The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an apex resource organisation set up by the Government of India, with headquarters at New Delhi, to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on academic matters related to school education. NCERT publishes books that are used in government and private schools across India that follow the CBSE curriculum.
The controversy centers around the charges of an attempted "saffronized" rewriting of Indian History (i.e., make lessons consonant with the Hindutva).[1] Allegations of historical revisionism with a Hindu nationalist agenda arose in two periods, under the Janata Party government 1977 to 1980, and again under the Bharatiya Janata Party government 1998 to 2004. Congress party led UPA has being accused of a witch-hunt to purge academia of historians who held neutral political views or were not aligned with Marxist historians, traditional supporters of the left-wing Indian National Congress party that rivals the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Contents |
Prime Minister Morarji Desai suggested that the criticized textbooks be withdrawn combined with a campaign against an alleged "communist" infiltration of academic positions, resulting in a storm of controversy in the press and in parliament. R.S. Sharma's 1977 Ancient India was withdrawn from the syllabus by the Central Board of Secondary Education in July 1978. The most hotly contested issue in the 1977 to 1979 controversy was the depiction of Mughal era (Muslim ruled) India, and the role of Islam in India. Romila Thapar's Medieval India was criticised for being too sympathetic to Muslim viewpoints, and for showing too little enthusiasm for Hindu heritage. In the course of the controversy, both sides became deeply suspicious of the other's motivations, contributing to the intensification of Indian "communalism" and leaving resentments that were to resurface in the renewed controversy under BJP rule twenty years later.
In 2002, under the NDA government spearheaded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the government made an attempt at changing the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) school textbooks through a new National Curriculum Framework.[2] Marxist historians raised objections to the new curriculum, claiming "saffronization" of education by allegedly raising the profile of Hindu cultural norms, views and historical personalities in school textbooks.[1]
The BJP opined that their only goal was to overhaul the stagnant and saturated institutions like NCERT and free them from the alleged dynastic control and hegemony of the Indian National Congress and the Communists.[3] Party members also opined that their goal was not to promote sectarianism, but present a more accurate picture of Indian history and Indian culture (such as Vedic science), which was being downplayed by the left wing ideologues.[4]
The NDA was defeated in the elections of 2004 and the new UPA government pledged to "de-saffronize" textbooks and curricula nationwide and restore the secular character of education.[1] In March, the UPA Government released new NCERT textbooks, based on the texts used prior to the controversial 2002 updates.[1] The Ministry of Human Resource Development, which oversaw this project, stated that it had made only minor modifications to the books that predated the "saffronized" era.[1]
In Delhi, the Directorate of Education, in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research and Training, prepared 47 new textbooks, and other state governments were expected to do likewise.[1] In June 2004, a panel constituted by NCERT reviewed the new textbooks and determined that they had poor content, shoddy presentation, and significant amounts of irrelevant information.[1] The panel recommended to the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister that the new books not be used until the defects could be resolved. resulting in Delhi students also using texts from the pre-"saffronized" period.[1]
Press reports indicated that the rush to "de-saffronize" school texts resulted in Urdu versions not being ready for the academic year, which began in April.[1] The reports asserted that this failure hurt Urdu-speaking students by depriving them of needed textbooks. The NCERT denied the claims.[1]
In turn, the UPA and previous Congress-led governments have been accused of revising history to present a Marxist bias, and whitewashing the record of Muslim atrocities in order to acquire Muslim votes.[5][6][7]