NCERT drops references to Babri Masjid demolition, Gujarat riots, Hindutva

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has dropped references to the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the killing of Muslims in Gujarat riots and Hindutva, and tweaked the reference to Manipur's merger with India as part of its latest set of revisions. 

According to a document prepared by the curriculum drafting committee of the NCERT, references to Ram Janmabhoomi movement have been tweaked "as per latest development in politics". The changes have been made in the Class 11 and Class 12 Political Science textbooks.

The Class 11 chapter on Secularism earlier stated that over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims were massacred during the Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002. It has now been changed to “more than 1,000 persons were killed during the post Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002”. The NCERT justified this change by claiming that during riots people across communities suffer and not just one community. 

The earlier textbook stated that the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is an area under illegal occupation that Pakistan describes as Azad Pakistan. The changed version stated that it is Indian territory under illegal occupation of Pakistan, and called as Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK). It said that this change has been brought up as per the latest position of the government in regard to Jammu and Kashmir. 

"The Government of India succeeded in pressurising the Maharaja into signing a Merger Agreement in September 1949, without consulting the popularly elected Legislative Assembly of Manipur. This caused a lot of anger and resentment in Manipur, the repercussions of which are still being felt,” the textbook earlier stated. It has been changed to: "The Government of India succeeded in persuading the Maharaja into signing a Merger Agreement in September 1949."

NCERT officials said that tweaks are part of routine updation and not linked to the development of new books as per the New Curriculum Framework (NCF). 

"What is the legacy of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement and the Ayodhya demolition for the nature of political mobilisation?" has been changed to "What is the legacy of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement?" in Chapter 8, Recent Developments in Indian Politics.

The same chapter dropped the references to the demolition of Babri Masjid and Hindutva. The earlier version stated that the “demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya (known as Babri Masjid) in December 1992” are associated with the rise of BJP and the politics of ‘Hindutva’. It now says that the legal and political dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya influenced Indian politics and gave birth to various political changes, transforming the direction of the discourse on secularism and democracy. “These changes culminated in the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya following the decision of the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court (which was announced on November 9, 2019)," the book states. 

A reference to Gujarat riots was dropped in Chapter 5, titled ‘Democratic Rights’. 

The changes will be introduced in the books which are yet to hit the market as the new session has already begun.                         

(With agency inputs)