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What was the motivation for the curriculum to hide - or even glorify - Nazi Germany? And do those motivations keen the current students similarly uninformed?

carlosjobim 1y ago
You have to understand that nations who weren't directly involved will only be interested in broad strokes of history. Up until recently you had people in Europe and elsewhere calling themselves Maoist. Genghis Khan is not demonized in European or American schools either.
v5v3 1y ago
I imagine most of history in India will focus on Britain being more evil than Germany. More killed by British in India than Hitler killed. plus all the plundering of resources. https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/independence-day-165-million-unaccounted-indian-victims-of-the-british-colonial-regime/articleshow/102696431.cms https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/independence-day-165-...
princevegeta89 1y ago
"do those motivations keen the current students similarly uninformed?" I am afraid that is still the case. All of the kids I know within my cousins' families (8-14 years of age), have no idea about any of the Holocaust stuff. The reason I think is the curriculum takes the holocaust not so seriously and also, the authorities believing that kids are not meant to be exposed to much details about all of the stuff. I remember it was just mentioned as "war" to us. It is still sadly the case. Also, note that we weren't taught a bit of shit about Pol Pot, Imperial Japan etc. Nobody had any idea about the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731 etc. All we were just taught was just "wars" - who fought and who won.
mitthrowaway2 1y ago
I'm definitely not an expert on this but I think India has (well-grounded) resentment towards Churchill, and so the enemy-of-my-enemy effect may have resulted in a softening of Hitler's image and a tendency to downplay his crimes and negative attributes. Nuance is hard, and so to some people, accepting Hitler as a villain means whoever defeated him must be a hero, so if we don't want to accept Churchill as a hero then we must reject Hitler being a villain. (It goes without saying that this logic is faulty, but at the same time it's part of human nature and we all have to grapple with it to some extent).
deleted 1y ago
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carlosjobim 1y ago

You have to understand that nations who weren't directly involved will only be interested in broad strokes of history. Up until recently you had people in Europe and elsewhere calling themselves Maoist. Genghis Khan is not demonized in European or American schools either.

v5v3 1y ago

I imagine most of history in India will focus on Britain being more evil than Germany. More killed by British in India than Hitler killed. plus all the plundering of resources. https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/independence-day-165-million-unaccounted-indian-victims-of-the-british-colonial-regime/articleshow/102696431.cms https://m.economictimes.com/news/india/independence-day-165-...

princevegeta89 1y ago

"do those motivations keen the current students similarly uninformed?" I am afraid that is still the case. All of the kids I know within my cousins' families (8-14 years of age), have no idea about any of the Holocaust stuff. The reason I think is the curriculum takes the holocaust not so seriously and also, the authorities believing that kids are not meant to be exposed to much details about all of the stuff. I remember it was just mentioned as "war" to us. It is still sadly the case. Also, note that we weren't taught a bit of shit about Pol Pot, Imperial Japan etc. Nobody had any idea about the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731 etc. All we were just taught was just "wars" - who fought and who won.

mitthrowaway2 1y ago

I'm definitely not an expert on this but I think India has (well-grounded) resentment towards Churchill, and so the enemy-of-my-enemy effect may have resulted in a softening of Hitler's image and a tendency to downplay his crimes and negative attributes. Nuance is hard, and so to some people, accepting Hitler as a villain means whoever defeated him must be a hero, so if we don't want to accept Churchill as a hero then we must reject Hitler being a villain. (It goes without saying that this logic is faulty, but at the same time it's part of human nature and we all have to grapple with it to some extent).

deleted 1y ago

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