When applying bulldozer towards history
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From 2019 to 2024, the entry fee collected from tourists visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra amounted to ₹297.33 crore, which went into the central government’s treasury. Agra Fort generated ₹127.31 crore, Qutub Minar in Delhi ₹63.74 crore, and the Red Fort ₹54.32 crore in revenue. These structures did not magically appear one fine morning. They are the result of prolonged planning, cultural imagination, and decades of hard labor, standing proudly before the world as the pride of India. Historians and enthusiasts around the globe know who built the Taj, the Qutub Minar, and the forts. However, there are now doubts whether the upcoming generations in India will be able to learn about them in schools. The government's conspiracy to erase the rulers and their contributions behind these constructions from history and history books has gained more strength than ever before. As part of the much-celebrated new National Curriculum Framework, the sections relating to the Mughal-Sultanate period have been completely removed by the central government from the Class 7 Social Science textbook revised by NCERT.
Along with the constant attempts to erase the memories of Mughal emperors from the names of places and roads, the Sangh Parivar regime is now moving to completely eliminate from textbooks a rich and eventful period in Indian history. The 'karseva' that began in the 2022–23 period, under the pretext of rationalizing the syllabus and reducing study load by avoiding repetition, by trimming down Mughal-Sultanate history, has now reached its peak. Just as bulldozers are deployed to demolish historic mosques and structures, the government and the Sangh Parivar controlling it are deeply obsessed with turning an important period of history into dust.
Years ago, while in power in various North Indian states and Karnataka, the BJP governments made severe intrusions into curricula and introduced absurd superstitions even into science textbooks. Although distorting history and adorning falsehoods with the appearance of history has been a Sangh Parivar practice, such a terrifying distortion of school textbooks at the national level and at this scale is happening for the first time. After removing the Mughal period, students are now being made to study sections about the Magadha, Maurya, Shunga, and Satavahana dynasties, alongside information about central government schemes like 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao,' 'Make in India,' and the Maha Kumbh Mela. The Sangh Parivar camps have long been crying out that certain dynasties that ruled parts of the country centuries ago did not receive enough importance, and that the Mughal-Sultanate periods were given excessive consideration by historians. The current deletions and additions we see are based on the suggestions that have emerged from the camps they organized over the years by misusing government funds.
This is a syllabus change from the India of Nehru and Maulana Azad, where scholars of science and history and experienced educationists were entrusted with the task of preparing curricula and where a willingness to consider criticisms and suggestions was expressed, to a comprehensively authoritarian India.
The announcement by Kerala’s Education Minister V. Sivankutty that the Kerala government will take a firm stand against the dropping of historical facts from textbooks and will create mechanisms to teach the omitted portions is welcome. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin has also openly exposed the saffron color behind the National Education Policy being pushed forward by the Modi government.
We have been witnessing clear examples of how scholars, who think and act only in alignment with the interests of the government, drag the education sector and our children into distorted ideologies. Just a few weeks ago, an IIT director publicly claimed that cow urine is a medicinal cure, while a college principal at Delhi University, asserting that air conditioning is beneficial, applied cow dung on the classroom wall. Medical professionals opposed the IIT director's misinformation, and the student community protested the principal's actions. Unless such resistances are made stronger, there is no doubt that this government will unhindered inject unscientific and baseless concoctions into science textbooks, just as it removed the Mughal period from history books.
