This statement was first published on Mainstreamweekly

Date: 07.04.2023

The recent decision of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to drop entire chapters from the history textbooks for class 12, as well as from other classes and to delete statements from other textbooks is a matter of deep concern. Using the period of the pandemic-cum-lockdowns to argue that there was a need to lighten the load of the curriculum, the NCERT initiated a contentious process of dropping topics like the history of the Mughal courts, the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, the Emergency, mention of Dalit writers, the Naxalite movement, and the fight for equality from social science, history, and political science textbooks of classes 6 to 12. The new editions of these NCERT books have simply made the deletions the norm even when we are in a post-pandemic context in which school education has limped back to normalcy and is no longer in the online mode.

In this light, it is deeply troubling that a chapter on the Mughals has been deleted from part-II of the history textbook for class 12, while two chapters on modern Indian history have been removed from part-III of the history textbook. There has been no attempt to consult members of the teams that had prepared the textbooks, which included historians and school teachers, apart from members of the NCERT. The books were developed through a process of consultation and wide-ranging discussions. This was valuable not only in terms of content, but also in terms of pedagogy, which ensured an organic unity and a graded development in understanding from the middle to the senior school. The attempt was also to make the textbooks as inclusive as possible, and to provide a sense of the rich diversity of the human past both within the subcontinent and the wider world. As such, removing chapters / sections of chapters is highly problematic not only in terms of depriving learners of valuable content, but also in terms of the pedagogical values required to equip them to meet present and future challenges. While we understand the need for periodic revisions of school textbooks, this can only be done in sync with the consensus of existing historical scholarship. However, the selective deletion in this round of textbook revision reflects the sway of divisive politics over pedagogic concerns.

According to the Director, NCERT, the deletions are part of the rationalisation of the school textbooks, and have been done in order to reduce the burden on students. As per the NCERT, during the pandemic the students faced loss in learning, and in the post-pandemic period the students have been feeling overburdened with the syllabus. According to the NCERT, since some of the chapters were overlapping across subjects and classes, it was rational to reduce the content for the overburdened students. The NCERT authorities have denied any ulterior political motive behind this move of rationalisation.

However, notwithstanding the NCERT Director’s denial, the selective dropping of NCERT book chapters which do not fit into the larger ideological orientation of the present ruling dispensation exposes the non-academic, partisan agenda of the regime in pushing through amendments to school textbooks. This becomes abundantly clear when one critically analyses the removal of selective themes in the textbooks in the backdrop of the present central government’s larger ideological agenda of misconstruing the history of the people of the Indian subcontinent as a product of a hegemonic singular (Hindu) tradition.

Driven by such an agenda, the chapter titled ‘Kings and Chronicles: The Mughal Courts (c. sixteenth-seventeenth centuries) has been deleted from part-II of the history textbook. This is despite the fact that the Mughals ruled several parts of the subcontinent for a substantial period; making the history of these times an inseparable part of the subcontinent’s history. In medieval times, the Mughal empire and the Vijayanagara empire were two of the most important empires in the Indian subcontinent, both of which were discussed in the previous textbooks. In the revised version, while the chapter on the Mughals has been deleted, the chapter on the Vijayanagara Empire has been retained. The exclusion exposes the wider communal undertones, based on an inaccurate assumption about India’s past — that the religion of the rulers was the dominant religion of the times. This leads to the deeply problematic idea of a ‘Hindu’ era, ‘Muslim’ era, etc. These categories are uncritically imposed on what has historically been a very diverse social fabric.

Moreover, two very important chapters have been deleted from part-III on Modern India, namely, ‘Colonial Cities: Urbanisation, Planning and Architecture’ and ‘Understanding Partition: Politics, Memories, Experiences’. Also significant is the deletion of any mention of the role of Hindu extremists in the killing of Gandhi. For example, in the chapter titled ‘Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement’ in part-III of the history textbook the reference to Nathuram Godse being “the editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper” has been expunged.

It is important to stress that the present retrograde step by the NCERT to delete entire chapters and portions of texts from the history textbooks is not based on any academic or pedagogic consideration. Rather, the chapters deleted from the history textbook are precisely those which do not fit into the pseudo-historical schema of the ruling dispensation. Excising any period from the study of the past would make students unable to comprehend the connecting thread of the past with the present times, and would deprive students of an opportunity to connect, compare and contrast the past and the present, and would disrupt the organic inter-connectedness of the subject-matter of the discipline. Furthermore, removing entire periods of history from history textbooks would not only perpetuate misconceptions and misunderstandings, but would serve to further the divisive communal and casteist agenda of the ruling elites. The books and history syllabi designed earlier by the NCERT were meant to provide an understanding of the Indian subcontinent as a great melting pot of different cultures consisting of various groups, ethnicities, etc. The sequence of the chapters was designed to teach students about the craft of history, and to develop critical thinking about the past. The composite heritage of the Indian subcontinent and historical genealogies of the present times were the main focus of the old NCERT syllabus from which chapters have now been strategically excised.

Apart from deletions in the history textbook of class 12, there are several deletions from the history textbook of class 11, which includes very essential themes like the industrial revolution, inter alia. There are also deletions from the textbook for political science, which includes sections on the rise of popular movements, the 2002 Gujarat Riots, and the mention of the report of the National Human Rights Commission. Similarly, the reference to the 2002 Gujarat Riots has been dropped from the Class 11 sociology textbook ‘Understanding Society’.

Guided by a divisive and partisan agenda, the NCERT by selectively deleting several important themes from school textbooks is not only doing great disservice to the composite heritage of the Indian subcontinent, but betraying the aspirations of the Indian masses. The colonial constructions and their contemporaneous reproduction manifest the misconstruing of Indian civilization as a product of a hegemonic singular tradition, such that categories like ‘Hindu society’ are uncritically imposed on what has historically been a very diverse social fabric. Ultimately, all these deletions present the students with a sanitized history of a homogenous ‘Hindu’ society in the Indian subcontinent. History of this variety has a disturbing preoccupation with the narrative surrounding kings and the wars they waged. It reduces state formations, empire-building, and transformations of the medieval period to an unsubstantiated, perennial contest between an allegedly homogenous ‘Hindu’ society and ‘Islamic’ invaders and rulers. It also projects the idea of presumably widespread social harmony in India’s past which conceals the exploitation and oppression of populations under different state formations along the axes of gender, caste, and class etc. It also overlooks regional diversity. By reducing the study of history to such monolithic accounts, the ground is being prepared for pseudo-histories, especially of a communal and casteist variety, to hold sway. In any case, such ‘histories’ are widely circulated today through WhatsApp and other social media applications.

We are appalled by the decision of the NCERT to remove chapters and statements from the history textbooks, and demand that the deletions from the textbooks should be immediately withdrawn. The decision of the NCERT is guided by divisive motives. It is a decision which goes against the constitutional ethos and composite culture of the Indian subcontinent. As such, it must be rescinded at the earliest.

1. A R Khan Retired Professor, IGNOU

2. Abhijit Guha Retired Professor

3. Abhijit Roy Jadavpur University

4. Abigail Mcgowan Professor of History, University of Vermont

5. Adil Jussanwalla

6. Aditi Kanchanbaras University of Hyderabad

7. Aditya Mukherjee Retd. Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

8. Aisarya Dutt Roy University of Hyderabad

9. Ajeet Kumar Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, DU

10. Ajitha Kakumanu Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College

11. Akanksha Singh Lady Sriram College, DU

12. Akhila Mathew Azim Premji University

13. Alka Saikia Gargi College, DU

14. Amita Paliwal Jesus & Mary College, DU

15. Anamitra Sarkar St. Paul’s Cathedral Mission College, Kolkata

16. Anand Chakrabarti Former Professor, DU

17. Anand K. Sahay

18. Anand Patwardhan Researcher and documentary filmmaker

19. Anil Kumar Motilal Nehru College, University of Delhi

20. Anindita Ghoshal Diamond Harbour Women’s University, Kolkata

21. Anisha Srivastava Sri Aurobindo College (Eve), University of Delhi

22. Anita Rampal Retd. Professor, Central Institute of Education, DU

23. Anjan Roy

24. Anuradha Roy Retd. Professor, Jadavpur University

25. Anwesha Sengupta Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata

26. Aparna Balachandran Dept of History, DU

27. Apoorvanand Dept. of Hindi, DU

28. Archana Ojha Kamala Nehru College

29. Archisman Chaudhuri Rutgers University

30. Arnav Gogoi University of Delhi

31. Arunangsha Maity Taki Government College, West Bengal

32. Asha Hans Sansristi

33. Ashesh Kumar Dhar University of Hyderabad

34. Ashish Ghosh Retd. Associate Professor, Dyal Singh College (Evening), University of Delhi

35. Ashoke Chatterjee

36. Ashwin Padi Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi

37. Asshique Ahmad Iqbal KREA University

38. Ataullah Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi

39. Avijit Singh Research Scholar, DU

40. Avinash Kumar Centre for Equity Studies

41. Barbara D. Metcalf University of California Davis

42. Bharati Jagannathan Miranda House College

43. Bhim Tiwari Research Scholar, DU

44. Bhupinder K Chaudhry Maharaja Agrasen College, DU

45. Biswajit Mohanty Delhi University

46. Biswaroop Chatterjee Durgapur, West Bengal

47. Bob van der Linden University of Amsterdam

48. Brij Tankha Retd. Professor, Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi

49. C. Saratchand University of Delhi

50. Chairashree Das Gupta Centre for Law and Governance, JNU

51. Chayanika Uniyal Shyama Prasad Mukherji College for Women, DU

52. Chitran D University of Hyderabad

53. Christiane Brosius Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies

54. Christine Marrewa-Karwosi Columbia University

55. D. Manjit Delhi University

56. Dane Kennedy Professor Emeritus, George Washington University

57. David Blamey London

58. David Ludden Professor of History, New York University

59. Debashree Mukherjee MESAAS, Columbia University

60. Debjani Sengupta IP College, Delhi University

61. Denys Leighton OP Jindal University

62. Devaki Khanna

63. Devarpita Manjit Delhi University

64. Dilip Menon University of Witwatersrand

65. Dilip Simeon Writer and former Professor, Ramjas College, DU

66. Dilshad Ahmad Composite school SARVAT

67. Dinesh Kumar Singh Bharati College, Delhi University

68. Dinesh Varshney Motilal Nehru College (Evening

69. Dipta Bhog

70. Dolan Samanta Research Scholar, JNU

71. Farhat Hasan Dept. of History, DU

72. Feroze Chandra Retired

73. G. Arunima Professor, JNU

74. Geeta Arya Lakshmibai College, University of Delhi

75. Gyan Prakash Professor, Princeton University

76. Harbans Mukhia Retd. Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

77. Inder Salim

78. Indu Agnihotri Historian and writer

79. Indranee Dutta OKDISCD, Guwahati

80. Irfan Habib Historian and Professor Emeritus, AMU

81. Ismail Vengasseri Lady Sriram College, DU

82. Jabir P. Dept. of History, University of Hyderabad

83. Jashobanta Pan Berhampur University

84. Jaya S. Tyagi Dept. of History, DU

85. Jayanti Gupta Kamala Nehru College

86. Jayati Ghosh University of Massachusetts Amherst

87. Justin Mathew Hansraj College, DU

88. K N Sunandan Ajim Premji University

89. K. Satchidanandan Professor

90. K.I. Tuteja

91. Kali Chittibabu JNU

92. Kanhad Sinha The Sanskrit College and University, Kolkata

93. Karuna Dietrich Wielenga Azim Premji University

94. Kavita Singh Retd. Professor, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU

95. Kavita Srivastava PUCL

96. Keya Dasgupta Retired faculty, CSSSC, Kolkata

97. Krishnakumar M.V. Newman College, Thodupuzha, Kerala

98. Kumkum Roy Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

99. Lakshmi Subramaniam Visiting Professor of History, BITS Pilani, Goa

100. Latika Gupta University of Delhi

101. Levin N R Bharati College, Delhi University

102. Lianboi Vaiphei Indraprastha College for Women, University if Delhi

103. M H Ilias Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam

104. M V Shobhana Warrier Kamala Nehru College, DU

105. Madhuri Chatterjee

106. Madhuri Sharma Bharati College, Delhi University

107. Malavika Kasturi Dept. of History, University of Toronto

108. Manorama Sharma Retired professor, Dept. of History, NEHU, Shillong

109. Manu V. Devadevan IIT-Mandi

110. Maroona Murmu Dept. of History, Jadavpur University

111. Martin Sökefeld Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany

112. Maya John Jesus and Mary College, DU

113. Maya Krishna Rao Theatre artist

114. Md. Hamid Husain Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi

115. Meena Bhargava Retd. Associate Professor, Indraprastha College for Women, DU

116. Meena Megha Malhotra History for Peace - The Seagull Foundations for the Arts

117. Mekhola Gomes Amherst College

118. Mercy Dutta JNU

119. Mita Hussain Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, DU

120. Mohd. Bilal Research Scholar, DU

121. Monmayee Basu Hansraj College, DU

122. Moushami Bhowmik

123. Mridula Mukherjee Retd. Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

124. Mukul Kesavan Retd. Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia

125. Mukul Mangalik Retd. Professor, Ramjas College, DU

126. Naina Dayal St. Stephen’s College, DU

127. Najibuddin Ahmed Assam

128. Nandita Narain Delhi University

129. Nasir Tyabji Jamia Millia Islamia

130. Navoneel Ray Research Scholar, JNU

131. Nayana Dasgupta Lady Sriram College, DU

132. Neerja Singh Satyawati College (Evening), DU

133. Neeru Ailwadi Delhi College for Arts and Commerce, DU

134. Nishtha Srivastava Shivaji College, University of Delhi

135. Nitoo Das IPCW, DU

136. P.K. Basant Jamia Millia Islamia

137. Pankaj Jha Lady Sriram College, DU

138. Partho Datta School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU

139. Parvin Sinclair Retd. Professor, IGNOU

140. Pia Malik Research Scholar, Delhi University

141. Ponniah Rajamanickam People Science Movement

142. Poonam Kanwal Janaki Devi Memorial College, DU

143. Prabhu Prasad Mohapatra Department of History, University of Delhi

144. Pradip Datta Retd. Professor, JNU

145. Pragati University of Hyderabad

146. Pragati Mohapatra Indraprastha College for Women, University if Delhi

147. Pranab Kanti Basu Retired Professor, Visva-Bharati

148. Pratyay Nath Ashoka University

149. Preeti Chauhan Lakshmibai College, University of Delhi

150. Preeti Chauhan Lakshmibai College, DU

151. Prem Kumar Delhi University

152. Promukh Bhattacharya Durgapur, West Bengal

153. Puneet Yadav Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi

154. Purwa Bharadwaj Delhi

155. R. Mahalakshmi Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

156. R. S. Meena Banaras Hindu University

157. Rachna Singh Hindu College, DU

158. Radhika Chadha Miranda House, DU

159. Rajesh Kumar Motilal Nehru Evening College, DU

160. Rajinder Arora

161. Rajni Arora

162. Rajshree Chandra DU

163. Rajshree Dhali Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College, DU

164. Rakesh Kumar Ram Lal Anand College, Du

165. Ram Murti Sharma Central Institute for Education, DU

166. Ramesh Dixit

167. Rana P. Behal Retd. Associate Professor, Deshbandhu College, DU

168. Ranbir Chakravarti Retd. Professor, Centre of Historical Studies, JNU

169. Ranjan Anand Zakir Husain College (Evening), University of Delhi

170. Ranjan Ghosh

171. Rashmi Pant Delhi University (retired)

172. Ratan Lal Hindu College, DU

173. Ravi Ahuja Centre for Modern Indian Studies of Georg-August-University Göttingen

174. Renu Bala DU

175. Renuka Devsare Goethe Institit, Delhi

176. Reyaz Ahmad

177. Rhea David St. Stephen’s College, DU

178. Ritu Menon Delhi

179. Romila Thapar Historian and Professor Emerita, JNU

180. Rudrashish Chakraborty Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi

181. Ruplekha Khullar

182. S.K. Ehteshan Uddin Ahmad Dept. of Law, AMU

183. S.Krishnaswamy Retired Senior Professor Ex Madurai Kamaraj University

184. Sabina Kazmi Delhi University

185. Sagnik Saha Doctoral Scholar, University of Hyderabad

186. Sandhya Sharma Vivekanand College, Du

187. Sangeeta Luthra Sharma St. Stephen’s College, DU

188. Sanghamitra Rai Verman Jesus & Mary College, DU

189. Sanjay Verma Kirori Mal College, DU

190. Sanjeeb Mukherjee formerly with University of Calcutta

191. Sanjukta Naskar

192. Sanoj Kumar Shyam Lal College, DU

193. Santanu Sengupta Polba Mahavidyalaya, University of Burdwan

194. Santosh George

195. Santoshi Kumari Delhi University

196. Sarah Chauhan Jamia Millia Islamia

197. Sarika Sunder Dept. of History, University of Vermont

198. Saumya Gupta Janaki Devi Memorial College, DU

199. Sayandeb Chowdhury School of Letters, Ambedkar University Delhi

200. Shabnam Hashmi Anhad

201. Shadab Banu Women’s College, AMU

202. Shahana Bhattacharya Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi

203. Shailja Menon Ambedkar University, Delhi

204. Shantha Sinha

205. Shatarupa Bhattacharya Lady Sriram College, DU

206. Sheodutt University of Delhi

207. Shikha Jhingan Associate Professor, JNU

208. Shilpi Rajpal University of Copenhagen

209. Shivaji K. Panikkar Delhi/Vadodara

210. Shobhana M V Warrier Kamala Nehru College, DU

211. Shobna Nijhawan York University, Toronto

212. Shreekala MV JNU

213. Shubhra Sinha Kamala Nehru college

214. Shubhra Sinha Kamala Nehru College, DU

215. Simmi Mehta Mata Sundri College for Women, DU

216. Smita Sahgal Lady Sriram College, DU

217. Sneha Ganguly Jesus and Mary College

218. Snigdha Singh Miranda House, DU

219. Sonu Vincent Jesus and Mary college

220. Souraj Bhan Bhardwaj

221. Srabani Chakraborty Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

222. Sreekala M V Jawaharlal Nehru University

223. Srimanjiri Miranda House, DU

224. Subhendu Dasgupta Retired faculty, Calcutta University

225. Subir Rana Research Scholar, JNU

226. Suchandra Ghosh School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad

227. Sucheta Mahajan Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU

228. Suchetna Chattopadhyay Dept of History, Jadavpur University

229. Sufiyan Abdul Sathar Calicut

230. Sujata Patel Retd. Professor, University of Hyderabad

231. Sujato Bhadra

232. Sujeet Kumar Delhi College for Arts and Commerce, DU

233. Suparna Puri

234. Surajit Sarkar Delhi

235. Surbhi Vatsa Miranda House College, DU

236. Suvritta Khatri Deshbandhu College, DU

237. Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi Professor, Dept. of History, AMU & Secretary, Indian History Congress

238. Tanu Parashar Jesus and Mary College, DU

239. Tasneem Suhrawardy St. Stephen’s College, DU

240. Tilak Hazarika Cotton University, Guwahati

241. Tilottama Mukharjee Jadhavpur University

242. Uma Chakrabarti Historian, DU

243. Upinder Singh Ashoka University

244. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi JNU

245. Vaibhav Ramani Ashoka University

246. Vandana Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi

247. Vandna Mathur University of Delhi

248. Vani Subramanian Delhi

249. Vibhas Chandra Verma Delhi University

250. Victoria Potshangbam Kamala Nehru College, DU

251. Vijaya Venkataraman University of Delhi

252. Vijjika Pandey Singh ARSD college

253. Vinita Malik Kamala Nehru College, DU

254. Virender Singh Research Scholar, Panjab University

255. Vishwa Mohan Jha Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College, DU

256. Yael Rice Amherst College

257. Yasser Arafat Dept of History, DU

258. Yousuf Saeed Jamia Millia Islamia