NCERT books tweaks: References to Babri Masjid, Gujarat riots, Hindutva dropped
Gujarat riots and Hindutva, and tweaking the reference to Manipur's merger with India are among the latest set of revisions made public by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in its textbooks. While NCERT did not comment on the topics being dropped, officials said the tweaks are part of the routine updation and are not linked to the development of new books as per the New Curriculum Framework (NCF). The changes have been made in Political Science textbooks of classes 11 and 12, besides others.
According to a document detailing the changes prepared by the curriculum drafting committee of the NCERT, the references to the Ram Janmabhoomi movement have been tweaked «as per latest development in politics».
Chapter 8 on Secularism in class 11 textbook earlier said, «More than 1,000 persons, mostly Muslims, were massacred during the post Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002.»
It has been changed to «more than 1,000 persons were killed during the post Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002». The NCERT's rationale behind the change is «in any riots people across communities suffer. It cannot be just one community».
On Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the earlier textbook stated «India claims that this area is under illegal occupation. Pakistan describes this area as Azad Pakistan». The changed version says, «However, it is the Indian territory which is under illegal occupation of Pakistan and called as Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK).»
The NCERT's rationale behind the alteration is that the
