Making History and Geography compulsory

The Assam cabinet on Friday decided to make History and Geography compulsory subjects up to Class X from the next academic year. This is a very welcome move because it is in the study and fair knowledge of History and Geography that a nation or a state shapes the young generations into responsible and patriotic citizens of the future. There was a time when both these subjects were compulsory up to Class X. But then, at one point in time, some wise Chief Minister of Assam decided to do away with the compulsory teaching of these two basic subjects. The outcome is that we have created a few generations of people who have grown up and acquired university degrees without knowing anything about the History and Geography of the country. One can argue that historians do not perform heart transplants, improve highway design, or arrest criminals. So is the case with those who study geography. Yet, it is a fact that history offers a storehouse of information about how people and societies behave and helps in understanding the present better. Geography, on the other hand, is the mother of several branches of science from climate change to ecology, environment, agriculture, transportation, floods and so on. Contemporary society is dominated by the demand for science and technology, but the role and place of the so-called social sciences must not be underplayed as they have an important role in shaping and moulding people and the societies in which they live. Assam has suffered major losses due to the removal of History and Geography from high school. Generations of young people have grown up without being told how to present Assam has emerged from the ancient times, how the society has been formed, and – most importantly – how the demography of Assam has been sought to be changed through a dangerous conspiracy of making it a Muslim-majority state by engineering large-scale migration from erstwhile East Bengal/Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh. Likewise, several lakh young people have grown up without being informed that Assam and the Northeast are part of the most important biodiversity hotspot of the globe and that the geography of Assam is closely inter-related with the geography of South-East Asia, including China (Tibet), Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.