NCERT Drops Texts on Gandhi, Hindu-Muslim Unity, RSS Ban from Class 12 Political Science Textbook

NCERT Syllabus: Subjects easily accessible to students without much interventions from teachers and can be learned by children through self-learning or peer learning and content which is “irrelevant” in the present context were also dropped from the curriculum.

NCERT Row: “Gandhiji’s death had magical effect on communal situation in the country”, “Organisations like RSS were banned for some time,” and “Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists” are some of the portions missing from the class 12 political science textbook for the new academic session. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organisation of the Government of India , however, claims that no curriculum trimming has taken place this year and the syllabus was rationalised in June, last year.

Gujarat Riots, Mughal Courts, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite Movement Dropped As part of NCERT Syllabus Rationalisation Exercise

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, among others from its textbooks. A text reading, “Communal Politics began to lose its appeal” in reference to the time after Gandhi’s death in 1948 was also removed from the textbook, news agency PTI reported. The rationalisation note had no mention of excerpts about Mahatma Gandhi.

“The entire rationalisation exercise was done last year, there is nothing new which has happened this year,” NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani was quoted as saying by the news agency PTI. However, he did not comment on the missing excerpts which went unannounced at the time of rationalisation.

“In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was felt imperative to reduce content load on students. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also emphasises reducing the content load and providing opportunities for experiential learning with creative mindset. In this background, the NCERT had undertaken the exercise to rationalise the textbooks across all classes and all subjects,” reads a note by NCERT on its website.

“The present edition is a reformatted version after carrying out the changes. The present textbooks are rationalised textbooks. These were rationalised for the session 2022-23 and will continue in 2023-24,” it further added. Among the reasons cited behind the choice of dropped subjects during rationalisation is content based on genres of literature in the textbooks and supplementary readers at different stages of school education; for reducing the curriculum load and exam stress in view of the prevailing condition of the pandemic; content.

Subjects easily accessible to students without much interventions from teachers and can be learned by children through self-learning or peer learning and content which is “irrelevant” in the present context were also dropped from the curriculum. As per the PTI report, an official from the education ministry, who did not wish to be identified, said the new curriculum framework as per the NEP is still being worked out and the new textbooks as per the updated curriculum will only be introduced from the 2024 academic session.

Amid a row over the removal of certain references in NCERT’s new class 12 textbooks, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge slammed the BJP and RSS over the issue, saying no matter how much they try, they cannot erase history. “You can (make) changes in Textbooks but you cannot change the history of the country. This is an attempt by the BJP-RSS, they can try as much as they want, but they cannot erase history,” he added.

(With Inputs From PTI)