Textbook likens donkey to housewife
Sanjay Singh Badnor
[ Tuesday, April 04, 2006 12:56:21 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1475517.cms
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AJMER: Odious comparisons continue to be the bane of the harried Indian homemaker. The latest to pass an unflattering comment on her is the Rajasthan Education Board.
"A donkey is like a housewife. It has to toil all day and, like her, may even have to give up food and water. In fact, the donkey is a shade better, for while the housewife may sometimes complain and walk off to her parents’ home, you’ll never catch the donkey being disloyal to his master," says the board’s Class IX Hindi textbook.
The joke, if indeed there is one, hasn’t gone down well with activists, who have asked the state government to ban or delete the "objectionable" text, or be prepared to face an agitation.
Incidentally, the state is run by a woman Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje Scindia.
Written by Gopalprasad Vyas, an eminent Hindi satirist and Padma Shri winner who died last year, the 'offending' chapter has attracted the ire of activists a year after it was introduced in the book.
Sources in the state education department, however, hold a different view.
"The same chapter also compares the donkey to politicians, calling the animal thick-skinned. There was objection to this line. The issue then boiled over and this issue was raked up as well," an official said.
State education board director of publications and academics A R Khan said the comparison was made in good humour, without any intent to hurt or humiliate.
"However, protests have been taken note of and the board is in the process of removing the chapter," he added.
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Already posted here:Donkeys better than wives: textbook
Herald Sun ^ | 4 april 2006
Posted on 04/04/2006 2:31:32 AM EDT by Aussie Dasher