250 academics, historians demand deletions in NCERT textbooks be withdrawn

The NCERT, in its new textbook editions for the current academic year for class 12 political science and history, has removed content about Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin, and the banning of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) following Gandhi’s assassination

Nearly 250 academics and historians issued a public statement criticising the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for making changes in its textbooks and alleged that the move has been “guided by a divisive and partisan agenda” while demanding “the deletions be immediately withdrawn.”

Last year, the NCERT also removed chapters on Mughal Courts, the 2002 Gujarat Riots, the cold war, references to Mughal emperors, and Emergency (Representative Photo)

The public statement issued on Friday is signed by renowned members of the academic community and historians, including Romila Thapar, Jayati Gosh, Mridula Mukherjee, Apoorvanada, Irfan Habib, and Upinder Singh, among others. The signatories said that the latest deletions from the NCERT textbooks “expose the non-academic, partisan agenda of the regime in pushing through amendments to school textbooks.”

The NCERT, in its new textbook editions for the current academic year for class 12 political science and history, has removed content about Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin, and the banning of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) following Gandhi’s assassination.

“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the decision of the NCERT to remove chapters and statements from the history textbooks and demand that the deletions be withdrawn.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 As such, it must be rescinded at the earliest,” the public statement said.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 stated.

Further, the signatories, in their statement, 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.

Last year, the NCERT also removed chapters on Mughal Courts, the 2002 Gujarat Riots, the cold war, references to Mughal emperors, and Emergency, among other topics, as a part of its syllabus rationalized process, in order to reduce students’ “burden” amid covid-19 pandemic.

The signatories accused the NCERT of using the pandemic as an excuse to initiate “a contentious process” of dropping important topics like ‘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.

The other signatories included professors from Delhi University (DU) and its affiliated colleges, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), and Ambedkar University, among others.

Despite attempts, NCERT chairperson Dinesh Prasad Saklani could not be reached for comment. However, on Wednesday, he said the changes were made and incorporated last year on the recommendations of subject experts and not for any political considerations.

“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.