Author: Evam Bansal, Member DelTech MUN & DebSoc Delhi Technological University (formerly DCE).
Book: Politics In India Since Independence
‘Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.’
The latest ‘rationalization’ exercise conducted by the NCERT was perhaps inspired by this Orwellian idea. Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson in Indian Express(d. 7.3.2023) expressed anguish that the sentences that were read by students across the country since more than a decade will no longer exist.The whitewashing of an assassin being done with vengeance held against the Mahatma is sad.
Ritika Chopra reports in IE that students will read less on the Mughal Empire and for them 2002 will be a year that saw no signs of communal tension. It’s claimed that these revisions will reduce the burgeoning academic load on students. To me, this is as amusing as saying that the India Gate be closed down to control the traffic ‘overload’. An exercise intended to ‘fill gaps’ in history has created deep trenches of vacuum.
One thing that these deletions denote is an increasing suffocation with the truth or even plain facts. It happens in the UK that students obtain highest degrees in history without having to learn about their imperialist past. Clearly, overtaking them in numbers of GDP doesn’t suffice. A cursory look at the chapters deleted might give an indication of the agenda for deletion- several chapters that have been taught in junior grades like Ancient History have been retained but only those on Mughals are dropped under the aforementioned reasoning.
I have read the NCERTs in great detail- no chapters sing paeans to the Mughals. Deletion of facts on their rule/misrule under the garb of them being monstrous is untenable. At least they stayed in India- unlike the Company who would take our wealth to Britannica’s mercy. This logic thus calls for a deletion of our colonial history! Any act to delete such accounts of history is a sweet homage to Aurangzeb’s way of ruling. Any changes must be based on rigorous research, unfortunately and quite ironically this action deports us to the era of Mughal whims. Maybe in the future, we can say to students of an ‘altered history’ that our memory comes in the way of their history. My wish is that this piece serves as a poignant reminder that those who alter history, can never make history.
NOTE: The views expressed in the above mentioned article by the author are drawn from the source(s) mentioned below. There is no intent to hurt someone’s sentiment or values.
Indian Express from 7th March 2023