‘We Want To Create Positive Citizens’: NCERT Chief Refutes Allegations Of Saffronisation Of Textbooks

New Delhi: Teaching students about riots through school textbooks won’t have a positive impact on citizens and will create violent and depressed individuals, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said on Sunday.

“Why should we teach about riots in school textbooks? We want to create positive citizens not violent and depressed individuals,” he said in an interview with PTI, referring to updated textbooks omitting chapters on Gujarat riots and Babri masjid demolition.

Saklani questioned whether the purpose of education is to teach students in a manner that it becomes offensive, create hatred in society or becomes victim of hatred.

“Let them understand what happened and why it happened when they grow up,” he said.

In the revised NCERT class XII Political Science textbook, the Ayodhya section has been reduced from four to two pages and references to BJP’s rath yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, involvement of ‘kar sevaks’ and communal unrest following the demolition of Babri Masjid and imposition of President’s Rule have been removed. The text describes Babri Masjid as a three-domed structure.

“If something has become outdated, it should be updated. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be changed. I don’t see this as saffronisation. We teach history to provide students with factual knowledge, not to turn it into a battleground,” said Saklani, responding to allegations that textbooks are being increasingly saffronised.

“If Supreme Court has given a verdict in favour of Ram temple, Babri Masjid or Ram Janmabhoomi, should it not be included in our textbooks, what is the problem in that? We have included these in the updated book,” he said.

The NCERT chief further stated that students should know about the new Parliament building.

“It is our duty to include the ancient developments and recent developments. There are no attempts to saffronise curriculum, everything is based on facts and evidence,” he said.

He added that NCERT’s goal is teaching history to educate students with factual information, not to turn it into a contentious issue. “If we are telling about Indian Knowledge System, how can it be saffronisation? If we are telling about iron pillar in Mehrauli and saying Indians were way ahead of any metallurgical scientist, are we saying wrong? How can it be saffronisation?” he questioned.