The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has once again come under the scanner recently for a Class 12 History book being taught in CBSE schools. The book in question claims that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb gave grants to rebuild Hindu temples during his reign.
An RTI activist from Bharatpur in Rajasthan named Tapinder Singh has sent a legal notice to the NCERT to make necessary changes in its Class 12 History book, which he claimed is teaching the 'wrong history' to the children of our country. The issue had first come to light in January this year when the RTI activist had sent an RTI query to the NCERT and the government body responded to it saying that there was no evidence with the department to back the claim, according to several news reports.
Earlier, an RTI filed last year by another activist named Shivank Sharma had asked the NCERT about factual evidence backing the claim, which the autonomous government body has not been able to furnish yet. On page 234 of the book Themes of Indian History (Part II) for Class 12 students, it states, "All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the building and maintenance of places of worship. Even when temples were destroyed during the war, grants were later issued for their repair – as we know from the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. However, during the reign of the latter, the jizya was re-imposed on non-Muslim subjects."
Most recently, last week, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vasudev Devnani raised objection to the "glorification" of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the Class 12 NCERT textbook, claiming that the contents were beyond historical facts and demanded its removal. "It (glorification of Aurangzeb) is beyond historical facts and it is wrong to glorify on the basis of appeasement. These false facts should be removed from the NCERT book so that the younger generation can know the reality of history," Devnani said while addressing the 10th budget session of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly.
