The Yogi Adityanath government has affected major changes in the history books for Classes 11 and 12, where Mughal history has been deleted from the syllabus.
The Uttar Pradesh government has, however, clarified that it has made no changes as the changes were made by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in June 2022. The UP Board of High School and Intermediate has adopted the NCERT books as text books for classes 11 and 12.
The revised syllabus will come into force from the next academic session (2023-24). The UP government has neither added nor deleted any chapter in the history text books.
UP Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak said that “our ancient civilisation, traditions and culture are our heritage and the government wants that the present generation should have a fair knowledge and understanding about our ancient glory”.
He added, “Since independence the people of India have been kept in the dark about the ancient Indian culture and heritage and we will undo the historical wrong.”
The NCERT has removed chapters and topics related to ‘Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (16th and 17th centuries)’ from the history book under its new rationalised syllabus.
Class 12 students of UP Board and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will no longer study the history of the Mughal courts. The NCERT has removed chapters and topics related to ‘Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (C. 16th and 17th centuries)’ from history book ‘Themes of Indian History-Part II’ under its new rationalised syllabus to be taught in Class 12 from the academic session 2023-24, state Secondary Education department officials say.
Similarly, lessons regarding the ‘Central Islamic lands’, ‘Confrontation of Cultures’ and ‘The Industrial Revolution’ too have been removed from Class 11 textbook ‘Themes in World History, they add.
Under the now removed topics from the history books of Class 12, students were taught about ‘Akbarnama’ (the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar) and ‘Badshah nama’ (chronicle of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan), Mughal rulers and their empire, composition of manuscripts, colour illustrations, ideal states, capitals and courts, titles, gifts and presents, royal family, royal bureaucracy, Mughal elite information and empire, borders.
‘Rise of popular movements’ and ‘Era of one-party dominance’ have also been removed from the textbook ‘Politics in India since Independence’ taught to Class 12 students. In this, the nature of dominance of the Congress, Socialist Party, Communist Party of India, Bharatiya Jana Sangh and the Swatantra Party were taught. Lessons on ‘Democracy and diversity’, ‘Popular struggles and movement’, ‘Challenges to democracy’ have also been removed from the Class 10 textbook ‘Democratic Politics-II’.
The links of subject-wise rationalised syllabus for session 2023-24 made available by NCERT have been provided on the official website of UP Board —https://www.upmsp.edu.in. Books published according to the rationalised syllabus too are now available in the market.
The Yogi Adityanath government in the past has also taken certain decisions about Mughal history. The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party government had decided to construct a museum named as Mughal museum at Agra. Its name was changed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Museum. The state government had then said there was no place for cultural slavery in new India.
