New Delhi: Making sweeping changes in its textbooks, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) under its latest “rationalisation” exercise, has slashed portion in history on Islamic rulers of India.
After scrutinizing nine current history textbooks for Classes 6 to 12 and matching the content with tables circulated within the NCERT on the proposed changes, the Indian Express found that most of the changes related to Muslim rulers have been made in one textbook: several pages on the Delhi Sultanate, ruled by many dynasties including the Mamluks, Tughlaqs, Khaljis and Lodis, and the Mughal empire have been removed from the Class 7 history textbook ‘Our Pasts – II’. The daily reported.
Indian Express noted that “‘distortion’ and ‘misrepresentation’ of India’s past has been the common refrain among members of the ruling BJP. Even as recent as June 10, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said at a book launch that the country’s history is misrepresented with prominence given to Mughals at the cost of empires such as the Pandyas, Cholas, Mauryas, Guptas and Ahoms, and that now “no one can stop us from rewriting it”.
Pointing out at the significant changes made by the NCERT on Islamic and Mughal-era rulers, Indian Express claimed that three pages dealing with the expansion of the Delhi Sultanate, especially down south, in the Class 7 textbook ‘Our Past – II’, have been deleted.
A section explaining a masjid has also been deleted. Besides, a detailed chart comparing Alauddin Khilji’s response to repeated Mongol attacks with that of Muhammad Tughluq has also been left out.
A two-page table detailing milestones and achievements of Mughal emperors such as Humayun, Shah Jahan, Babur, Akbar, Jahangir and Aurangzeb has also suffered cuts in the chapter ‘The Mughal Empire’ in the Class 7 textbook.
The chapter ‘Kings and Chronicles: The Mughal Courts’ (Themes in Indian History — Part II) has been deleted from the Class 12 history textbook.
Revisions have also been made pertaining to a portion on Mahmud of Ghazni, a section on “Akbar’s policies” and the entire content on independent political states carved out of old Mughal provinces — all in the Class 7 history textbook ‘Our Past – II’.
Table on milestones, achievements of Mughals has been removed too. The report noted that the title of the chapter ‘The Delhi Sultans’ has been changed to ‘Delhi: 12th to 15 Century’.
Five-page content on the independent political states of Awadh, Bengal and Hyderabad that were carved out of old Mughal provinces from the chapter ‘Eighteenth-Century Political Formations’ has been entirely erased, while the content on states under the control of the Rajputs, Marathas, Sikhs and Jats has been retained.
The chapter ‘Rulers and Buildings’ in the Class 7 history textbook has also been removed which focused on the architectural style of temples built by Hindu kings and mosques, tombs and forts built by Muslim rulers.
The chapter ‘The Central Islamic Lands’ which dealt with the rise of Islam and its expansion over a vast territory stretching from Egypt to Afghanistan, the core area of Islamic civilisation from 600 AD to 1200 AD has been removed in Class 11 history.
However, NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani has denied it to be a selective exercise. He claimed that the revision has been done in an attempt to reduce curriculum load for students across all subjects and not just social science.
