West Bengal: Textbook Review Committee Formed After Controversy Over Freedom Fighters Labelled  As Extremists  

Caught up in a controversy after describing a section of the freedom fighters as “extremists” in the textbooks of the state-run schools, the West Bengal government on Tuesday announced that it would form a committee to review the contents of the books, reports Indian Express.

The textbook review committee will be headed by educationist Jiban Mukhopadhyay and comprises headmasters and senior school teachers, Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said in the Assembly. The panel is asked to submit its report within three months.

Addressing the state assembly during the Question Hour, CPI(M) MLA Pradip Kumar Saha said that several freedom fighters such as Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki are described extremists in a chapter in the class 8 history textbook.

Producing a copy of the textbook in the house, Saha told Speaker Biman Banerjee that the freedom fighters who had sacrificed their lives for the country were labelled as “extremists”.

In 1908, Bose and Chaki had hurled a bomb at a horse-drawn carriage, aiming at assassinating a British judge. But they ended up killing two European women, as their target was on a different carriage. Chaki committed suicide before being arrested while Bose was hanged when he was just 18 years old.