Parties and politics in the political court ~ to summon a variation of the Aligarh historian, Athar Ali’s work on Mughal India ~ are yet to evolve an agreeable answer to EH Carr’s famous query ~ What is History, indeed the title of his seminal book. The National Council of Educational Research and Training has while finalizing school textbooks decided to delete some references to Jawaharlal Nehru and the Mughal emperors as well as to caste and religious discrimination. This is an unfortunate comedown for the Council which in the early 1970s had published a standard work on modern Indian history, crafted by frontranking historians. The NCERT’s latest textbooks have challenged certain stereotypical ideas about Muslims. Small wonder there has been a spurt of allegations, articulated by academics and rights activists that the textbook preparing authority had toed an ideological line. Without naming the experts whose suggestions were sought, the NCERT has described the exercise as a “rationalization of textbook content by a set of experts”.

This must rank as a quirky form of subjective reflection. It will be open to question whether primary sources of information were utilized to the fullest extent in the crafting of history. Interpretation of “experts” is secondary in the overall construct. The review that will be prescribed to students of an impressionabe age has arguably denuded academic integrity. On several topics, the content has been changed without consulting the original advisers and writers. This has invited the charge of a distortion of content. A paragraph has been dropped from the book, Social and Political Life ~ I for Class 6. A common stereotype about some Muslims is that they are not interested in educating girls and, therefore, do not send girls to schools. However, studies with academic import have now concluded that poverty amongst Muslims is an important reason why girls of the community do not attend school or drop out after a few years. A deleted paragraph in a chapter on social history states: “caste rules were set which did not allow the so-called ‘untouchables’ to take on work, other than what they were meant to do”.

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There is little or no attribution to this interpretation of social history, not to mention reference to primary sources of information. And without mentioning historical instances, the chapter states that “upper castes acted in ways which did not give the so-called ‘untouchables’ the same right as they enjoyed”. Small wonder that Ashok Bharti, chairperson of the National Confederation of Dalit and Adivasi Organisations, has debunked the NCERT review committee. “They appear to have harboured feelings of guilt about historial facts”. The nub of the matter must be that historical truth should not be tampered with. Sad to reflect that the NCERT should have allowed itself to be placed in a position where fingers are being pointed at its interpretation of history