Modi rewrites the history books

The revisions have sparked a national debate in Indian media and academic circles.

The Indian government under Narendra Modi has altered textbooks to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi's opposition to Hindu nationalism and other controversial issues. By Adil Bhat

By Adil Bhat

India is ushering in a new age of history – or at least, the history that is being taught in schools from grades six to 12. The authorities have revised history and politics textbooks to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi's disapproval of Hindu nationalism, as well as chapters on hundreds of years of Muslim rule over large parts of modern-day India.

Even references to the 2002 Gujarat riots in which over 1,000 people – mostly Muslims – were killed have also been taken out of textbooks intended for India's youth. At the time of the riots, Gujarat was led by India's current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Critics decry the revisions as a government's attempt to rewrite India's history and make it suit the Hindu nationalist agenda. In turn, the government says the measures were aimed to rationalise the syllabus and reduce student workload.

Sections on Gandhi's assassination removed

In New Delhi's Adarsh Public School students have already received the revised textbooks. Now, they will no longer learn the complete history of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin, Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse. They will also skip some parts concerning the caste system – India's social hierarchy passed down through families – as well as chapters on protests and social movements.

The long period when parts of India were ruled by the Muslim Mughal dynasty will also be absent from texts. The principal of Adarsh, Pooja Malhotra, agrees with the changes. She believes they are an important step, casting Indian history in a positive light for schoolchildren. While visiting the classroom, she tells the pupils that the irrelevant bits of history have been pruned in their own interest.

"I feel everybody knows that Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi, but since it is related to Hindu-Muslim, it has been creating a lot of hue and cry. It has been deleted and I feel it is good," said Pooja.

A photo of an old Indian textbook, highlighting the sections that have been removed (image: Adil Bhat) — Revisions spark a national debate: historian Sucheta Mahajan, who teaches at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, vehemently decries the changes and warns of the dangers of selectively reading the past. A lecturer for three decades, she sees the changes as a decisive attempt to weaponise and erase history. "This present regime and its ancestors have made it an ideological weapon or tool in their political, intellectual and cultural project of turning this country into a Hindu-dominant country and it is part of that agenda"

The Indian Express newspaper has looked into specific examples of which paragraphs on Gandhi's death have been removed from 12th-grade political science textbooks.

The revisions include cutting lines such as: "He (Gandhi) was particularly disliked by those who wanted Hindus to take revenge or who wanted India to become a country for the Hindus, just as Pakistan was for Muslims…" and "His steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists so much that they made several attempts to assassinate [Gandhi]."

The authorities have also removed the lines that spoke of the clampdown against the Hindu nationalist movement known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and similar groups, in the wake of Gandhi's death.

The original textbook stated that the 1948 assassination "had an almost magical effect on the communal situation in the country… The Government of India cracked down on organisations that were spreading communal hatred. Organisations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were banned for some time."

But it appears new textbooks omit that as well. Schools are now mandated to use the new material, with the National Council of Educational Research and Training prescribing the revised versions to both public and private schools across 23 states and union territories.

Turning education into 'an ideological weapon'

These revisions have sparked a national debate in Indian media and in its academic circles. At Jawaharlal Nehru University of New Delhi, students organised a gathering to discuss ways of rolling back the textbook revisions. Historian Sucheta Mahajan vehemently decried the changes, talking to students about the dangers of selectively reading the past.

Sucheta, who has been teaching at this university for three decades, sees the changes as a decisive attempt to weaponise and erase history. "This present regime and its ancestors have made it an ideological weapon or tool in their political, intellectual and cultural project of turning this country into a Hindu-dominant country and it is part of that agenda," she said.

Experts say that by introducing revisions in school textbooks, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to influence the minds of a younger generation of students who will grow up learning an incomplete past and distorted history.

Sucheta Mahajan and many other critics also decry what they see as the ruling party's efforts to erase Muslims from India's history. A case in point; the BJP has started renaming streets that were named after Muslim rulers in the national capital and other prominent cities in India.

BJP's positive spin

The BJP regards the changes as a balancing act. BJP spokesperson Teena Sharma remembers her days in school where she was taught history that glorified the Mughal rulers. She said that the Indian National Congress (INC), now an opposition party, has always promoted "anti-national history".

"BJP has also changed names of a few roads and monuments, because the kind of history which is going to the children is going in a positive manner," said Sharma. "And we have taken out the names of those wrong people who definitely fought against India and have done injustice to India. They have been glorified in the past books written by [the INC]," she added.

The latest effort to revise history textbooks may not be as sudden as it first appears. Much of the BJP's efforts have long been focused on promoting a singular and uniform cultural past. In a 2019 speech, Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, urged historians to take action.

"It is our responsibility to write our history," Shah said at the time.

Adil Bhat