CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Tuesday lamented that the syllabus of state universities glorified the British but had nothing on the contribution of great freedom fighters like Kattabomman or Marudhu brothers who sacrificed their lives for the country.
He claimed that conscious attempts were being made to "erase the history of freedom fighters from public memory," and called for efforts to write our history or national freedom movement more diligently "bringing up all those who are now forgotten."
Ravi was speaking after releasing a book titled: “The Battles of Panchalankurichi” in Tamil, Hindi, and English, authored by P Senthilkumar at the Raj Bhavan.
"As Governor and Chancellor of state universities, I had sought for the syllabus on history, political science, and literature for BA and MA. I found that the 19th Century history of Tamil Nadu is full of praise for the British. There's no mention of Kattabomman, Marudhu brothers, or any of our freedom fighters," Ravi said.
The students were being taught that the British were great. "This is something shameful... a nation that forgets its heroes and martyrs has no future. We will be ungrateful to them," he said.
He also claimed that the impression was given that India got freedom through the hunger strike. The battle of Panchalankurichi was the first war of Indian independence in 1801, he said.
He was "pained" at some intellectuals writing books equating Shakespeare with Thiruvalluvar. They were talking about Dravidian history but forgot to think about our freedom fighters, he said.