The rhetoric over “which history” should be taught to school students has always been a contentious issue. The debates generated in the process are understandable and imperative, as what young students learn about their past has a direct bearing on how they view their own identity, cultural heritage and nationality. Governments across the world have therefore sought to influence their school history curricula, with the prime objective of shaping or reshaping notions of the countries’ national identity. In the context of the Indian classrooms, what is baffling is the inability to tread a fine balance between what students should know about the past to how they should know.
