A textbook case of politics writing history

It would preserve scientific temper in education if polemics were kept out of school textbooks.

Periodic curriculum updates are certainly necessary, including in the humanities, but there has to be epistemological and scientific certitude backing them, especially with regard to the methods of arriving at the insertions or deletions. The controversy that the recent revision of school textbooks by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has dredged up indicates that the latest updates may not fully pass this test.

The controversy that the recent revision of school textbooks by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has dredged up indicates that the latest updates may not fully pass this test. (File image)

For instance, the revisions remove references to the Aryan Migration Theory (AMT) from history textbooks, asserting that the analysis of ancient DNA recovered from excavation sites establishes that there was continuity between the Harappan people and the Vedic era communities in line with the claim of Hindu nationalists. The other side argues that the findings resist any such interpretation, especially when it comes to the absence of the Central Asian “steppe” gene in many samples – the so-called Aryan gene that is almost ubiquitous in parts of South Asia today. The AMT has for decades been a contested thesis, where political ideology is often privileged over dispassionate and evidence-based studies.

This is not surprising since history is a contested terrain and its uses for politics would mean there will always be attempts to manipulate its writing. However, we need to fireproof textbooks from power politics. In the Harappan story, where science has been enriching and updating our understanding of early Indians, migrations into India, and the shaping up of a complex and varied population that speaks of multiple genetic sources, it is best to make available the multiple narratives to students rather than impose any politically driven claim on them.

It would preserve scientific temper in education if polemics were kept out of school textbooks. While, of course, keeping the distinction between science, mythology, beliefs and opinions.