False information on removing Rabindranath's poems from West Bengal syllabus in Jugantor, Ittefaq
Two Bangladeshi news outlets, Daily Jugantor and Daily Ittefaq, reported online that poems by Rabindranath Tagore are being dropped from the school curriculum in India’s West Bengal. Poems by Abanindranath Tagore are being included instead. However, a Dismislab fact-check found that the claim that Rabindranath Tagore’s poems are being dropped is misleading, and the information that Abanindranath’s poems are being added in their place is also false. In reality, one poem by Rabindranath is being replaced with another of his poems.
On Oct. 4, the headline of Daily Jugantor‘s online report read, “Major change in West Bengal school curriculum, Rabindranath’s poems being dropped.” The headline of Daily Ittefaq‘s online report also read, “Major change in West Bengal textbooks: Rabindranath’s poems being dropped.” The headline of Daily Kalbela‘s online report also read, “Rabindranath Tagore’s poems being dropped from West Bengal syllabus.”
Daily Jugantor’s report said that Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Africa” is being dropped from school textbooks in India’s West Bengal. In its place, Abanindranath Tagore’s poem “Shivaji Utsav” is being included in the syllabus. Daily Ittefaq’s report also mentioned the same information.
On the other hand, although Kalbela’s headline mentioned that Rabindranath’s poems are being dropped, the report said, “After the change of government, an initiative has been taken to make major changes in the school curriculum of India’s West Bengal state. In the new syllabus, the poem ‘Africa’ by the poet Rabindranath Tagore is set to be dropped. In its place, the poem ‘Shivaji Utsav’ by Rabindranath himself is being added to the syllabus.”
Kalbela’s report itself says that one poem by Rabindranath Tagore is being dropped and another poem by him is being added. Yet the headline says his poems are being dropped.
In verifying the claim, Dismislab came across a news report by the Indian outlet ABP Ananda. The headline of the report read, “WBSSE: Rabindranath Tagore’s poem ‘Africa’ dropped from syllabus, ‘Shivaji-Utsav’ being included.” The chairman of the syllabus committee told ABP Ananda, “Keeping the Sanatani tradition in mind, the poem ‘Shivaji Utsav’ is being inserted into the syllabus. That is why the poem ‘Africa’ is being dropped.”
The same information appears in a report by the newspaper Anandabazar. The Anandabazar report said, “In Bangla poetry, ‘Shivaji-Utsav’ is being included in the curriculum in place of Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Africa.’ Kshirodeprasad Vidyavinode’s play ‘Banger Pratapaditya’ is taking the place of Sachindranath Sengupta’s play ‘Sirajuddaula.'”
The poem “Shivaji-Utsav” is in Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry collection “Purabi,” published in 1925.
The claim in the reports by Daily Jugantor and Ittefaq is therefore not true. Rabindranath’s poems have not been dropped from the syllabus of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) and replaced with Abanindranath’s poems.
On the other hand, the claim in Kalbela’s headline that Rabindranath Tagore’s poems are being dropped is also misleading. One poem by the Nobel laureate in literature has been replaced with a different poem by him.
