by Muslim Mirror Staff
Despite being a prominent figure in India’s freedom struggle and serving as the country’s first Education Minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s name has been removed from a revised political science textbook released by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The removal of information about Maulana Azad and Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy is just the latest in a series of controversial changes that have been made to NCERT textbooks in an effort to streamline the syllabus. What is particularly concerning is that NCERT did not make these revisions known to the public.
Maulana Azad was previously mentioned in the first chapter titled “Constitution – Why and How?” of the old Class 11 NCERT political science textbook, Indian Constitution at Work. However, despite the NCERT publishing a list of rationalised content that claimed “no changes” had been made to this particular textbook, his reference has been removed in the revised version.
“The Constituent Assembly had eight major Committees on different subjects. Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad or Ambedkar chaired these Committees. These were not men who agreed with each other on many things. Ambedkar had been a bitter critic of the Congress and Gandhi, accusing them of not doing enough for the upliftment of Scheduled Castes. Patel and Nehru disagreed on many issues. Nevertheless, they all worked together,” the older version of the textbook read in one of its paragraphs.
Azad’s name has now been dropped from the new version. The sentence now saying, “Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel or B.R. Ambedkar chaired these Committees.”
Last year, the Ministry of Minority Affairs discontinued the Maulana Azad Fellowship, which was launched in 2009 and provided financial assistance for five years to students from six notified minorities — Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs — to pursue M.Phil and Ph.D.
Maulana Azad played a crucial role in India’s political history, leading the Congress party in the elections for the Constituent Assembly of India in 1946, which was responsible for drafting the country’s Constitution. Additionally, he served as the Congress president for six years and led the delegation that negotiated with the British Cabinet Mission.
As India’s first Education Minister after independence, Azad played a pivotal role in promoting important changes such providing free and mandatory elementary education to all children up to the age of 14. Azad also played a significant role in the establishment of the School of Planning and Architecture, several Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, and the Jamia Millia Islamia.
Jammu and Kashmir accession excluded
The mention of Jammu and Kashmir’s conditional accession has also been removed from the tenth chapter of the same textbook, titled “The Philosophy of the Constitution”. The sentence that was cut off read, “For example, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian union was based on a commitment to safeguard its autonomy under Article 370 of the Constitution.”
In August 2019, the Central government repealed Article 370, terminating Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy. The erstwhile state was divided into two Union Territories in October 2019.
As usual, Muslim Jamiats and organizations are busy in criticizing each other, why can not they file a petition in “honorable” Supreme Court on this matter.