By Muslim Mirror Network

The NCERT, which has recently published new textbooks for class 12 political science and history, has been criticized by a group of 250 academics and historians. They claim that the removal of content related to Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin, and the banning of the RSS after Gandhi’s assassination is a result of a “divisive and partisan agenda.” The group has issued a public statement demanding that the NCERT withdraw the deletions from the textbooks.

On Friday, the group of respected academics and historians, including Romila Thapar, Jayati Gosh, Mridula Mukherjee, Apoorvananda, Irfan Habib, and Upinder Singh, among others, released a public statement expressing concern about recent deletions made to the NCERT textbooks. 

According to the signatories, these deletions reveal a biased and non-academic agenda by the current government in power, which is pushing through amendments to school textbooks.

The NCERT recently made revisions to the textbooks for class 12 political science and history for the current academic year. As part of these revisions, the content related to Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin, and the ban on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after Gandhi’s assassination has been removed from the textbooks.

“We are appalled by the decision of the NCERT to remove chapters and statements from the history textbooks and demand that the deletions be withdrawn. The decision of the NCERT is guided by divisive motives. It is a decision which goes against the constitutional ethos and composite culture of the Indian subcontinent. As such, it must be rescinded at the earliest,” the public statement said.

“There has been no attempt to consult members of the teams that had prepared the textbooks, which included historians and school teachers, apart from members of the NCERT,” it said.

The signatories said that the revision should have only been done “in sync with the consensus of the existing historical scholarship. However, the selective deletion in this round of textbook revision reflects the sway of divisive politics over pedagogical concerns.”

“The selective dropping of NCERT book chapters which do not fit into the larger ideological orientation of the present ruling dispensation exposes the non-academic, partisan agenda of the regime in pushing through amendments to school textbooks,” the statement further read.

The NCERT removed several chapters from its syllabus last year, including those related to the Mughal Courts, the 2002 Gujarat Riots, the Cold War, references to Mughal emperors, and the Emergency, as part of a syllabus rationalization process to reduce the burden on students during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some people have criticized this decision, claiming that the NCERT is using the pandemic as an excuse to drop important topics. The signatories of the criticism believe that the NCERT’s decision is controversial and has resulted in the removal of critical topics such as the 2002 Gujarat Riots and Mughal Courts.

“The new editions of these NCERT books have simply made the deletions the norm even when we are in a post-pandemic context in which school education has limped back to normalcy and is no longer in the online mode,” the statement said.

In addition to the aforementioned individuals, the signatories of the criticism included professors from various educational institutions such as Delhi University (DU) and its affiliated colleges, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and Ambedkar University.

On Wednesday, Dinesh Prasad Saklani, the chairperson of NCERT, stated that the modifications made to the syllabus last year were based on the suggestions of subject experts and were not influenced by any political agenda.

“NCERT doesn’t take decisions on its own. These topics were rationalised last year on recommendations of the subject expert panel. One should not see that through the political prism,” Saklani had said.