Editorial: Making peace with the past

A recent development in the nation’s education space has brought forth this divide once again. This time around, they have resurrected a debate that has its origins in the late 60s – the whitewashing of Mughal history in school textbooks. In January this year, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education during a meeting on textbook reforms, witnessed presentations put up by stakeholders in education as well as members of right wing organisations. Their argument was against the disproportionate coverage of Mughal history in school textbooks and the concurrent side-lining of Vedic era history. The panel’s objectives were to impart equal importance to all periods of Indian history as well as highlighting the role of great women in India’s journey.

The proceedings are taking place at a time when the National Education Policy 2020 has been rolled out, and a new syllabus is being drafted. Significantly, textbook reforms are being discussed at a Parliamentary Committee after more than two decades. However, further context is essential to understand where the problems stem from. In 1977, then Prime Minister, Late Morarji Desai was given a memorandum by a Janata Party functionary that levelled criticisms at NCERT’s textbooks. A set of history books deemed anti-Indian, anti-national as well as biased towards the study of Indian history were targeted in this memorandum. The criticism was that the books weren’t adequately critical of certain Muslim invaders and that they were passive towards the notion of Hindu revivalism. The controversy continued for two more years, during which one of the publications – RS Sharma’s Ancient India was withdrawn from the CBSE syllabus.

The current discourse is a classic case of history repeating. Fuelling this conversation is a news report regarding NCERT’s response to an RTI query filed recently. The bone of contention is a claim in a Class 12 history textbook which says Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had offered grants to rebuild Hindu temples during his reign. The claim is diametrically opposed to historic documents that have recorded the destruction of cultural artefacts by foreign invaders during the conquests of India. The RTI query had sought NCERT to back its claim by offering the source of historical reference, to which the educational body responded saying that it had none.

Apprehensions of revisionist history aside, the Centre also took measures that have called into question the idea of educating students on India’s heritage. Two years ago, before the start of the 2019-20 academic year, many deletions were carried out in the Class 11 history textbooks. Chapters pertaining to the nationalist movement in Indo-China, the impact of colonial capitalism on farmers, and caste conflicts were knocked off the syllabus, in an act that many critics called intellectual vandalism. Making one’s peace with the past is a daunting exercise, and that goes double for a community or a nation. A case in point is Germany’s guilt over the Holocaust. The pulling down of statues of Confederate leaders in the US is an example of how the Black community dealt with the fallout of ongoing racial tensions last year. In 2015, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, in a widely publicised panel discussion, had called out Britain’s historical amnesia when it comes to dealing with its own colonial history, the atrocities committed during its occupation of the country, and the ill-gotten gains that fuelled the industrial revolution of the West – none of which is taught to children in British history classes. The powers that be could do well by remembering that redacting history can serve no real gain in the long run. In the words of George Santayana, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.