Mumbai/Kozhikode: Maharashtra textbook says dowry needed for ‘ugly girls’ and Kerala book has entirely different interpretation of Chekhov.
‘Ugly brides’ need dowry to marry
A controversy has erupted over a reason a sociology textbook for Class XII in Maharashtra has given to explain the dowry system in India. It claims the problem is because of the “ugliness” and “physical handicap of a girl”.
And education minister Vinod Tawde seemed to have made matters worse on Thursday when he said it was a “possible attempt to highlight reality”.
The remark appears in a chapter in the sociology textbook titled, Major Social Problems in India, of the state secondary and higher secondary education board. Along with other factors such as religion, caste system, social prestige and compensation principle, the chapter cites “ugliness” as a reason for the grooms’ families to demand more dowry.
An excerpt from the textbook chapter reads as follows: “If a girl is ugly and handicapped, then it becomes very difficult for her to get married. To marry such girls, the bridegroom and his family demand more dowry”.
Education minister Mr Tawde on Thursday said: “This is a three-year old syllabus. The board may have incorporated the chapter to show the reality in the society. But if the media has taken objection over it, appropriate action will be taken.”
Chekov story turns into moral lesson
The Kerala State Council for Educational Research and Training has given a far-fetched interpretations to Anton Chekhov’s well-known Gooseberries.
The questions associated with each paragraph in the textbook — for plus-one students — and the teachers’ handbook drive home the point that the book inspires to have a fixed goal in life and sacrifice everything to achieve it.
But the original story, like Chekhov’s other works, does not arrive at any conclusion but throws up questions to the readers. The story tries to explore ‘happiness’ through the perception of Ivan Ivanich and his younger brother Nicholai. Nicholai lives like a beggar to save money to achieve his aim— own a farmhouse in the countryside. To realise it, he marries an elderly widow who he keeps half-starved and finally buys a 300-acre farmhouse.
After many years, Ivan visits Nicholai and finds a pig-like man. While Nicholai finds the first gooseberries plucked from his farm very sweet, Ivan feels they are hard and sour.
“Gooseberries is a multi-layered, philosophically-toned work. The author does not project Nicholai’s way of finding happiness. But SCERT has done that,” said a Higher Secondary English teacher.
A number of HSS English teachers agreed they were confused about the original story and the text. The SCERT handbook portrays Ivan as a cynical man who sees his brother as arrogant and misguided. It says that Ivan is unable to judge Nicholai’s happiness because he is narrow-minded.
Dr Raveendran Nair, head of SCERT English curriculum committee, said the text was edited to the level of the students, but not distorted.
“We will review it if there is a complaint,” he said. Dr M.V Narayanan, of Calicut University, told DC that though literature works were not sacrosanct, a total contradiction with the original was not good. The story was included in the syllabus three years ago.
