With Textbook Changes, New ‘Facts’ For a New Nation, and a Bid to Control Public Memory
Rohan Chopra | 9 April 2024 | Newslaundry
The National Council of Educational Research and Training has again ‘rationalised’ portions of its school textbooks, ostensibly to reduce workload on students. But let alone help nurture critical thinking with a less-is-more approach that aligns with the National Education Policy, it has – just like before – done little beyond the papering over of inconvenient political events.
In the class 11 and 12 political science textbooks, for example, most revisions this time are linked to the Babri Masjid, Manipur, Kashmir and the Gujarat pogrom. Last year, social science textbooks had dropped references to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, the dislike he had invited from “Hindu extremists” for his “steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity”, and about the ban on the RSS. Chunks on Mughal history were also removed, and so were paragraphs pertaining to the Emergency and the misuse of powers by the government.
It’s not just about a power tussle. There have been several other serious challenges surrounding Indian school textbooks and quality of education.