NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani has said that references to Gujarat riots and ‘Babri masjid demolition’ were modified in school textbooks because teaching about riots “can create violent and depressed citizens.”
In an interview with PTI on Saturday, Saklani said the tweaks in textbooks are part of the annual revision and should not be a subject of hue and cry.
Asked about references to Gujarat riots or demolition of the disputed structure at the Ramjanmbhoomi being tweaked in NCERT textbooks, Saklani said, “Why should we teach about riots in school textbooks? We want to create positive citizens, not violent and depressed individuals.”
“Should we teach our students in a manner that they become offensive, create hatred in society or become victim of hatred? Is that education’s purpose? Should we teach about riots to such young children? When they grow up, they can learn about it but why school textbooks. Let them understand what happened and why it happened when they grow up. The hue and cry about the changes is irrelevant,” he added.
“We want to create positive citizens and that’s what is the purpose of our textbooks. We cannot have everything in them. The purpose of our education is not to create violent citizens … depressed citizens. Hatred and violence are not subjects of teaching, they should not be focus of our textbooks,” he further said.
“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 the new updates. If we have constructed new Parliament, should our students not know about it. It is our duty to include the ancient developments and recent developments,” Saklani said.
Asked about allegations of ‘saffronisation’ of curriculum and textbooks, Saklani said, “If something has become irrelevant … it will have to be changed. Why shouldn’t it be changed. I don’t see any saffronisation here. We teach history so students know about facts, not for making it a battleground”.
“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 metallurigical scientist, are we saying wrong? How can it be saffronisation?” he added.
“What is wrong about changes in textbooks? Updating textbooks is a global practice, it is in interest of education. Revising textbooks is an annual exercise. Whatever is changed is decided by subject and pedagogy experts. I do not dictate or interfere in the process … there is no imposition from top. There are no attempts to saffronise curriculum, everything is based on facts and evidence,” the NCERT Director said.
