Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal is unhappy over National Council for Education Research and Training’s (NCERT) step-motherly treatment to significant Maratha warriors and events.

In a press conference held on Thursday, historian and member of BISM Panduranga Balkawde said, “Some landmark events of Maratha history have been neglected in NCERT textbooks.” dna had reported about the issue in the article titled ‘NCERT cuts short Shivaji’s journey in Std VI textbook’ in its edition dated May 3, 2013.

“We have formed a team of historians and evaluated nearly 1,600 pages of NCERT history textbooks from class VI to XII. Various discrepancies about Maratha history were found in them,” said Balkawde.

He added that in one of the history textbooks of standard VI, the history of Maratha has been mentioned in only one-and-a-half pages and it also does not have the picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

“The Maratha history is not restricted to Maharashtra alone but the entire country as they fought with the Mughals. The standard XII history textbook which has been dedicated to Sants and Sufis does not have a single mention of saints from Maharashtra like Sant Tukaram, Sant Dnyaneshwar, Sant Namdeo and Sant Eknath. Their contribution to Indian history is immense. Their ideologies have huge followers across the nation,” he added. Secretary of BISM M Bhave said, “Even Savitribai Phule, who initiated a movement for educating women in the country does not find any mention in NCERT history books.”

Noted historians to chip in for the causeBISM has organised a seminar on Sunday on the same issue to urge NCERT to rethink on BISM’s claim. The seminar will be attended by noted historians like Ninad Bedekar, Raja Dixit, Sadanand More and Sumitra Kulkarni among others. They will speak on the issues raised by BISM. A report of this seminar will be submitted to NCERT. The seminar will be held at BISM office between 4 pm and 8 pm.