Cultural Misrepresentation In School Textbook Makes Twitter Question Our Education System

Remember when PM Modi said, ‘Those creating violence, can be identified with their clothes itself’ and when BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya took it a step ahead and said he could identify Bangladeshis by their preference for poha? If you think all of this is alarming then wait till you see an Indian school book leaf recently shared by a Twitter user that reeks of cultural misinterpretation and seems like the easiest way of feeding problematic stereotypes to school-going children:

Twitter

Suhana Rao took to Twitter recently, flabbergasted by the highly misinformed image on a Kannada couple from a school textbook that basically aims to educate students on languages. And while there could have been a plethora of ways to describe the languages of India and their diverse beauty, the editors decided to go with illustrations of people and things went problematic right there.  

Twitterati were equally enraged by the misinformation and the repercussions it will have on the young, impressionable mind of the school children. Here’s what they had to say:

The Stereotypes

People quickly called out the textbook editors as well the Indian education system for the highly misappropriated illustrations of Indians from the different parts of the country.

For instance, while the Kannada speaking couple in the textbook has been dressed in what looks like outfits suggestive of Christianity, Kashmiri speaking woman has been dressed in a hijab and the man has been given a skull cap and beard. 

Do You Really Have To Look A Certain Way To Speak Your National Language?

All things aside, the question we have is do we really have to look a certain way to speak Hindi? The textbook illustration depicts Hindi speaking people in India dressed like the archetypical Brahmin and we are really flabbergasted with the layers of problematic ideologies embedded blatantly in school textbooks in India! 

On one hand, we have aggressive political narratives insisting that speaking Hindi has to be a prerequisite to being an Indian (let’s not even get started on that!) and on the other side, we are teaching impressionable school children that the Hindi speaking population in India dresses up a certain way. 

Some Truth Bombs

We are in the dire need of sensitive and more responsible filtering of the content that goes into Indian textbooks and we also need to keep political narratives away from the educational system.  

Needless To Say….

It is high time we stop meddling with the education we are imparting to our children as per our whims.

Featured Image: Twitter 

Start your 2020 right with our cool new planners and statement-making sweatshirts that are fun, fab and 100% you! Psst… there’s an additional 20% off too, so head to POPxo.com/shop and take it up a POP!