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The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an apex resource organisation set up by the Government of India to assist and advise the central and state governments on academic matters related to school education.The model textbooks published by the council for adoption by school systems across India have generated controversies over the years. They have been accused of using orwellian tactics to reflect the political views of the party in power in the Government of India. Recently it's been under scrutiny for saffronisation.

In the early 1960s, national integration and unifying the various communities of India became a major concern to the Government. Education was seen as an important vehicle for the emotional integration of the nation.[5][6] The Minister of Education M. C. Chagla was concerned that the textbooks in history should not recite myths but be secular and rational explanations of the past. A committee on history education was established with the membership of Tara Chand, Nilakanta Sastri, Mohammad Habib, Bisheshwar Prasad, B. P. Saxena and P. C. Gupta, which commissioned a number of history textbooks to be authored by the leading historians. Romila Thapar's Ancient India for class VI was published in 1966, Medieval India for class VII in 1967. A number of other books, Ram Sharan Sharma's Ancient India, Satish Chandra's Medieval India, Bipan Chandra's Modern India and Arjun Dev's India and the World were published in 1970's.[7][6][8]

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These texts were intended to be "model" textbooks which were "modern and secular," free of communal bias and prejudice. However, Deepa Nair states that they also carried a "Marxist imprint." The Marxist emphasis on social and economic issues implied a critique of culture and tradition. The value of spirituality was reduced. The Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was sympathetic to the Marxist view of history and believed in a scientific outlook on civil society. In contrast, the Hindu nationalist historiography disagreed with Marxist historiography and based Indian history in the antiquity with glories of Hindu civilization and culture. These contrary views of history set the scene for conflict.[9]

The textbooks faced political pressures from the inception. In 1969, a Parliamentary Consultative Committee wanted the textbook on Ancient India to state categorically that the "Aryans" were indigenous to India. But the demand was rejected by the editorial board as well as Thapar as the author. Further critical reactions came from Hindu and Sikh religious organisations that their respective religions and religious leaders had not been glorified. The Hindu Mahasabha and Arya Samaj claimed that the mention of beef-eating in ancient times went counter to the religious sentiments of the "Hindu nationality."[7][better source needed]

Such controversies continue till today. The controversy centers around the charges of an attempted "saffronised" rewriting of Indian history (i.e., making lessons consonant with the Hindutva).[10] Allegations of historical revisionism with a Hindu nationalist agenda arose several times: under the Janata Party government 1977 to 1980 and again under the Bharatiya Janata Party government from 1998 to 2004 and from 2014 to 2019. In 2012, the organization has been blamed for attempting to insult the government by publishing 'offensive' cartoons in its textbooks.[citation needed]

Three months into the Janata Party government headed by Morarji Desai, the Prime Minister was handed an anonymous memorandum by Nanaji Deshmukh, former Jana Sangh leader and general secretary of the Janata Party, which targeted the NCERT textbooks. The books criticised were Thapar's Medieval India and Bipan Chandra's Modern India, along with two other books, Freedom Struggle by Tripathi, De and Chandra, and Communalism and the Writing of Indian History by Thapar, Mukhia and Chandra. (Only the first two were NCERT textbooks.) The Prime Minister forwarded the memorandum to the Education Minister suggesting that the books be withdrawn from circulation. In August 1977, R. S. Sharma's Ancient India was published, which was also targeted. The books were said to be "anti-Indian and anti-national" in content and "prejudicial to the study of history." The main issues seemed to be that they were not sufficiently critical of certain Muslim invaders during the medieval period and that they emphasized the role of leaders like Tilak and Aurobindo in the development of Hindu-Muslim antagonisms. The Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh launched a separate campaign against the books in its magazine Organiser.[11][12][7][13]

The memorandum got leaked and a public debate ensued, which ran till 1979. The authors of the books argued for the legitimacy of independent interpretations as long as they were based on reliable evidence. 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 revivalism.[13][14] In November 1977, a committee of reputable historians was asked to examine the textbooks, which supported their continuance.[7] Nonetheless, the government passed an act in July 1978, withdrawing R. S. Sharma's Ancient India from the syllabus of the Central Board of Secondary Education.[12]

In 2002, under the NDA government spearheaded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the government made an attempt at changing the NCERT school textbooks through a new National Curriculum Framework.[15] Marxist historians raised objections to the new curriculum, claiming "saffronisation" of education by allegedly raising the profile of Hindu cultural norms, views and historical personalities in school textbooks.[10] 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.[16] 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.[17] NCERT also attracted plagiarism accusations in 2003 mainly from the Frontline Magazine published by the Hindu. "Contemporary World History", a textbook for Class XII, has been found to contain several sections lifted from World Civilizations - Their History and Their Culture authored by Edward MacNall Burns, Philip Lee Ralph, Robert E. Lerner and Standish Meacham. The latter book, published by American publishers W.W. Norton & Company Inc, has a special Indian edition, which is the only authorised, complete and unabridged reprint of the latest American edition.[18]

The NDA was defeated in the elections of 2004 and the new UPA government pledged to "de-saffronise" textbooks and curricula nationwide and restore the secular character of education.[10] In March, the UPA Government released new NCERT textbooks, based on the texts used before the controversial 2002 updates.[10] The Ministry of Human Resource Development, which oversaw this project, stated that it had made only minor modifications to the books that predated the "saffronised" era.[10] 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.[10] In June 2004, a panel, composed of J. S. Grewal, Barun De and S. Settar, was constituted by the NCERT to review the new textbooks. This panel suggested that the textbooks that were being used in school syllabuses had poor content, were presented shoddily, and contained significant amounts of irrelevant information.[10] The panel recommended, to the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister, that the new books not be used until the defects could be resolved. This led the Delhi students to use textbooks that were used in school syllabuses from the pre-"saffronised" period.[10]

Press reports indicated that the rush to "de-saffronise" school texts resulted in Urdu versions not being ready for the academic year, which began in April.[10] The reports asserted that this failure hurt Urdu-speaking students by depriving them of needed textbooks.[19] The NCERT denied the claims.[10]

The UPA and previous Congress-led governments have been accused by the BJP of revising history to present a Marxist bias, and whitewashing the record of Muslim atrocities to acquire Muslim votes.[20][21][22]

Amendments were made in history textbook for Class XII in lessons on Sikhism after protest from Sikh organisations in 2006.[23] In 2012, there were protests for removal of controversial anti-Hindi agitation and an Ambedkar cartoon.[24][25]

NCERT had announced its decision to erase certain chapters on the Mughal Empire from class 12 history textbooks to which the BJP party and many of its politicians like Kapil Mishra have welcomed the move to eliminate part of the Mughal history from course books. This move of erasing Mughal history from syllabus attracted severe criticism from various faction of political arena.[37][38]

According to Aditya Mukherjee, a professor of contemporary Indian history, the removal of Mughal history from the textbook was an attempt to erase history of a particular community, which is usually followed by a genocide of the community.[45][46]

Around 1800 scientists, educators, science teachers, science popularizers, and citizens from various reputable institutions criticized the removal of Darwin's theory of evolution from NCERT textbooks, saying that the purging of foundational science chapters will seriously handicap students' thought process. They wrote an open letter to the government urging it to continue teaching theory of evolution.[48] e24fc04721