Jun

23

Who exactly doesn’t teach animosity?

June 23, 2009 posted by indiatime |

Six teachers and a teacher’s aide have now been suspended in the state of Kerala, after a textbook was found to include the wrong version of a revered patriotic poem.

The famous poem ‘Sare Jahaan se achcha‘ (aka Tarana-e-Hindi), written by once proudly patriotic Indian poet Allama Iqbal, was originally meant to say this -

Religion doesn’t teach animosity (or ill-will)
We are Indians (Hindi), India (Hindustan) is our homeland…

‘Sare Jahaan se achcha’, the patriotic poem first published in 1904, is one of the most widely known and liked pieces of patriotic poetry in India. Kerala’s board of education was aghast, however, when the Malayalam (local language) version of the famous poem changed the most famous lines in the poem at the most important word. The six teachers and their aide, mistakenly (big mistake, they know now) replaced the word ‘religion’ by the name of prophet Muhammad.

The mistake was exposed by a teacher from the Kozhikode district, and is soon slated to be withdrawn from the textbook. The teachers have now been suspended and an investigation has begun into how the word ‘religion’ was replaced.

Interestingly, only a few years after he wrote the Tarana-e-Hindi (Song of India) however, poet Iqbal changed into a much less secular version of his former self, writing a patriotic song for an Islamic homeland, a song called ‘Tarana-e-Milli’.

Back in 1984, when asked by his prime minister how India appeared from space, Rakesh Sharma, India’s first man in space replied, ‘Sare Jahan se Achcha‘ meaning ‘The best in the world‘. Whenever India decides on the first man/woman to walk on the moon, none of the seven teachers from Kerala will be making the list. Who knows what they will say when Rahul Gandhi asks them that same question in 2015.


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8 Comments so far

  1. Vinoy on June 23, 2009 9:21 pm

    ‘Majhab nahin sikhata, apas men bair rakhna,hindi hain hum vatan hai Hindostan hamara’ wrote the poet.But the truth is that followers of one religion actually hate people of another religion and religion has really been a stalking horse for enumerable acts of bestiality and cruelty which compels a decent, civilized person to hang his head in shame.The truth is that a religious person is less of a liberal and human than a person who professes no faith.I have come to believe that religion itself is the basis of world’s many evils.And isn’t it a fact that history of religion itself is splattered with the blood of millions of victims of this narrowmindedness called religion?I would say-’ majhab hi hai sikhata apas me bair rakhna’!

    As far as this ‘Tarana-e-Hind’ by Iqbal is concerned, only a few of the ‘convenient’stanzas from the poem are sung by us.The poem spreads over several stanzas and a close study of the poem leads one to the conclude that the HUM(WE) in the poem stands for “WE MUSLIMS” and not WE INDIANS.Didn’t the poet say-’Cheeno-Arab Hamara, Hindostan Hamara’?

  2. KD on June 24, 2009 12:01 am

    Vinoy, reading ur earliar comments I thought u to be a stable man, but today u r totally off the mark.
    this news should be a great alarm for all “INDIANS” and u r trying to extract the essence as if religion is bad. Dont try to always to walk the tightrope of secularism, dont give prespective to everything. I will not tell my religion but being an indian i feel these teachers who made a “delibrate” mistake should be punished.

  3. megha on June 24, 2009 5:14 am

    Do all the suspended teachers belong to any particular religion? Also, it is hard to say if this is just a prank or an innocent mistake or a purposeful act. I also find it rather strange that nobody caught the mistake or proofread it before going to press.

  4. Vinoy on June 24, 2009 8:26 am

    Sorry, KD.I beg to differ from you.I would quote only two verses from two famous religious books in support of my contention:

    Says the Bible:
    “He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved,but that believeth not shall be damned”(Mk XVI:16).Mahatma Gandhi was once told by a Christian priest friend of his that although he was a good man, he wouldn’t be going to geaven,for he was after all not a christian.To avoid that, he advised him to convert.Gandhi,a staunch Hindu, obviously refused.

    Says the Holy Quran:

    “O ye who who believe!Choose not disbelievers for(your friends in place of believers…’(IV:144);And slay them wherever you find them(H:191).Maulana Mohammad Ali, one time President of Indian National Congress, a very close friend of the Mahatma and an authority on Islam said that although Gandhi happened to be a great man, even the meanest of a follower of Islam was better than him because he(Gandhi) happened to be a non-muslim.When asked about his reaction Gandhi merely said that Ali was only reiterating what his religion preached!

    Do I need to say anything more?Of course I am an agonist and do not follow any of the religions. But that makes me more qualified to make an objective assessment than a believer and religious man.I can assure you, I continue to be as STABLE as before.

  5. Light on June 24, 2009 1:41 pm

    Totally agree with Vinoy ,
    “it is better to be an atheist than a hypocrite all your life”
    Swami Vivekanand.
    These teachers can land on moon from other countries :-)

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