You can take a look at the following sites for details about the French Revolution:

1) http://www.mrdowling.com/705-frenchrevolution.html – this site offers a very brief summary of the Revolution and it was written by a history teacher specifically for school students

2) http://www.geocities.com/thefrenchrevolution/index.html – a good site that offers a general idea about the French Revolution

3) http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-FrenchRe.html – a brief description from The Columbia Encyclopædia

4) http://www.answers.com/topic/french-revolution – slightly more detailed version of events from answers.com

5) http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/index.html – a good resource for those who want to learn about the Revolution, a bit long but enjoyable nevertheless

Cheers!

Thankyou.

I find your description of education in India similar to the United States in one way–it is bottom up (each state deciding its own standards, as opposed to top-down pronouncements from a Minister of Education). There are advantages and disadvantages to each system.

Best regards,
Margot

Yes, Revolutions are very interesting indeed. I was always fascinated by the Revolutions that took place around the world because I am rebellious by nature.

I went to a private school that followed the syllabus prescribed by the government of Tamil Nadu (Matriculation till the 10th standard and Tamil Nadu State Board in the 11th and 12th standards), which is by far the best board of education in my state! I am not sure of what they teach in British and American schools, though.

I am proud of what I learnt in my school! I learnt about the history and geography of the whole world! Certain boards of education in India teach a deliberately distorted version of history that is full of half-truths and shocking ommissions.

Education in India is in the concurrent list of the constitution. The people of each state have the right to decide what is taught to their children. The central government also has one or two boards of education. But now, nefarious attempts are being made to violate what little federalism is enshrined in the constitution by suggesting that there should be a single board of education in India. Such filthy, sordid, despicable, outrageous and disgusting attempts to violate the educational rights (which are a part of Human Rights) will be resisted by ANY means!

The medium of instruction in my school was English. Though English is not my mother tongue, I consider it as much as my own as my mother tongue! Only those with a backward, feudal, mediæval and regressive mindset consider English to be a foreign language. They have a severe inferiority complex and cannot get out of their colonial mentality. English IS an Indian language and is one of India’s national and official languages!

I could concentrate on useful subjects like mathematics, science, history, geography and English and a second language in school because I did not have to waste my time in learning a totally unnecessary third language in my school. I also learnt French (which is also an Indian language) as a second language for some time. Though I would not be too comfortable with the rapid-fire French spoken by people in the Francophone countries, I can read French and I am glad that I learnt it (though English has virtually replaced French as the lingua franca of the world now) because it has helped me gain a very rudimentary understanding of Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Italian and other Romance languages.

What sort of a school did you go to? Was it a regular public school, a private school, a British International School, or an American school? (Your English is so good – better than some native speakers I know…..)

Best regards,
Margot

I studied the French, the American and the Russian Revolutions in detail in my history classes. The Chinese, the Cuban and other Revolutions were also a part of my history lessons.

Any broad-minded Indian would be inspired by the French Revolution. Only people with a backward, feudal, mediæval and regressive mindset would hate the French Revolution. Unfortunately, India is not short of people with such mindsets. That is why India is still a developing country

In India, the American Revolution is seen as an independence struggle against the British. It is sometimes compared with India’s own independence struggle though the two countries achieved independence by different means.