Kerala restores deleted portions on 2002 Gujarat riots, RSS and more from NCERT syllabus
The Kerala government has incorporated the deleted portions in supplementary textbooks, which will be distributed in schools in September after the Onam break
Kerala has restored the deleted NCERT portions on Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, the 2002 Gujarat riots, Jawarharlal Nehru etc., in the textbooks of classes 11 and 12 by incorporating them in supplementary textbooks. And these supplementary textbooks will be distributed by the Kerala education department in educational institutions in September after the Onam break.
According to news reports, Kerala's education minister V Sivankutty announced on August 12 that when the school reopens in September after Onam break, the new textbooks carring the omitted portions of the syllabus will be distributed.
“It is important that students should learn history, economics and science from the right perspective,” Sivankutty had said.
Last year, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), as part of its “syllabus rationalisation” deleted lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Gandhi’s assassination, the Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement, among other topics from its history textbooks. The reason given for dropping these lessons was that it was "overlapping" and "irrelevant".
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For example, from class 12th history textbooks, Gandhiji’s assassin Nathuram Godse’s background was dropped and so was the crackdown on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after Gandhi's assassination. Lessons on how Gandhi stood for Hindu-Muslim unity and opposed Hindu majoritarianism after Independence were removed were also scrapped.
The decision to issue supplementary textbooks was made by a SCERT curriculum committee. Kerala's curriculum committee will bring back these deleted portions including the portions that were taken out from science textbooks as well, according to media reports.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had lambasted the move to remove certain chapters and portions from NCERT textbooks. He alleged that “complete saffronisation” of academic books was the objective behind the move.
Kerala, however, depends on NCERT textbooks only for classes 11 and 12 in government schools.
