- Saturday, March 01, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Reforms in syllabus in India’s higher school education have continued amid controversy as references of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1888-1958), independent India’s first education minister, were removed from political science textbooks of Class XI under the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The latest move comes days after the removal of parts related to the Mughal empire in India and Mahatma Gandhi, the country’s iconic freedom fighter who is also called the ‘Father of the Nation’.
After #Mughals, #Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has been removed from syllabus. Youngest @INCIndia president n first Education Minister, now any mention of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad has been deleted from a revised political science textbook published by the NCERT.#muslimsinindia pic.twitter.com/6w6ZzBVrCk
— India Muslim History (@syedurahman) April 13, 2023
According to an India Today report, a line was revised in the textbook’s first chapter titled ‘Constitution — Why and How’ to omit Azad’s name from the meetings of the constituent assembly committee to look after the process of constitution-making.
The revised line now reads, “Usually, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad, Sardar Patel or BR Ambedkar chaired these Committees.”
Azad played a key role in 1946, when he led the Indian National Congress in the elections for the new constituent assembly of India to draft the constitution.
He had also led a delegation to negotiate with the British Cabinet Mission, in his sixth year as the grand-old party’s president.
The report also said that references to Jammu and Kashmir’s conditional accession was also removed from the same textbook. A sentence in the book’s 10th chapter titled ‘The Philosophy of the Constitution’ was deleted.
The now-deleted line read, “For example, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to the Indian union was based on a commitment to safeguarding its autonomy under Article 370 of the Constitution.”
The Narendra Modi government abrogated Article 370 in August 2019, bringing to end Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
Article 370 was abrogated by the Central government in August 2019, ending Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomous status.
Two months later, in October 2019, the erstwhile state was bifurcated into two Union Territories.
