By Krishna Jha
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been aggressively pursuing the task of distorting our past. It is trying to rewrite it according to its subjective interpretations which amount to primacy of bias against the fact. Times are with them and distortion goes unrestrained. Recently the NCERT has released the Class 8 social science textbook. The book, Exploring Society: India and Beyond, highlights instances of “brutality” and “religious intolerance” during the rule of the Mughals and the Delhi Sultanate. The Marathas, in contrast, are portrayed in a more positive light.
Though the NCERT has said the book is in line with the National Curriculum Framework and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, it is clear that the changes introduced in the Class 8 textbook is an ideological move by the RSS that selectively glorifies or vilifies historical figures.
The revised Class 8 textbook portrays the Marathas, who ruled over a 17th-century kingdom in western India, as rulers who established “sovereignty”, describing their founder, Chhatrapati Shivaji, as a “strategist” and “true visionary”.
The book has a mention of surgical strike. It cites Maratha Empire founder Shivaji’s raid on Mughal nobleman Shaishta Khan’s camp at night, forcing him to leave what is now Maharashtra, and likens it to “the modern-day surgical strike.” It also highlights that during his retaliatory actions, Shivaji was always “careful” not to attack religious places.
The fact, however, is that the textbook does not get into as many details on the violence of the Marathas—the raids in the Rajput kingdoms or violent annexations of Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha, devastating local populations and forcing people to pay tributes called ‘chauth‘, or the destruction of temples in Karnataka—as it does for the Mughals.
There are also reports that the government is working to make Operation Sindoor a part of the NCERT textbooks from classes 3 to 12. According to reports the NCERT is developing two special modules on India’s strikes against terror infrastructure across Pakistan under Operation Sindoor, with an aim to make students aware about India’s military power. Both modules are under preparations and will be introduced soon. “While the first special module on Operation Sindoor will be for students of Classes 3 to 8 and second will be available for Classes 9 to 12. The achievements of India and her Armed Forces will be described in 8 to 10 page modules. The aim of these modules is to make students aware about India’s military power and how Pakistan was defeated once again,” a report said.
The process of distortion of historical facts by the NCERT has been happening with a sickening regularity. The previous instance of this effort was witnessed in April 2024, when the NCERT sought to change the Class 12 political science textbook to present a distorted picture of the Ayodhya dispute. The revision was sought to be done to give primacy to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement rather than the demolition of Babri Masjid. The purported reason cited by the NCERT for effecting these changes was the Supreme Court’s verdict of November 2019, allowing the temple to have the entire campus of the Babri Masjid and also the space where the mosque stood. The apex court also asked to find a five acre plot for the construction of the Masjid. In the textbook, even the mention of the Babri Masjid was also sought to be deleted.
The mega event that was made out of the construction of Ram temple by replacing Babri Masjid in Ayodhya should not lead us to forget the basic fact. And that is despite the Supreme Court’s mandate, the temple at the site of the mosque has no historical foundation, nor was it a part of Hindu consciousness till 1949. As early as in 1855, there was a feud between Bairagis living in Hanumangarhi and the Muslims. The important dimension of Hanumangarhi episode (1855) is that it indicated the absence even at that time of any linkages between Babari Masjid and Janmasthan in Hindu psyche. Although the Bairagis captured the Masjid in which Muslims had taken shelter, they did not occupy it or advance any claim to it. Instead they retreated to Hanumangarhi instantaneously. It is also important that during the course of the enquiry by the court of Awadh, no Hindu had mentioned the earlier existence of a temple at the site of the Masjid.
In fact, whatever scriptures the Supreme Court cited in the case to relate with the birth place, mention only Ayodhya, not a particular spot. In fact the Supreme Court judgement of November 2019 said that there have been more than one site referred to as the Birth place of Lord Ram.
Even the local court records of British era state that the Babri Masjid was never considered the birthplace of Ram. For example, a court order of 1903 talked about “JanamAsthan” (the birth place of Lord Ram) existing away from Babri Masjid and inside the outer wall of the mosque compound. This order of the district magistrate of Faizabad was given in response to a petition seeking injunction on attempts to put a sign board at “JanamAsthan”.
The magistrate, rejecting the petition, said there was nothing wrong in the move since such place did exist inside the “outer wall” of Babri Masjid and not inside the mosque itself. “It happens that the Janamasthan is inside the outer wall of this particular mosque, so that the name slab is only being put in its right place and it is not a ground for objection to its being put there […] For such place does in fact exist and the name board is merely for a guide to strangers,” the order said.
The place at which the name slab was being put was an elevated platform outside the inner courtyard of the Babri Masjid but inside its outer wall. Also named ‘Ram Chabutara’, the place existed about 100 paces away from the mosque and was worshipped until the idol was planted inside the Babri Masjid in 1949 as the birth place of Ram. Iron railings separated the elevated platform from the inner courtyard.
The more changes the NCERT introduces in its textbooks, the more lies it is filling them with. Lies must not be taught to students in the name of history whether of medieval or modern times. (IPA Service)
