New Delhi, Aug 16 (IANS) Former National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director J.S. Rajput on Saturday said that if the Congress continues to take full credit for India’s Independence, it must also accept responsibility for the Partition of the country.
His remarks come amid controversy over a new NCERT module prepared for ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, observed annually on August 14, which names three key figures responsible for the Partition — Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Congress leadership, and then Viceroy Lord Mountbatten.
The module states: “Jinnah, who demanded it; second, the Congress, which accepted it; and third, Mountbatten, who implemented it.”
The Congress has strongly objected to the contents of the module. Party spokesperson Pawan Khera demanded that the module be scrapped, claiming it misrepresents history.
He alleged that the Partition resulted from a nexus between the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League, not the Congress.
Responding to the outrage, Rajput, in an interview with IANS, said, “Whenever history is revised, criticism is natural. I have witnessed this myself. Being the director of NCERT, I oversaw the creation of new NCERT textbooks. I also saw the opposition, and personally, its impact was unforgettable. We should remember that in 2004, when the government changed, it immediately sent old textbooks to every CBSE school and within a year, the entire curriculum was replaced with new books.”
Highlighting the two schools of History in India, one of them being associated with the ‘Leftist’ ideology, Rajput said that people should accept that it is difficult to bring out an objective point of view in the books.
“Everyone knows there are two schools of history in India — one of the leftists and the other of the rest. This is the truth, and people should accept it. In such a scenario, it becomes difficult to bring out an objective point of view. The history that was taught to us and to generations after Independence was aligned with the leftist school of thought, and these are the same people who are opposing the changes in the syllabus today,” he said.
Rajput, who has worked in the education sector for over four decades, stressed that historical writing must be based on facts.
Calling out Congress for “double standards,” he criticised Congress for never crediting revolutionaries like Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for their role in the freedom struggle.
, “As a citizen, I believe Partition could have been prevented if Congress had acted sooner. It is surprising that Congress never hesitates to take full credit for the freedom movement but avoids mentioning leaders like Netaji, does not honour them, and forgets the revolutionaries. Congress was a movement that included people from all ideologies. It always blames others for not contributing to Independence, which the party has no right to do.”
Highlighting overlooked narratives, he said, “Congress never mentions that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan once said in Meerut that Hindus and Muslims are two different communities that can never live together. This does not make him a bad person — he did great things for India and established several universities.”
He also criticised the “leftist tilt” in schoolbooks, adding, “Aurangzeb bhakti was seen many times in our books. There was one book where two pictures were featured — one of Lenin and the other of Gandhi. Lenin’s photo covered the entire page, while Gandhi’s was just one-fourth of a page. One must think about what impact that had on the minds of children. Leftists influenced the syllabus because the government at the time gave them a free hand over institutions. People should know these things.”
Rajput stressed the need for an accurate portrayal of Partition in history books. He also criticised the spokespersons of different political parties for speaking on the issue without having full knowledge of it.
“I have heard some spokespersons speaking so fast, as if they have complete knowledge of history. They don’t really have any knowledge but feel the need to speak. Educators, however, want history to be written based entirely on facts, and all facts about the Partition should be made available to us,” he said.
Expressing his full faith in NCERT’s module, he concluded, “I trust NCERT’s writing and believe it is true that the entire Congress leadership was responsible. The compromises were made by Congress and the Muslim League — nobody else. So if the party takes credit for Independence, it must also acknowledge its responsibility for the Partition.”
–IANS
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