Whither Rationalisation? NCERT's Changes Only Leave a Black Hole in Our History Textbooks
The WireApr 14, 2023
Teachers, education experts, and opposition politicians have criticized India's ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for revising and rewriting school textbooks, claiming the move is intended to push its Hindu nationalist political agenda.
This comes as the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — a state-run body under the education ministry — eliminated several portions from the latest edition of the class 11 political science textbook, including mentions of India's first education minister and freedom fighter Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, to reportedly simplify the syllabus.
While there's nothing wrong with rationalizing the syllabus, the NCERT has carried out an unjustified political intervention in textbooks. These changes, which failed to meet even the vague criteria established by the Council itself, aren't streamlining content but undermining students' ability to deal with sensitive topics.
Rumors and fabrications have fueled this debate to try to smear Modi's government. Unlike the left, which in the past changed textbooks to glorify Muslim rulers and conceal their atrocities against Hindus, the NCERT has only removed overlapping chapters to alleviate unnecessary pressure on students, which has been high since the outbreak of the pandemic.
There's a 52% chance that there will be a non-BJP prime minister of India before 2030, according to the Metaculus prediction community.