January 10, 2002

    The Minister for Human Resource Development Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi has said that school books should be Indo-centric and value-based. This is absolutely essential to make our children grow up to be peace-loving and non-violent members of the society. They should also develop equal respect for all religions and have knowledge about various religions and the good things said in them. Dr. Joshi was addressing students and teachers from different schools who had come to express solidarity with the government decision to revise the NCERT textbooks, in the light of objectionable references found in them, as well as to introduce new materials taking into consideration the advent of computer, information technology, advances in biotechnology and awareness about environment.

    Dr. Joshi pointed out that even UNESCO has fully supported value-based education to produce peace-loving citizens with equal respect for all, irrespective of caste, creed, and region. He said, while a number of foreign countries want to know about Indian traditions, culture and history, why our own children should not be made knowledgeable about the same. Norway recently expressed its desire to set up an Indology Centre to know about our ancient history and culture which have been proved to be much older than the Harappan, he said.