NCERT gives disproportionate attention to Mughals; 97 Akbar mentions and only 8 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj?
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History textbooks issued by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) give "disproportionate attention" to Mughal rulers, a research report by a think tank presented before the Parliamentary Committee on education has claimed.
According to a report, the research states that there is an average of 97 references to Emperor Akbar, 30 references to Shah Jahan, Aurangzeb and Jahangir each, while Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji gets just eight mentions, and there are almost no references to Rajput kings Rana Sanga and Maharana Pratap. The report has criticised NCERT and Kerala textbooks for giving more weightage to accounts of Muslim chroniclers such as Ibn Batuta and Al Baruni, and social reform movements such as the Brahmo Samaj and reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, ignoring the work of Indians such as Chanakya, Bodhayan, Bhaskaracharya, Aryabhatta and the work of social reformers such as Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Swami Vivekananda.
The think tank also claimed that the Kerala textbooks black out references to ancient India and Rig Veda, amplify the caste of saints who led the Bhakti movement and downplay their philosophy and teachings. On the other hand, the research report praised the Gujarat government's approach to history, wherein it "underplayed the caste system, valourised Rajput women and talked about the role women in ancient India played in society".It also claimed that textbooks of classes eight to twelve, in their chapters about modern India, gave prominence to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, while leaders such as Sardar Patel, Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen and Khudiram Bose were rarely mentioned.
The think tank recommended that desecration of be taught, particularly in the cases of Somnath temple, Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque, Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra and others, and highlight stories of Hindu kings such as Raja Dahir, maratha and Rajput rulers such as Tanhaji, Rani Durgavati and Rani Kiran Devi Rathore in the textbooks, the report said. The education panel is expected to come up with its own report on redesigning the curriculum shortly, even as the Centre mulls changes to textbooks.
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