S.
Chand & Co. are known as one of the major book publishers of
north India. Their web site claims that they have unmatched market
leadership over 7 decades and also say many more things about
themselves on the web site, from which I quote:
“Bringing
people and knowledge together" is core to the mission of S.
Chand Group and this has translated into 'Empowering Minds'.
S.
Chand Books have touched three generations of Indian educated
community. Today S. Chand needs no introduction. Its continuous
commitment and endeavor of publishing quality books and meeting the
needs right from primary level books to higher academic books in
Engineering, Management, Commerce, Basic Sciences and others has
built unmatched equity.
The
only publishing house in India with in-house integrated publishing
solution, being first Indian publishing company to the ISO 9001:2008
certified and with country's largest publishing distribution network
of 24 locations across the country, S. Chand's books are available
for all-everywhere.
S.
Chand has been at the forefront of publishing exports out of India
and S. Chand books are sold widely in South Asia, South-East Asia,
Middle East and Africa across 21 countries.
Over
the years S. Chand has lead publishing industry in the country and
every year is recipient of National awards. ” Unquote:
One
of their school level text books published by them is titled as “New
Healthway.” This is supposed to be a book on hygiene and health,
aimed at 11 and 12 year-old kids. This so called book about health,
has produced such howlers and bloopers, that the only saner course of
action left is to relocate this book to a trash can.
Here
are some samples:
Meat-eaters
"easily cheat, lie, forget promises and commit sex crimes"
"The
strongest argument that meat is not essential food is the fact that
the Creator of this Universe did not include meat in the original
diet for Adam and Eve. He gave them fruits, nuts and vegetables,"
reads
a chapter entitled Do We Need Flesh Food?
"some
of the characteristics" found among non-vegetarians, "They
easily cheat, tell lies, forget promises, they are dishonest and tell
bad words, steal, fight and turn to violence and commit sex crimes,"
Eskimos
(Inuit) are "lazy, sluggish and short-lived", because they
live on "a diet largely of meat".
"The
Arabs who helped in constructing the Suez Canal lived on wheat and
dates and were superior to the beef-fed Englishmen engaged in the
same work."
Wow!
Don't you think, this is real revolutionary thinking? The quotes,
promoting vegetarianism, are likely to put to shame the best copy of
Mumbai's glitzy advertisement agencies, trying to promote fairness
creams and soaps. I particularly liked the great lines about Eskimos,
date eating Arabs and beef fed Englishmen. HaHa!
Thank
God! that not many schools have prescribed this book for their
pupils. An educationist says that such books are like poison for
children. The blame squarely lies on S.Chand &Co, the publishers,
who allowed this rubbish to be published. Someone must has been very
careless. Publishers of this book no doubt, would have to scrap this
book and take care in the future, that such silly errors do not creep
in their books again.
18
November 2012
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