New Delhi, April 5: The NCERT has dropped from its class 12 history textbook certain portions on Mahatma Gandhi and how his pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity “provoked Hindu extremists”, and on a ban on the RSS, triggering a row, with the Congress accusing the Centre of “whitewashing” and “distorting” history.
“Gandhiji’s death had magical effect on communal situation in the country”, “Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists” and “Organisations like RSS were banned for some time” are among the portions deleted from the textbook.
The portions referring to Gujarat riots have also been dropped from class 11 sociology textbook, months after NCERT removed the reference to the 2022 communal violence in two class 12 textbooks.
NCERT Chief Dinesh Saklani, however, said the syllabus was rationalised in June last year itself, and there has been no trimming of the curriculum this year. He said certain changes did not find mention in the rationalisation notification earlier due to an “oversight” and the issue should not be “blown out of proportion”.
Union minister Shobha Karandlaje also defended the decision to remove these and other references from textbooks, saying the Congress was the “biggest manipulator” of India’s historical facts and the BJP was only correcting the “wrongdoings” of the past.
As part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise last year, the NCERT, citing “overlapping” and “irrelevant” as reasons, dropped certain portions from the course including lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement. (PTI)
