PS:2 Actors Feel Indian Textbooks Are Unfair To Southern, Other Dynasties

MUMBAI, (IANS) – Actress Aishwarya Lekshmi and actor Vikram and Karthi, whose period film ‘Ponniyin Selvan: 2‘ released in theatres on April 28, feel that a certain level of unfairness has been meted out to the ‘indigenous’ empires or dynasties of India by our education system, largely.

Recently, the removal of references to the Mughal dynasty from the coursebooks in Uttar Pradesh sparked controversy and caused debate about what should be part of academics in history.

The indigenous empires of India have very less mention in the school-level history books compared to the dynasties that arrived in India as a part of the conquest.

Aishwarya Lekshmi said: “From what I know, yes there has been some level of unfairness towards the indigenous empires of India. It would take a lot of research to get a little bit of information about them in that direction. Kalki’s novel ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ (on which the Mani Ratnam magnum opus is based) is actually a window to the 10th century of southern India, how progressive we were at that time and how much chasing Westernization led us to go back in time.”

Vikram seconded Aishwarya’s as he feels that Indian society was quite progressive back then for its time. He said: “At that time, America wasn’t even discovered, and we had thriving societies under different empires.”

Karthi, who plays Vallavaraiyan, in the film, said, “Only when the British came, they started doing a lot of research and started documenting the history. I’m sure a history student would know a lot more about each dynasty as per their specialization. But, for school-level history a proper panel of intellectuals should sit and decide what should be included in the course material to give a holistic view.”