The National Council of Educational Research and Training has made the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status a part of the Class 12 Political Science textbook, but eliminated a paragraph on separatist politics in the region, reported PTI.
The revised textbook, “Politics of India since Independence”, highlights the amendments to Article 370 of the Constitution to rescind Jammu and Kashmir’s special status in the chapter “Regional Aspirations”. However, the topic under the title “Separatism and Beyond” has been removed. Students in the 2020-’21 academic year will study the revised portions.
“One strand of separatists who want a separate Kashmiri nation, independent of India and Pakistan,” read the part that was deleted. “Then there are groups that want Kashmir to merge with Pakistan. Besides these, there is a third strand, which wants greater autonomy for the people of the state within the Indian union.”
The deleted portion also said that the initial support to militancy had been replaced with “the urge for peace”, adding that the central government had begun negotiations with several separatist groups, according to The Indian Express.
The chapter on Article 370 said that despite the erstwhile state’s special status, “the region witnessed violence, cross-border terrorism and political instability with internal and external ramifications”. “The Article resulted in the loss of many lives, including that of innocent civilians, security personnel and militants. Besides, there was also a large scale displacement of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley,” it read. “Besides, there was also a large scale displacement of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley.”
The revised content looks at the developments in the region from 2002. The NCERT has also dropped a political cartoon on peace that showed a bullet-ridden dove. Apart from this, a former Jammu and Kashmir Governor BK Nehru’s quote after the dismissal of the Farooq Abdullah-led government has also been removed.
NCERT’s decision came weeks after the Central Board of Secondary Education on July 7 dropped chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism from the Class 11 Political Science syllabus, and restructured the subject’s curriculum for Class 10 to remove chapters on democracy and diversity; gender, religion and caste, popular struggles and movement, among other sections. The deletions were made on the direction of the Ministry of Human Resource Development after it asked the CBSE to reduce the syllabus for Class 9 to Class 12 for the academic year 2020-’21 by up to 30% to make up for the academic loss caused by the pandemic.
However, the move attracted significant criticism. A group of academics and intellectuals have written a petition to the CBSE against its decision to drop several chapters from the Political Science curricula for Class 11 and Class 10 for the academic year 2020-’21.
Also read:
Coronavirus: CBSE scraps chapters on citizenship, nationalism, secularism from Class 11 curriculum
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!