Governor of Tamil Nadu, RN Ravi, claimed that state university curricula completely omit the history of the freedom fight. Ravi claimed that upon viewing the course syllabus for Political Science and History at the public universities, he was left "in disbelief".

Governor Ravi Criticizes Absence of History of the Freedom Fight in Curriculum

Governor Ravi said that history of the Dravidian movement is extensively taught in the curriculum.

“When I got the curriculum of BA and MA courses in History and Political Science, I went through it. My first reaction was disbelief; that it could not be true. But unfortunately, this is the syllabus. In the entire history and political science syllabus, the history of the national freedom movement is missing altogether in many of the universities. The curriculum is filled with Dravidian movement, semester after semester,” the Governor said, while addressing a two-day conference of Vice Chancellors.

The Dravidian movement “impacted the life of the people. It has to be part of the history, but that doesn’t mean it was the only history,” he added.

“The impact of British rule on the social, economic, and political fabric of this place. Is it worthy of study or not? But it doesn’t find a place in the curriculum. In the 19th century, several hundred thousand people from this place were forcibly taken as labourers to Malaysia, Singapore, and Fiji. They were sold like slaves to the landlords there. Should it be a part of history or not? But it’s not. There were a number of social movements. Nothing. No place in the curriculum,” Ravi stated.

In addition, he said that Tamil Nadu's "great past" was left from the syllabus and questioned, "Isn't it disrespectful to those who struggled and lost their lives for this land to erase all of this? It is demeaning to their recollections.

He described it as a "distortion of this place and its people's history," calling it "very painful," and he requested the Vice Chancellors to look it over.

“In another six months, I will have another meeting with the VCs to see where you are. I’m not going to accept that this place was not a part of Bharat and didn’t take part in the national freedom movement. Whereas, the fact is a fringe movement gets the entire space. This is being grossly unfair to the people of this place and the country as a whole,” he charged.

The MK Stalin-led administration and the governor of Tamil Nadu have recently clashed numerous times over a variety of issues. The BJP has been accused by the ruling DMK of attempting to use the governor to exert control over the state.

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