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'Dates can't…': Farooq Abdullah on NCERT's Mughal-era changes
Farooq Abdullah said Mughals have ruled over India for 800 years and no one can forget them.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah has criticised the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for altering the content of its textbooks related to the Mughal era. He argued that the Mughal empire had a significant impact on India as they ruled the country for 800 years, and their legacy could not be forgotten.“When the public visits the Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, Red Fort, and Humayun Tomb, what will you tell them?” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister asked.
Addressing the media, he questioned the decision (taken last year) and said “dates cannot be erased from history. How can you forget Mughal rulers like Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb, Babur, Akbar, and Jahangir?”
He further claimed that Mughals built several monuments across India, some of which have international heritage recognition and hence “however hard the government tries, it cannot change history”.
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Abdullah’s remarks came as the NCERT row gained fresh momentum after the ongoing controversy surrounding the organisation's decision to remove certain contents related to Mahatma Gandhi, ban on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), among others.
The latest move has invited flak from many including a part of academic community and historians who also signed a letter Friday stating the move “exposes the non-academic, partisan agenda of the regime in pushing through amendments to school textbooks.” The signatories included Romila Thapar, Jayati Gosh, Mridula Mukherjee, Apoorvanada, Irfan Habib, and Upinder Singh, among others.
The Opposition parties alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre was aiming at “saffronisation” of the textbooks and had “political intentions” behind the move.
Meanwhile, NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani clarified that Mughal chapters had not been dropped, terming the accusation a “lie”. “The history of Mughals is being taught in Empires in section-2 of the 11th class book. And in the class 12th book there were 2 chapters on the history of the Mughals, out of which theme nine was removed last year, while theme eight is still being taught to the students. This year, no chapter has been removed from any book," he told news agency ANI.
