Skip to main content

Updating NCERT syllabus is undemocratic, autocratic, smacks of toxic communalism

Statement issued by Prof Tarun Kanti Naskar, General secretary, All India Save Education Committee, condemning NCERT's recent updating of the school curriculum:
***
The so called 'updated' curriculum of NCERT has deleted many important chapters from Classes 10th, 11th and 12th text books of History, Civics, Political Science and Hindi. The chapters and lessons deleted indicates a communally motivated political act rather than an academic exercise. AISEC vehemently condemns this step and demands restoration of the deleted chapters forthwith.
During the COVID- 19 induced lockdown also, the NCERT, at the dictate of the BJP-led Central government removed many a chapter from History, Civics and Science text books on the plea of 'rationalisation' of syllabus. Now, in the name of updating the curriculum, the axe has fallen on the entire Mughal Period in the History text books.
Similarly, chapters such as 'Rise of Popular Movements' and 'Era of One Party Dominance' have been removed from the Class 12th 'Politics in India since Independence' textbook. In addition to all these, chapters like 'US hegemony in world politics' and 'The Cold War Era' have been removed from the Civics syllabus also.
The whole exercise of updating the curriculum is not only blatantly undemocratic and highly autocratic marred, but smacks of a toxic communal outlook. While implementing the disastrous NEP-2020 in an unprecedented haste, the Modi government is unable to digest whatever secular, scientific and democratic content is still left in the curriculum. As the government is adopting out and out anti-people policies in all spheres on one hand and trying to silence and suppress discontent brewing among people on the other, it does not want uncomfortable lessons like 'Democracy and Diversity', 'Popular Struggles and Movements', and 'Challenges to Democracy' to remain in the syllabus. So these chapters have been dropped from the Class 10 'Democratic Politics-II' textbook.
Through such curriculum changes, the rulers want to indoctrinate the young minds with communal-oriented thinking and plant seeds of disunity among the people so that no united, democratic movement can be developed against their unjust rule. This is a fascistic design and it must be opposed and resisted tooth and nail by all democratic and secular forces of our country.

Comments

TRENDING

The “Dr” debate masks a larger crisis in allied-health education

By Dr P K Gupta*  India’s allied-health professions have long operated in a fragmented landscape of universities, hospitals, State authorities and private institutions, each with its own nomenclature, curriculum and standards. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 was meant to correct this by creating a unified national framework for education, professional regulation and institutional recognition. Few dispute the need for such oversight. The real question is whether standardisation is quietly becoming synonymous with longer courses, additional internships and new professional titles—changes that risk masking deeper gaps in clinical training, institutional capacity and affordability.

Pilgrimage or pollution? The waste crisis of Indian faith

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  In today's times, there are certain issues that are constantly talked about and discussed, yet no visible impact seems to be made. Beyond water, soil, and pollution, one crisis that continues to be overlooked is waste. Like other life-threatening problems, waste too is gradually moving toward burying and obliterating us. After the Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar, approximately 8,000 tonnes of waste were left behind on the riverbanks, including bottles filled with urine. 

Can cow dung become a source of income? Durga Maida shows the path to self‑reliance

By Vikas Meshram*  In the Sailana block of Ratlam district lies the small village of Govardhanpura. This is where Durga Maida lives with her husband and four daughters. Their livelihood depended on just one bigha of land—far too little to feed a family of six. Growing enough grain for the year was impossible, and even meeting daily expenses was a constant struggle. Alongside farming, Durga kept livestock and took up wage labour whenever she could. Hard work was never lacking, but income always was. Month after month, the accounts failed to balance, forcing her to borrow. Looking back, Durga says those days felt heavy and hopeless; farming offered no promise, and there was no sign of change. Her story mirrored the reality of almost every small farmer in the area.