Actor R Madhavan has voiced strong concerns about the way Indian history is taught in schools, particularly as the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) faces criticism for removing chapters on the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal empire from Class 7 history textbooks, as per a recent development reported by NDTV Movies.
The actor, who stars alongside Akshay Kumar in Karan Singh Tyagi's Kesari Chapter 2, highlighted the imbalance in historical education, noting that during his school years, "there were eight chapters on the Mughals, two on the Harappa and Mohenjo-daro civilisations, four on British rule and the freedom struggle and just one chapter on the southern kingdoms — the Cholas, Pandyas, Pallavas, and Cheras."
Madhavan emphasised that the 2,400-year-old Chola Empire, which established extensive sea routes reaching Rome and built temples as far as Angkor Wat, received minimal attention compared to the Mughals and British, who ruled for a combined 800 years. He questioned the current educational narrative, particularly lamenting how Tamil, which he described as "the oldest language in the world," lacks proper recognition.
"Whose narrative is this? Who decided the syllabus? Tamil is the oldest language in the world, but nobody knows about it. The scientific knowledge hidden in our culture is being mocked right now," the actor stated.
The controversy comes amid NCERT's recent curriculum revisions that have not only removed sections on the Delhi Sultanate and Mughals but also eliminated references to social movements and the caste system. In their place, new content focuses on recent government initiatives like Make in India and religious pilgrimages such as the Char Dham Yatra.
Madhavan also criticised colonial perspectives in education, particularly regarding the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which coincidentally forms the historical backdrop for his current film Kesari Chapter 2, a fictionalised account based on the book The Case That Shook the Empire.
