Thread by @RitikaChopra__

Modi govt has carried out the most SWEEPING changes (yet) in school textbooks 📚 since it came to power in 2014!
Starting today, @IndianExpress will take you through the GLARING deletions in NCERT's history, pol science & sociology textbooks for Classes 6 to 12.
#Thread (1/n)

👉The first part of our investigation (out today) focuses on changes made to the content related to contemporary India 🇮🇳

👉The most significant of them is the deletion of references to the 2002 Gujarat riots from TWO ✌️textbooks.

(2/n)

👉Two pages on the riots have been dropped from the Class 12 pol sc book. These pages provide the chronology of events -- a train full of karsevaks set on fire followed by violence against Muslims -- & refer to the criticism of the state govt in failing to control violence.
(3/n)

👉The 2nd reference has been removed from the Class 12 Sociology textbook. This is a paragraph that cites the example of Gujarat riots & anti-Sikh riots to describe how communalism drives people to "kill, rape, and loot members of other communities."

(4/n)

👉Content on public protests (that turned into social movements) in contemporary India has SHRUNK, drastically.

3 chapters on protests including those spearheaded by Narmada Bachao Andolan, Dalit Panthers & Bharatiya Kisan Union are now dropped from pol sc in Classes 6
to 12

👉Among other deletions on protests & social movements is an 'exercise box' (in the Class 12 sociology textbook) that asks students to discuss the recent farmers’ protests against the three farm laws passed by the Parliament.
(6/n)

🚨 Interestingly, the 'Emergency' has been whitewashed.

DELETED: A BIG section on controversies surrounding Emergency & excesses such as the arrest of political workers, restrictions on media, torture & custodial deaths, forced sterilisations in the Class 12 pol sc textbook

DELETED: A paragraph on the draconian impact of the Emergency on people & institutions in the Class 12 sociology book👇

(8/n)

👉Content on democracy has suffered the deepest cuts.

FOUR chapters about democracy & making of Indian democracy have been deleted from political science & history textbooks on the ground that similar topics have already been covered in other classes.
(9/n)

Among other redactions:

🚨A section describing the arbitrariness of colonial law through the example of sedition is no longer part of the Class 8 political science book.

Interestingly, this was the ONLY reference to sedition across ALL pol science & history textbooks
(10/n)

The above section (deleted from the Class 8 pol sc book) also carried the following exercise for students: "State one reason why you think the Sedition Act of 1870 was arbitrary? In what ways does the Sedition Act of 1870 contradict the rule of law?"

(11/n)

MORE: Former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s quote on Emperor Ashoka (in Class 6 history) & the Bhakra Nangal Dam (in Class 12 sociology) dropped.

(12/n)

ALL references to Naxalism & the Naxalite movement have been deleted across ALL history, political science & sociology textbooks of NCERT.

Exhibit A 👇

You can read the first part here: indianexpress.com/article/expres…

(14/n)

TOMORROW: On Caste & Discrimination

(15/n)