NCERT Books

Humra Quraishi

Don’t know whether to cry or scream or simply curl up in sorrow, after grasping facts to the grim fact that several deletions have been made in the NCERT-published class 12 Political Science textbooks. Not just vital portions deleted which carried details to the Babri Masjid demolition cum destruction on 6 December 1992, but even references to the Rath Yatra led by L K Advani and the Kar Sevaks–the destroyers of the Babri Masjid, or any of the details to the Gujarat Riots of 2002. Not to overlook the fact that the very word Masjid been dropped from Babri Masjid! Instead, come up with another term for it- Three Domed Structure!

 Even history is not spared! Even the crucial term–Masjid–was replaced! History and historical facts are now getting camouflaged or covered-up or quite simply white washed! This is a very serious matter and should be a matter of great concern to the citizens of the country.

On earlier occasions, too, RSS-affiliated Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, headed by Dina Nath Batra, had sent a list of recommendations to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) demanding a host of changes in its textbooks. Batra asked the NCERT to remove English, Urdu, and Arabic words, a poem by the revolutionary poet Pash and a couplet by Mirza Ghalib, the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore, extracts from painter MF Husain’s autobiography… Batra also wanted references to the Mughal emperors as “benevolent”, the BJP as a “Hindu” party, the National Conference as “secular”, an apology tendered by former prime minister Manmohan Singh over the 1984 riots, and a sentence that “nearly 2,000 Muslims were killed in Gujarat in 2002” to be all removed! News reports also stated that Nyas objected to the facts that the Class 11 political science textbook mentions the “massive majority of Congress in 1984” but “does not present the 1977 election details”, the Class 12 political science textbook “terms National Conference of J&K a secular organisation”, and the Class 10 English textbook “places nationalism against other ideals” as “an attempt has been made to show a rift between nationality and humanity by citing thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore”. It also wanted that the Hindi textbooks must mention that the medieval Sufi mystic Amir Khusrau “increased the rift between Hindus and Muslims.”

Nyas had on earlier occasions demanded the removal of AK Ramanujan’s essay ‘Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation’ from the undergraduate syllabus of the University of Delhi and went to court demanding that Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus not be sold in India. Their demands were fulfilled! Ramanujan’s essay was removed from DU’s reading list, and Penguin India, the publisher of Doniger’s book, pulled it from circulation.

Relevant to mention here that in 2014, government schools in Gujarat were given six textbooks written by Batra as “supplementary literature” that claimed cars were invented in ancient India and told children to draw an ‘enlarged nation’ to include countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.
Not to overlook the distortion of the very meaning of certain words like ‘Roza’ (Muslims observe Roza or fast during the month of Ramzan) published in textbooks taught in Gujarat schools. And in the summer of 2017, the ICSE board’s class VI textbook circulated in schools across India ‘blamed’ mosques and Azaan for causing noise pollution! A chapter on noise pollution, in the book published by Selina Publishers, focused on the sources that cause noise pollution. Besides images of trains, cars, and planes as the usual sources of noise pollution, there was also an image of a man shutting his ears in frustration right in front of a mosque! Quite obviously relaying that the azaan is a source of noise pollution!

Targeting Muslims
Where are we heading? Muslims are getting targeted with one alibi after another. Even Muslim-owned shop or shops can be targeted by the political mafia under any of the pretexts. Recently, Right-Wing goons targeted Muslin-owned shops in Uttarakhand. And last week a Muslim’s textile shop was looted by Hindutva goons in Himachal Pradesh’s Nahan...loot took place in full public view. Also, the lynching of Muslims continues! Where are we heading?

And in the midst of this, Sitamarhi Member of Parliament, Devesh Chandra Thakur’s highly provocative and communal statement. That he won’t work for Yadavs and Muslims as they didn’t vote for him! And he seems to be getting away after voicing this bitter-vicious- communal statement.

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 3, Jul 14 - 20, 2024