India’s latest decolonisation drive aims at British titles in textbooks

After renaming Rajpath as Kartavya Path, Race Course as Lok Kalyan Marg, Prime Minister’s residence as Seva Teerth, Raj Bhawan as Lok Bhawan and countless other pieces of infrastructure by the BJP in an attempt to decolonise the Indian mind, a party leader has now urged the Parliament to drop titles of British viceroys and governor generals in school textbooks and Government documents.

BJP leader Sujeeth Kumar, supported by the ruling party MPs in the Parliament, urged the Union Government on Friday to remove references like Lord Curzon, Lord Mountbatten, Lord Dalhousie and Lord Leighton, among others, from the NCERT textbooks, Government documentations and also from official websites. Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, Sujeeth said the practice perpetuates a “colonial mindset” even 75 years after independence.

Former NCERT Director JS Rajput, however, differed from the ruling party’s views and said that history can be tampered with. “These are the titles they earned for their colonial service. However, the important issue is to understand the logic behind what established these titles and their role. Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also referred to Macaulay’s mindset, which means he has a significance even after 200 years,” Rajput told The Pioneer.

Kumar has questioned why India should continue placing British officials “on a demigod-like pedestal” by calling them Lords, especially when many committed “horrendous and barbaric crimes” against Indians, while the country’s own freedom fighters are not accorded similar reverence. “A vibrant democracy like ours, which also is the largest and oldest democracy on earth, should not continue this practice as it perpetuates a colonial mindset, goes against the spirit of social equality, and also goes against the letter and spirit of our own constitution,” he said.

“I did a random check of all these websites, documents, and school textbooks, and this is what I found. During British rule, the colonial rulers used and abused their power to give titles for their imperialistic designs and to promote the false narrative of racial superiority. This was a title given by the British to the British for the British needs,” the BJP MP said, highlighting the widespread use of the title across educational and official materials.

He claimed that official websites of the Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and even the Raj Bhavan, now renamed ‘Lok Bhavan’ of Bihar, continue to use the title for British colonial administrators. He drew parallels with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to rename Rajpath as Kartavya Path.