Erasing history

"Heavy lies the head that wears the crown." The burden of responsibility on the monarch has historically been immense. Kingdoms have been destroyed by warmongering kings; many a historic reign has ended due to weakness and lack of foresight. And a chosen few that have flourished as examples of a golden age of prosperity, art and culture, and peace, were all led by visionary leaders at the helm.

The people however, had no choice. Rulers were thrust upon them either through the line of succession or through invasion and annexation. Democracies don't have kings and queens. We have our elected representatives whom we trust to make decisions in our best interest. We have leaders who we believe will 'lead' us in the right direction. We have institutions that we believe will work with the greater public good in mind in a dispassionate and fair manner. These bodies and people's representatives are our modern-day rulers, with a cherished opportunity to make or break history. Right now, we are seeing the latter happening, quite literally.

In the past few days, and much to the surprise of most, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has made some extraordinary exclusions from Indian text books. The nodal government body that prints books for school students has removed crucial historic facts such as the Mughal era, Hindu extremist groups' aversion to Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin Nathuram Godse, banning of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Emergency, references to freedom fighter and India's first education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, among others. The NCERT has claimed that some of these exclusions were not made in the public domain due to an "oversight". Apparently, the rationalisation of content happened during Covid-19 and while other changes in subjects such as Commerce, Maths, and Science were informed on the website, the changes in Political Science and Sociology books were missed. How convenient!

The lines that have been removed from the Class 12 Political Science books include, “His steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists so much that they made several attempts to assassinate Gandhiji…,”; “Gandhiji’s death had an almost magical effect on the communal situation in the country… The Government of India cracked down on organisations that were spreading communal hatred. Organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh were banned for some time…".

The two pages dedicated to the 2002 Gujarat riots have also been replaced by two sentences. Important illustrations and speech bubbles have also been removed. Chapters on the Mughal era such as 'Kings and Chronicles' and 'The Mughal Courts' have also been scrapped citing reduction of study load on students post-pandemic.

Last year too, there had been far-ranging deletions — school text books trimmed the mention of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals, chapters on struggle for equality and criminal justice were also shunted out of the syllabus.

The rationalisation of content was primarily done to help students make up for time lost during Covid-19. Due to the pandemic, long lockdowns kept schools shut. Eventually, schools remained physically shut but conducted classes online. A small reprieve but not enough to bring students up to speed. Therefore, the justification behind the rationalisation of content was to decrease the study load of students by eliminating superfluous academic chapters. A logical step that could alleviate the burden on students and would also, therefore, necessitate a rollback once students seem to have made good on the Covid-19 losses. Rationalisation of content should have been done keeping students' welfare in mind and not as a weapon to surreptitiously whitewash history.

Change in syllabus and updations may also be necessary from time to time to include new happenings, current affairs, global phenomena, innovations etc. But none of it can come at the cost of rewriting history. This subject forms the foundation of our origins and place in the modern world. Young minds require complete information and understanding of what transpired in the past, so as to shape their minds and form their own opinions.

Banal reasons for exclusions should not be supported. These omissions need to be reversed immediately and the alleged expert panel that recommended these exclusions must be taken to task. But if the deleted pages are not making their way back, then the sage advice of scholars and academics is being overlooked — a dangerous trend that only harms future generations of this diverse country that carries a rich history and culture. There is also another way — we can make way for the representation of newer perspectives. For instance, more can and should be written about the subaltern in India. Make space for more inclusive and deeper narratives, not by removing the old ones, but by accommodating new voices.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal