NCERT deletes portions related to RSS, Mahatma Gandhi & Godse in new books
A comparison of the new Class 12 political science textbook titled “Politics in India since Independence” with its older version showed that certain references to Mahatma Gandhi have been deleted
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has removed from the new Class 12 political science and history textbooks references such as the “dislike of Hindu extremists for Mahatma Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity” and banning of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after his assassination. The Indian Express was the first to report the deletions from the revised textbooks published for the academic year 2023-24.
A comparison of the new Class 12 political science textbook titled “Politics in India since Independence” with its older version showed that a reference to how Gandhi’s “steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists so much that they made several attempts to assassinate Gandhiji” has also been deleted from the sub-topic titled “Mahatma Gandhi’s sacrifice” in the first chapter.
That Gandhi was “particularly disliked by those who wanted Hindus to take revenge or who wanted India to become a country for the Hindus, just as Pakistan was for Muslims” has also been deleted.
The references to the crackdown on organisations spreading communal hatred, the ban on RSS for some time, and the loss of appeal of communal politics, too, have been removed.
In the Class 12 History textbook titled “Themes in Indian History-3”, a paragraph has been revised in the chapter “Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement.”
The revised paragraph reads, “At his daily prayer meeting on the evening of 30 January, Gandhiji was shot dead by a young man. The assassin, who surrendered afterwards, was Nathuram Godse.”
Earlier, it read: “Gandhiji was shot dead by a young man. The assassin, who surrendered afterwards, was a Brahmin from Pune named Nathuram Godse, the editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper who had denounced Gandhiji as an appeaser of Muslims.”
Despite several attempts, NCERT director Dinesh Prasad Saklani was unavailable for comments.
In June last year, the NCERT rationalised the syllabi of Classes 6 to 12 to reduce the burden on students. Among the changes made was the removal of all references to the 2002 Gujarat riots, Cold War, and Mughal courts, industrial revolution. Some Dalit writers were also dropped from a Class 7 textbook.
References to Dalit writer Omprakash Valmiki have been removed from the social science textbooks of Classes 7 and 8 as part of the latest revision. In the Class 7 textbook topic titled “Our Pasts-2”, pages 48 and 49 have been excluded. These pages mentioned “Mughal Emperors: Major campaigns and events.”