From Emergency to Gujarat riots, lessons of past deleted from textbooks of future
Dear Reader, School textbooks developed and prescribed by the union government have been revised as part of a "rationalisation" exercise undertaken six months ago — the third textbook review by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in eight years. The revision has resulted in some of the most sweeping changes in the curriculum since the NDA government came to power in 2014. We scrutinised 21 history, political science, and sociology textbooks meant for children of Classes 6-12. In a multipart investigation published in The Indian Express from June 18 through 21, we found the changes — mainly deletions — in the existing textbooks fit into three categories. Part 1 of the investigation focused on content — chapters and passages — on contemporary India that will no longer be taught in schools. Among them: the Gujarat riots of 2002, the harsh impact of the Emergency on people and institutions, protests and social movements including those by the Narmada Bachao Andolan, Dalit Panthers, and the Bharatiya Kisan Union. Part 2 showed the ways in which the government pruned content on caste and discrimination, especially in the history and political science textbooks for junior classes. Part 3 highlighted how the reworked textbooks echo the BJP-RSS view that Indian history in its existing telling glorifies 'foreign' Muslim invaders while ignoring or underplaying the achievements of 'Indian' kings and empires. The content on Muslim rulers in NCERT textbooks has seen the deepest cuts in the revision exercise. The final part of the series identifies the key individuals involved in the drafting of the new school curriculum, the National Curriculum Framework or NCF. My colleague Sourav Roy Barman found that 24 individuals who were part of the committees that are working on the changes have links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the primary author of the proposed nationalist ideological framework for the study of India's history and culture. This is especially significant because the new NCF document will be the foundation of all future changes in NCERT textbooks. Keep reading The Indian Express. Some of our best content is now behind a paywall, so if you haven't subscribed to The Indian Express yet, this may be a good time to do so. Click here to subscribe. Sincerely, Ritika Chopra National Education Editor, The Indian Express (ritika.chopra@expressindia.com) | 
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