PANAJI
Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday slammed India’s new fetish for pizza and burgers and also took issue with grand, lofty references in history books to marauding colonists like the First British Governor of India Robert Clive in comparison to Indian legends like Shivaji Maharaj and Rana Pratap.
Naidu, who inaugurated the new campus of the Sant Sohirobanath Ambiye College at Virnoda-Pernem, also said that there was a need to incorporate Indian and local heroes in the school history books.
“I’m not prescribing a particular food, there are thousands of varieties in India. I’m only suggesting going for cooked food -- not stale or frozen food. We must go for organic indigenous food, this burger pizza may be suitable to those countries but not to our country,” the Vice President of India said.
“Our forefathers have experienced and they have lived and they have given us a lot of good food. We should see to it that our younger generation is aware of this,” he also said.
Naidu also wondered why Robert Clive was referred to as ‘Robert Clive the Great’ in Indian history books, even as Shivaji and Rana Pratap were deprived of such grand epithets.
“Unfortunately, because of colonial rule, our education system was such that we are not taught about the true history of our civilization. History says Robert Clive the Great not Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja or Rana Pratap. I have just given one example. There are many like that,” he also said.
Clive, according to historians, plundered India for personal gain and was also responsible for the great famine of Bengal in the mid-1700s.
Naidu also said that education sector stalwarts and those who head educational institutions should alter the current syllabus to provide a regional and a strong national connect to students who read history books.
“The VCs (vice-chancellors) of universities and other great institutions must focus on this. The syllabus has to be changed to include the national and the national heroes of the local region. Their life, their teachings and their preachings must be brought into the education system,” Naidu said.
He also said that children in Goa should be taught the history of the Goa Liberation movement so that they remember the sacrifices made by their ancestors to free Goa from 451 years of Portuguese rule.
“Our children, children of Goa, must be taught about the Goa Liberation Movement. The sacrifice made by great people of this great land. The sufferings they have undergone during that suppression. This has to be told to our younger generation. They should be told how Goa was liberated by the sons of this great land who have sacrificed. Who were at the forefront of the movement. That is very much required,” Naidu said.
The education system in India needs to be Indianised, he also said.
“I always feel that we must Indianise education. The process is on. We cannot continue with that colonial history, colonial mindset. Whatever good is there anywhere in the world we recognize it, we welcome it. But at the same time, we must know first of all the greatness of our civilization. The values of our civilization,” Naidu said.
