In a move that has led to outrage among the Opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party government made wide-ranging changes in the syllabi of classes 10, 11 and 12, dropping chapters about the Non-Aligned Movement, the Cold War era, the rise of Islamic empires in Afro-Asian territories, the chronicles of Mughal courts, industrial revolution, and poems of Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)'s changes in the history and political science syllabi of classes 11 and 12 will be reflectd in the upcoming academic session.
Opposition leaders said the move is part of an increasing trend to saffronise education.
Also Read — Faiz's poems excluded from CBSE syllabus: Report
Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jawahar Sircar said that these changes are done in degrees. “The BJP government is doing this in degrees, but the bias is quite clear. The nature of deletion is proof of that. There was a similar move last year as well. The whole idea is to saffronise education at any cost,” Sircar said.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said that the move has been initiated by the RSS. “The BJP is actively pursuing the agenda of the RSS. The latter has always been uncomfortable with values of democracy, diversity and non alignment. Those who have no history of their own to be proud of, often try and distort history,” Khera told DH.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore said the party will fight against the move. “The decision of the CBSE is highly condemnable; they are acting like agents of the RSS. If students are denied true history then they will never know the truth of our forefathers. We will fight for restoration of chapters which are deleted. Without Non-Aligned Movement, food security, Cold War, Industrial Revolution, what history will our kids know? We must all unite to fight and restore the truth,” Tagore told DH.
In the syllabi of class 11, the Board dropped a chapter named “Central Islamic Lands” from the history book, which taught children about Islamic empires in Afro-Asian territories, about the rise of the Caliphate, the economic and societal conditions during these empires. In addition to that, from the mathematics syllabus a chapter on mathematical reasoning has been dropped.
From Class 12 syllabus, the Board has dropped a chapter on “The Mughal Court: Reconstructing Histories through Chronicles” from the history syllabus. The chapter looked at the social, religious and cultural history of the Mughals.
Most notably, for Class 10, the Board has dropped two Urdu poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz from the politics syllabus in a section named “Religion, Communalism and Politics — Communalism, Secular State”.
Board officials indicated that the changes were brought about by recommendations of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). An official from the Board, not wishing to be named, said that the changes were a routine procedure. “Changes in the courses are routinely carried out keeping in mind recommendations from stakeholders,” the official said.
Prior to this, changes in the syllabi made by the Board in 2012 and 2020 led to a lot of outrage.
The Board made the announcement in the syllabi for 2023 on Friday, and also said that from the upcoming academic session, it will revert to the one-exam system from which it had taken a departure this year owing to the pandemic, conducting two exams.
Other sections that were dropped from syllabi include chapters from the politics syllabus for class 10 on “Democracy and Diversity” with matter about race and caste inequalities, as well as a chapter on “Popular Struggle and Movements” focussing on the politics of Bolivia and Nepal. Also dropped are two posters and a cartoon from the section on Faiz poems, which included a cartoon published in the Times of India by cartoonist Ajith Ninan.
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