The controversy around Mughals and their image in India has, time and again, incited many legal and illegal episodes. The recent one is a direct RTI asking for some clarification on alleged misinformation in Ncert textbooks.
Who Is The Petition About?
In an RTI (Right To Information) application filed on 3rd of September 2020, the applicant, Shivank Verma sought two clarifications from NCERT, as reported by OpIndia. Both the doubts are in the context of a paragraph mentioned on page 234 in the book ‘Themes of Indian History (Part II)’ for class XII.
The paragraph suggests that the Mughal emperors bestowed grants to all places of worship, including temples even for maintenance and repair. The complainant asked for illumination of the sources used by the authors to arrive at such a conclusion.
Secondly, he also inquired about the details of the temples repaired by Aurangzeb and Shahjahan during their respective reigns.
What Did NCERT reply?
Just like the fate of all other RTIs, this also did not bear any results. NCERT, in its casual reply, informed that the information in question is not available with them on the 18th of November, 2020.
All these particulars are based on an image of the RTI letter that has been doing the rounds on social media. Therefore, the authenticity of this event is not proved yet.
Also Read: Back In Time: A Constant In Our NCERT School Books, Hindi Writer Munshi Premchand Passed Away 83 Years Ago Today
What Is It With The Ruckus Now?
With the New Education Framework (NEF) coming in, the parliament has taken up the responsibility to reform the school textbooks. The parliamentary standing committee has claimed to balance the weightage given to various topics and remove references to any distorted facts.
Coincidentally the letter also went viral around the same time as the news of the committee, and its proposals did.
How Did The Netizens React To It?
The reaction was pretty much that of anger and disappointment with the most advanced educational institute in India. Within a few hours, it started trending on Twitter. One of the significant accusations put forth by the Twitterati was that Mughal history is given too much emphasis.
Not sure why everyone is shocked that entire #NCERT books is filled with Fake History, Abrahamic Propaganda and Anti Hindu Hate contents.
Don’t you know the minute Antonio came to power she got inputs Communists, Padres & Mullahs to change the books?
While BJP did nothing pic.twitter.com/EOIfk7Bb4X
— Arun Pudur (@arunpudur) January 14, 2021
All NCERT History text books were got written by JNU History department by the UPA 1 – complete Leftist propaganda. Bonfire of these books is long overdue. https://t.co/H7gSXJhPEy
— Sanjay Dixit ಸಂಜಯ್ ದೀಕ್ಷಿತ್ संजय दीक्षित (@Sanjay_Dixit) January 14, 2021
Here
is National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) which prepares textbooks, admitting about spreading falsehood as history through textbooks which are prepared by fakeries of your ilk. https://t.co/6N41dqfJ8n pic.twitter.com/MKTNzEZKuZ
— M. Nageswara Rao IPS(R) (@MNageswarRaoIPS) January 13, 2021
#RewriteHistory
Cholas. : 2100 Yrs
Chalukyas : 700 Yrs
Ahom : 700 Yrs
Pallavas : 600 Yrs
Rashtrakuta : 500 Yrs
Vijayanagara : 400 Yrs
Mughals : Only 200 Years! Why do our History Books Glorify Mughals?#NCERT #Textbook #CBSE #NEP2020 pic.twitter.com/az8jQKMvgX— Ajeet Kumar (@ajeet_kumar21) January 15, 2021
They also slammed NCERT as a leftist organization created to train the kids to love their oppressors. Netizens blamed them for perpetuating lies generations after generations.
The information is "not available" in the @ncert files because it doesn't exist? The real question is why did the authors insert such dubious claims in our history books in the first place & who "instructed" them to do so? https://t.co/doJxJPrq5P
— Makarand R Paranjape (@MakrandParanspe) January 13, 2021
Ncert said RTI,it has no information on sources of it's book claimed that mughals gave grant to repair the temples destroyed during war.without information why @ncert publish this in its book.Students are being teach such nonsense.#NCERT @DrRPNishank pic.twitter.com/yG9AXaaC6N
— Ashish Mishra (@Ashish_M51) January 14, 2021
It also encouraged others to come up and seek justification for similar disputed facts mentioned in the book.
NCERT the most trustable source of Information
But In History books there is a mention of #AryanInvasionTheory without any proof.
Please check #Rakhigiri findings
We Indians are forefather of complete world
But IDK why #ncert is doing such silly things from past
We have to change pic.twitter.com/EuKR1C80zP— Kartik Chawla (@KartikChawla15) January 14, 2021
The annoyance reached such heights that pictures of people burning the textbooks also went viral on the Internet.
Let's burn and boycott Mughals NCERT books who showed India's enemies as India's heroes and the true heroes like Guru Teg Bahadur Ji were never showed to our students #NCERT gives wrong msg .we want true history of our idols not about चोर,@#$, लुटेरे डकैत Mughals#mughalenemies pic.twitter.com/lUCeRXn1xk
— Truth will win (@Holder2Destiny) January 14, 2021
Let's burn and boycott Mughals NCERT books who showed India's enemies as India's heroes and the true heroes like Guru Teg Bahadur Ji were never showed to our students #NCERT
#trendingforindia #mughalenemies pic.twitter.com/iDshJreAER— Mahesh Medipelly (@MedipellyMahesh) January 14, 2021
It is clearly a social media mob mentality. It is definitely a matter of concern if wrong information is being passed on to us through textbooks. But unless confirmed, we should avoid any such behavior that can abate the faith of our school-going kids in the education system of the country.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: OpIndia, The Indian Express, Swarajya
Find The Blogger: @soumyaseema
The post is tagged under: NCERT, Mughals, Aurangzeb, Shahjahan, mob mentality, netizens, reaction, misinformation, false news, viral, bigotry, prejudice, Hindu, Muslims, foreign
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