Sections on Gandhi removed from textbooks in India

According to Indian media reports, the National Council for Education and Training Research (NCERT) has removed or shortened certain historical sections of grades 11 and 12 textbooks for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The Turkish state, the Mughal empire, which ruled from 1526 to 1858, the violence in the state of Gujarat in 2002, which killed some 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, and sections on Nathuram Godse, a radical Hindu nationalist who was killed to Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, were struck off the books.

The exclusion of the Mughal Empire and other Muslim dynasties, which ruled parts of India for centuries, was taken to ignore the contributions these governments made to Indian culture and history.

The RSS (National Volunteer Organization, the umbrella organization of various Hindu nationalist groups), which played a pivotal role in the development of the Hindutva idea and Hindu ethnic nationalism, of which Godse is claimed to have been a member for a period and was founded in 1925, it has close relations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Excluded from the book was the section in which Godse was said to be “the editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper who characterized Gandhi as a concessioner to Muslims”.

“PROCESS RECOMMENDED BY EXPERTS”

Some facts about the Chipko Movement and the Naxalite Movement, which were seen as anti-Hindu nationalism, and the 21-month state of emergency in 1975-1977, were not included in the books.

On the other hand, topics such as “American hegemony in world politics” and “the Cold War era” will not be included in these books.

Leaders of opposition parties and the country’s lawmakers, historians and academics reacted to the changes in textbooks. The right-wing government has been criticized for erasing the country’s history and creating an Indian history free of unwanted details.

It was warned that generations unaware of the events in the country’s history will have a narrow perspective.

On the other hand, in the communiqué of the high officials of the NCERT, it was indicated that this is a process recommended by experts.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Some 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in violence that erupted in Gujarat in 2002.

Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi died at the age of 79 on January 30, 1948, after the assassination of a radical Hindu nationalist named Nathuram Godse, who was allegedly sympathetic to Muslims. (AA)