Mughal empire chapters dropped to ‘reduce content load’: NCERT Director

Topics removed include controversies regarding emergency, Gujarat riots

NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani has termed the removal of NCERT chapters an exercise in “rationalization”, undertaken by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) last year, aimed at “reducing content load” to help students make a ‘speedy recovery’ from learning setbacks suffered during COVID-19.

The deletions of Mughal history from its social science textbooks have been done in view of the pandemic-induced learning loss. “Children suffered a lot during the pandemic.

They lost out on their studies, (and) were in fragile mental state. As a result, a committee was formed to look into reducing the content load of students. They suggested removal of chapters that come in repetition in various classes,” Saklani told Moneycontrol.

“The chapters have been taken out from the specific textbook, not from the syllabus. These topics are being taught in different classes and the exercise is a step towards avoiding repetition in content,” he added.

When asked about the parameter for reduction, Saklani said, “If a topic has been covered at some level, it is not to be repeated.”

The director further added, “This had been done last year. While the textbooks had already been printed as per the older curriculum, we had made sure these topics are not taught to students. Errata booklets had been issued to all CBSE schools, exams were taken on the same pattern.”

Defending the step, he said, “It is not just history books which have seen deletion of chapters. Textbooks of maths, science, (and) other subjects have seen the same.”

This is the third such update that textbooks have received since 2014.

Topics removed include controversies regarding emergency, Gujarat riots

An assessment of the NCERT list of rationalized content shows that these updated textbooks have removed chapters, including a full topic on controversies regarding the Emergency under the crisis of democratic order, Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity, the banning of RSS for a few years in India, any and all references to Gujarat riots, and several mentions of protests that turned into social movements in contemporary India. The books also deleted reference to Nathuram Godse denouncing Gandhi as ‘appeaser of Muslims’.

The topic ‘Gujarat Riots’ was removed from the chapter titled ‘Recent Developments in Indian Politics’ from the Class 12 political science book, mention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report on the 2002 violence, and the “raj dharma” remark by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Chapters under the sub-head ‘Themes of Indian History: Part 2,’ of the Class 12 history textbook, which are related to ‘Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (c. 16th and 17th centuries)’ have been removed. Others including The Demographic Structure of the Indian Society, Central Islamic Lands, Clash of Cultures, and Industrial Revolution have been removed from World History.

A poem on the Dalit movement and a chapter on the Cold War are among the exclusions from the political science textbook.

Chapters on ‘Akbarnama’ (the chronicle of Akbar) and ‘Badshah Nama’, (the chronicle of Shah Jahan) also stand deleted in the updated textbooks.

Other chapters that have been removed include Understanding Partition - Its politics, memories and experiences, and Era of One-party Dominance.

NCERT had released a comprehensive list of all tweaks and deletions in the textbooks last year. However, it could not introduce these changes as the academic session had started. Reprinted books with rationalised content hit the market this week, just in time for the 2023-24 academic year.