The removal of references to Maulana Azad, India’s first education minister and a freedom fighter, from the class 11 NCERT textbook occurred in 2013 and should not be associated with the recent curriculum rationalisation exercise, according to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
However, certain subjects and references have been silently dropped from the new NCERT textbooks, which has sparked a political dispute, with the Opposition claiming that the ruling BJP is engaged in “whitewashing with vengeance.” Last week, the Congress, which held the central government’s power in 2013, criticised the government for omitting Azad’s references in the new NCERT class 11 Political Science textbook. The Congress accused the government of trying to revise history deliberately and promoting a false legacy, according to an official statement.
“While exploring the matter in earlier editions of the textbook, it was found that from 2014-15 onwards the name of Maulana Azad was not there in the referred para. This textbook for the session 2014-15 was finalised for printing in October 2013 as per the record of the Publication Division. It should not be linked to the current rationalisation exercise,” A top NCERT official said. “This was done as a regular practice of reprinting NCERT textbooks which includes updating and correcting the information.” In the class 11 Political Science textbook’s first chapter, titled ‘Constitution – Why and How’, a line about Constituent Assembly meetings, which now reads “Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel or BR Ambedkar chaired these Committees,” the official added.
The NCERT conducted a “syllabus rationalisation” exercise last year and eliminated certain portions from its textbooks, such as lessons on topics like the Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War, and Naxalite movement. The reasons cited for these omissions were “overlapping” and “irrelevant.” However, some controversial deletions were not mentioned in the notifications about the changes made as part of the rationalisation exercise, leading to allegations of surreptitious attempts to delete these portions. This is the crux of the current controversy, the statement noted.
The NCERT has described the omissions as a possible oversight but refused to undo the deletions, saying they were based on the recommendations of experts. Earlier council director Dinesh Saklani had claimed that the changes which were “missed” in the rationalisation booklet will be notified soon. However, later it issued a statement on Friday saying “minor deletion or addition” is not notified in view of avoiding any confusion at the level of teachers and students, it added.
With inputs from PTI.