But...12th Graders Can't Handle The Truth!

NCERT wants to tell it like it is. (Link to Hindustan Times)

"The 2002 Gujarat riots, the Ayodhya dispute and the 1984 Sikh carnage will be a part of the class XII curriculum for political science..."

All good, I think. But just how real will they get? Listen to this:

"The chapter on Gujarat riots will deal with an overview of the incident and the large-scale killing of "people of a particular community.."

There, the Euphemism Fairy returns to bite them on their asses. I hope they also include Orwell's "Politics and The English Language" as part of the curriculum.

Some credit is due to India's premier educational policy body, however.

"The book will have a chapter "Crisis of the Constitutional Order," which will highlight Emergency, its context, constitutional and extra-constitutional dimensions, and resistance to the Emergency."

And look who's also made it to CBSE textbooks. Interesting. Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy is recommended as "must watch films for Elective English students"

Pardon, monsieur? Why not include some of his Feluda stories or his SF stories? Better still, if those Elective English students must be exposed to good films that in turn will expose them to good English literature, how about Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" (or even "2001") or Laurence Olivier's "Hamlet"?