Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday made a case for Indianisation of food habits and the educational curriculum, asking why colonist Britain's marauder Robert Clive was referred to as 'Robert Clive the great' when Indian heroes like King Shivaji and Rana Pratap weren't given the same privilege.
Naidu, who was speaking at a function at the Sant Sohirobanath Ambiye College in North Goa, also said that local events and regional stalwarts of the Goa Liberation movement should find place in the history books in the coastal state, along with national heroes.
"Unfortunately because of colonial rule our education system was such that we are not taught about the true history of our civilization. History says Robert Clive the Great not Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja or Rana Pratap. I have just given one example. There are many like that," Naidu said at the function.
"The VCs (vice chancellors) of universities and other great institutions must focus on this. The syllabus has to be changed to include the national and the national heroes of the local region. Their life, their teachings and their preachings must be brought into the education system," he also said.
Naidu also said that students of Goa should be taught in detail about the Goa Liberation movement, which ended with the state being liberated from 451 years of colonial rule in 1961.
"Our children, children of Goa, they must be taught about the Goa Liberation Movement. The sacrifice made by great people of this great land. The sufferings they have undergone during that suppression. This has to be told to our younger generation. They should be told how Goa was liberated by sons of this great land who have sacrificed. Who were in the forefront of the movement. That is very much required," Naidu said, adding that there was a need to "Indianise education".
He also extended the need for Indianisation in food choices in the country, urging people to abhor pizzas and burgers.
"I’m not prescribing a particular food, there are a lot of varieties, thousands of varieties in India. I’m only suggesting going for cooked food -- not stale or frozen food. We must go for organic, indegenous food, this burger pizza may be suitable to those countries but not to our country," the Vice President of India said.
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