Introduction
Ever heard the saying that goes along the lines of “Just focus on the present because you can’t change the past?” Well, apparently, if you’re the Modi government, you can alter the past. If you’re the Modi government, you can “rewrite history.” Yes. That’s how advanced we have become in science and technology.
So, how exactly are they managing to do this? By borrowing Dr Strange’s time stone? Something far more convenient. They are rewriting history, not precisely by going into the past and altering it, but by simply “denying” it ever happened and making meticulous deletions and edits in students’ textbooks under the pretext of ‘false’ and ‘distorted’ history. I mean, what a genius.
History has now become “His” story
Under the disguise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCERT brought upon a series of changes to ease the syllabus burden on students. I mean, by the looks of it, it seems as if the government has considered the students’ welfare. But you know the drill: “Never judge a book by its cover.” When you look at “what” was deleted and meticulously “edited”, a rather cold yet unsurprising truth emerges, with the intentions as bright and clear as daylight that they can’t be ignored anymore.
The Talking Points: Five Major Rationalisations In NCERT Textbooks, And Why It’s Concerning
1. In 2018, the Minister of State for Human Resource Development in India, Satya Pal Singh, claimed that Indians were descendants of Hindu sages rather than primates and declared Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution to be scientifically incorrect.
By the 2021-2022 academic year, Darwin’s theory was removed from the examination syllabus for students in Class 9 and Class 10, and by 2022-2023, evolution was removed from school textbooks altogether, Al Jazeera reported. Unless students opt for biology in Class 11 and Class 12, they will not learn about Darwin or his theory.
In the class X textbook earlier, the chapter was titled “Heredity and Evolution.” Now it just says “Heredity.” How the evolution of humankind happened is told very differently in different religions. To accept and implement one such theory belonging to a particular religion would harm the country’s ethos. This is an excellent way for students to distinguish between “science as a way of knowing” and “faith as a way of knowing.”
A ‘law’ is a theory that has been scientifically proven. Hence, Darwin’s theory of evolution is called a ‘theory’ and not a ‘law’ in the first place, just like all the other theories in other religions.
They couldn’t care less whether Darwin’s theory is scientifically proven. They do not care what’s right and what’s wrong. They care about what’s Hindu and what’s not. If tomorrow, scientists somehow prove the Christianity version of the origin of humanity, i.e., of Adam and Ava, they still would find faults and excuses and refrain from teaching students this scientifically proven point.
Basically, any origin theory unrelated to Hinduism is not “right”, according to them. And Herein lies the main issue.
As A Science Student Myself, This Is Quite Concerning
Under articles 25 to 28 of the Constitution, It is my fundamental right to profess, practice and propagate religion, and I am equally entitled to freedom of conscience. Basically, you CANNOT impose principles and ideologies from any particular religion on anyone. In my opinion, Darwin’s theory should be continued to be taught in schools because it is the safest option as it does not involve any element of religion in it.
It is essential to understand that faith without science is useless, and science without faith is pointless. While faith gives people a reason to move forward, science gives them direction. I do not mean to hurt people’s sentiments, but faith alone cannot make us start a colony on Mars one day. It is faith as well as science that can make it happen. By imposing ideologies from a particular religion, they are disrupting the model of religious harmony and jeopardising the secularity of our country. They are foolishly triggering conflicts that create a disruptive environment for students that impacts their education. I implore these naive officials not to play with people’s sentiments. Do not use religion as a means to bolster your political interests. And most importantly, do not undermine science just because it doesn’t fit your political interests.
2. The Modi government might not have been able to remove the caste system and untouchability successfully on-ground (as exemplified by the various headlines we see everyday), but they sure are playing an exemplary role in removing them from textbooks. Deleted sections include the removal of the mention of the Dalit Panthers movement, and the system of Varnas and the practice of untouchability(from the class VI History textbook.) I mean, sure, what is the use of teaching young minds about the caste system when no apparent casteism and caste-based crimes are being committed in our country?
3. The political science textbook prescribed for class 12 students has dropped references to the ‘Gujarat riots. Quoting from The Wire, this particular paragraph has been removed: “Gujarat riots show that the government machinery also becomes susceptible to sectarian passions. Instances, like in Gujarat, alert us to dangers involved in using religious sentiments for political purposes.” Considered to be one of the bloodiest massacres in our country, deleting it partly and in a few years entirely from textbooks will only serve the political ideologies of the BJP.
In the grander scheme of things, would the deletion of a few sentences and paragraphs really offload the syllabus burden from students? No. In fact, this makes no significant difference. Then, this must beg the question, are there any other ulterior motives behind this ‘selective rationing’? Was the Gujarat massacre actually a high-level political conspiracy? Did Modi have a role to play in triggering the mass Muslim revenge? If not, then why present the students with an edited, fabricated version of the truth?
4. In the Class 12 History textbook titled “Themes in Indian History-3”, a paragraph has been revised in the chapter “Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement.”
Quoting from The Hindustan Times:
The revised paragraph reads, “At his daily prayer meeting on the evening of 30 January, Gandhiji was shot dead by a young man. The assassin, who surrendered afterwards, was Nathuram Godse.”
Earlier, it read: “Gandhiji was shot dead by a young man. The assassin, who surrendered afterwards, was a Brahmin from Pune named Nathuram Godse, the editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper who had denounced Gandhiji as an appeaser of Muslims.”
Further, this is the removed portion from the class XII political science textbook.
5. Coming to the Mughals, effectively, after the NCERT syllabus rationalisation, students can study some of the history of the Mughals in Class 7, a little in Class 8, none in Classes 9 to 11, and a shortened version in Class 12. Can you see the slow eradication of the Mughals from the textbooks? If one looks at the history of the Mughals, we will find shades of grey (isn’t that what entire ancient history is?). On the one hand, there is Akbar, a secular king, who destroyed the Jizya tax(It was a discriminatory tax based on religion) and maintained friendly relations with the Rajputs.
But on the other hand, there was the cruel, extremist Mughal ruler Aurangzeb, who revived the Jizya tax and under whose regime the relations with Rajputs saw a decline. So, when students are being presented with both the shades of the Mughal dynasty, where exactly lies the problem? What is the ulterior motive behind this “selective rationing?” To further instigate the Hindu-Muslim divide? To teach our students that the Mughals never invaded India, and so Muslims were never a part of our country?
Solution: Rather Than Deleting History, Why Not Add More To It?
Their justification was that the Mughal empire was being successively repeated in several academic years, which prompted its deletion. So if that’s the case, rather than deleting and consequently not offering students in-depth knowledge about the Mughal dynasty across multiple academic years, make changes to the curriculum that would include it in detail in a particular academic year. If you feel that a particular dynasty is being glorified at the expense of others, then by all means, include those dynasties in the syllabus that are not being appropriately represented. Rather than deleting history, why not add more to it? Teach them about the Hindu rulers, such as Maharana Pratap, Shivaji, and the Cholas, as well as the Muslim rulers, such as Akbar and Shah Jahan, and Aurangzeb, as well as the British rulers. Present them with all the authentic facts, not your claimed “distorted” version.
The Agenda Behind This Rationalisation(In My Opinion)
The main agenda behind this rationalisation is the saffronisation of India. The main agenda is to promote Hindutva across the length and breadth of the country. The main agenda is to preach Hindu ideologies, as this is the sacred land of the Hindus. The main agenda behind meticulously removing sentences about Gujarat Riots and the caste system is to preserve your political image and curb and withhold information that displays you in a bad light. The main agenda behind removing chapters about Mughal emperors is to eradicate the Muslim religion’s origins in our country slowly. The main agenda behind editing Nathuram Godse’s identity was to hide from students that he wasn’t a ‘Hindu’ assassin. That’s it. Period.
Conclusion
Frankly, I have no problems with it; just a few conditions:
Stop calling India Secular.
Stop calling India a Diverse Nation.
Stop calling India Democratic.
Start calling India a fascist nation.
When you infuse politics into science and religion, you trigger conflicts. And conflicts stunt the growth of a nation. I do not think these officials seated at higher authorities understand the importance of history. You are not meant to change the past. You are meant to learn from it and implement those learnings in the present so that the past does not repeat itself in the future. By teaching young minds inaccurate and incomplete versions of science and history, you are impeding their education, and by impeding their education, you are jeopardising the future of our nation. So, please, to everyone reading this, it’s high time to wake up and smell the coffee.