who went on a general strike on 22 February 1946 ill
support of the ratings. Over 250 people were killed.

Page 56
"Lord Wavell and Congress leaders did try to persuade the Mu slim
Leagti'e...to see reason, but failed. Consequently, Wave!! announced
that the ~imla Conference had failed."
Wavell could have bypassed the League and gone ahead
with the Congress rather than declaring the COnference a failure.
The author repeatedly highlights Muslim League intrans igence but
fails to mention the British role in bolstering the position of the
League by giving it a virtual veto in any constitutional or political
settlement.

Page 57
"The announcement of the Mountbatten Plan led to more riots .
The bitterness created by the Muslim League produced dangerous
results. The common people were subjected to senseless brutalities.
Nearly five lakh people died and millions lost their home s and
hearths. Gandhiji and other leaders, who had fought for the Hindu-
Mu slim unity, were the most disillusioned persons, They did try
their best 10 control the situation, but with lillie success,"
Here again the ro le of the Muslim League in creati ng
bit~erness leading to senseless killings of lakhs of people is
highlighted. but no mention is made of the identical role played
by Hindu communal oraganisations like the RSS and Hindu
Mahasabha in promoting killings of an equal number of !"fuslims,
Gandhi and tbe other leaders who fought for Hindu-
 COllumporary India (Class IX) 127

Muslim unity were not "d isi llusioned " with the nOlion of Hindu -
Muslim unit y but, as Gandhiji in parliclilar st res se d , th e
disi llusionment was with bOlh Hindu and Muslim communalist s
who cre ated s uch mutual bitterne ss. Also. despite th e
disillusionment Gandhi was still optimislic that (I hurhal1e and
secu lar society of his dreams could be built.
It is wrong to say that Gandhi and other secular leader~
who fought for Hindu-Muslim unity tried "their best {O control
the situation, but with little success." Despite the hatred ge nerated
by the Hindu and Muslim communal forces :mass "il ling s and the
large mass migrations caused by religious hostility. Gandhiji went
on with his campaign against violence: in NoakhalL ill Calcutla
and then, finally, in Delhi, w here his hunger strike in Janu ary 1948
had dramatic consequences. Both Neh ru and Sardar Palel used
strong government action to maintain law and order. Hari am
characteristically gives no desc ri ption of Gandhij i ' 5 epic effort in
this phase..

Page 57
.. Gandhijj's efforts to bring peace and harmo ny in society came
to a sudden and tragic end due to hi s assassination by Nathuram
Godse on January 30 1948, in Del hi wh ile Gandhiji W.ll S on hi s
way to attend a prayer meeting."
In its first ed ition this textbook did nul even men lion the
fact that Gandhiji was assassinated. The author. in the reprint
edi tion, has added the above bare. sentence. No mention is still
made of who Godse was, and of Ins strong. lin ks with the Hindu
co mmun al forces . with the Hindu Mahasab ha and it s leade.
Savarkar. Sardar Patel, the then home minister, wrote to Nehru on
27 February 1948, .. It was a fanatical wing of the Hindu
Mahasabha directly under Savarkar that (hatched] the conspiracy
and saw it through" .

Page 59
"As far as Jammu and Kas hmir State was concerned, it was
represented by her Prime Minislr, She ikh Abdu ll ah and, Ids
nominees. This was done at the behest of Jawaharla l Nehru .. .
Several melJlbers of thi Constituent Assembly opposed him
{Nehru?]. "
This singling out of Jammu and Kashmir out of all the
princely states is again in line with the communal bias of the book.
When the state had held no-elections, who wa'S to represent it'?
128 Indv: of Errors

Only nomi nees of Maharaja Hari Singh, and nol popular leader:.
like Shaikh Abdullah? There was thus no occasion for "several
members of the Consti tuent Assembly" 10 oppose nominations
from the State Government. headed by Shaikh Abdullah

Page 59
"Their [Constitution - makers '] foremost job was to ensure the
integrity of country taking imo aceD/UII the prese " c~ of Paki.HlIn
within India herself." .
The italicised portion of the sente nce (prudent ly deleted
in the. reprint edition) opens yet another window to tile mind of
those entrusted by NCERT to write Hi story books for our schools.
Th e ob noxious statement on ly makes expl icit what IS imp licit
throug ho ut Hari Om 's text : Muslims do not love Ihis cou ntry. and
thu s have been and are di sloyal.

Pnge 59
"The sources of the Conuitution are based on the At:l of 1935 "
Is the Consti tutiOn or aTC its sources based on the Act u t
1935, elc.?

Pages 59-60
..... leaders and thin k-tanks like Sardar VaJlabhbhai Palel and v.P.
Menon."
One has not heard of ~i n g l e perSons as ·'think-tanks." BUI
one li ves and leams.

Page 60
'·Pro-I ndia movements were already going on in the stBtes like
Hyderabad. Junagarh, Nilgiri and Taleher."
Stra nge ly. t he most powerful of the Slat e peop le·oS
moveme nts, that of Shaikh Abdullah's NatIonal Conference in
Jammu and Kashmir (with its Quit-Kashmir agitation AgI.llnst Dogra
rule ( 1946-47), is excluded from this li st of "Pro- Indi a"
movements, though it was strongly supported by the Congress
leaders hip. and opposed by the Muslim League. A blatant
communal bias is again shown here by the author.

l~age60
"The Pakistan agg ression an Jammu and Kashmir resu lted In her
accession to India o n 26 October 1947."
 Conlt'mporary India (Class IX) 129

Had Om does not let his readers know why hi s favourite

ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Had Singh, d id nor sign the
Instrument of Accession on 15 August 1947. And he keep.s en tirely
silent over the role of the National Conference in facilitating the
accession and defending Kashmir from the Pakistani raiders.

Page 60
" Hyderabad -and Junagarh were the only states which poseu some
problems. These were the (sic) Hindu majority states with Muslim
rulers."
The statement invokes a principle which is no different
from that raised on behalf of Pakistan in the case of Jammu and
Kashnlir: a majority Muslim state with a Hindu ruler. How closely
do [he two communal points of view coincide with each other!

Page 60
"The integration of these states [Hyderabad and JunagarhJ with
the country could be acnieved with Sardar Patel's skillful strategy."
The author seems unnecessarily embarrassed about
mentioning the 'Po lice Action' against Hyderabad here, which. '
of course. necessitated the use not only of Patel's '·strategy ". but
also Jawaharlal Nehru's decision to use force .

Page 61
"Integration of Goa
" . . , The most notable achievements were the capture· of Dadro on
22 July [1954) and Nagar Haveli shortly thereafter by the
volunteers of 'Free Goa' movement backed by the lana Sangh
and the Goa People's Party ."
The two small Portuguese enclaves being surrounded on
all sides by Indian territory. their occupation hardly constituted
"most notable" achievements. and 8re mentioned probably simply
to let Hari Om single out the Jan Sangh for receiving credit for it.
On the other hand. there is not a word about the movement led by
D.r Tristao Braganza Cunha (1891-58), who in 1928 founded the
Goa Congress and suffered constant persecution and imprisonment.
Another instance of anti-Christian bias?

Page 62
"Foreign Relations"
Under this section of the chapter " Democratic Republic" , the
130 Index of Errors
author manages 10 omit any mention of the fonnation of (he famous
policy of Non-Alignment and the Five Principles (P(mc/rsh ul)
formulated by Jawaharlal Nehru or of the liberation of Bangladesh
achieved in t 971 under Indira Gandhi. The partisan motive behind
such omi ssions is obvious.

I'age 163
" This event (II September 200 1 incident in New York] has
changed the whole world and has virtually prompted the United
States [0 join hands with [ndia in her fight against terrori sm."
In the first edition the cred it for changi ng the whole world
was given 10 "OSama Bin Laden and similar other persons"! The
change in the world itself apparently conSIsts of US and India
coming IOgether in the war agai nst terrorism. It is another mailer
th at the US hardl y saw India as a key ally in its invasion of
Afghanistan, and the Indian Parliament alleaSI fortnally cril i(.;i sed
Ihe US invasion of Iraq. the second major US ent erprIse in the
name of fighting "Islamic terror."
IContd. from back coyer I

FAVOURITE OF MANY EMPEROKS WIVES?

"Thc new quecn INur Jahan I bccamc Ihe 1'," Olll'ile QLthc Empcors'
\\'ivcs" (ibid" p. 1(2). . " "

INDIAN PEOPLE OR "FREE LOOTERS"

"Soon Indi;1 became a land of frec looters" .
(Hari Om. Textbook for ..Clas~ lX. lsI. cd" p. 1~ 1
, ''I h', , ,.'
LOGIC
"These led to the passing of the Religiolls Disabililies Act (1851).
Ihc Widow Relllarringe Act (1856) and largc scale unemplo),mcnl
of Indians" (ibid ., p.15).

CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE!

" Lord (?urzon cllcn went to tJ~ cxtcnl of ~ "yillg Ihal Ihe people of
India were ' the peasants whose lire ,,,I S nol olle of polilical
aspiration' . This IllId a tremendous impact on Ihe Indian freedom
slrugglc" (ibid. , p.22).

, .... .., .1

J'
 STARTLING "TRUTHS"
FROM THE NEW NCERT HISTORY
TEXTBOOKS

"CIVILIZATION" IN THE STONE AGE

..... Indian Civilization which has an unbroken history of
about 8000 years, i.e. from neolithic times" (Makkhan Lal,
Textbook for Class VI, p.S8)

WHEEL IN THE HANDLOOM

"The discovery of the wheel made a significant difference.
It was also used to spin cotton and wool and weave cloth" (ibid.,
pp.S4-SS)

SHAKING HANDS WITH RAVANA

"From the days of Ramayana India had close links with
Sri Lanka" (ibid., p.130)

THE INDIANIHINDU RACE

"Thus the descendants of Bharala came to be known as
Indians or Hindus" (Makkhan Lal, Textbook for Class XI, p.32).

THE GOOD SECTARIANS

"Sectarianism is thus an aid to nationalism in Hindu culture" (ibid.,
p.34).

WE ONCE KNEW EVERYTHING (AND THEN FORGOT

EVERYTHING?)
"The Zero was known in Rigvedic times itself (sic!) ... Also the
positional value of each number with its absolute value was known
... they also knew that the earth moved on its axis and around the
sun" (ibid., p.l 00).

REGRETTABLE LOSS OF MEMORY

"The new Islamic identity became so pervasive that all traces of
pre-Islamic forms were erased from public memory... the Egyptian
converts, who even forgot their Pharaohs" (Meenakshi Jain,
Textbook for Class XI, p.121).
[Conld. on inside cover]