India’s school children risk learning very little about the period of history in which the Muslim Mughal dynasty ruled the country.
A new set of textbooks, part of the “rationalized syllabus” by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous organization under the federal education ministry, omits chapters on Mughal rulers from Indian school textbooks.
Effectively, students can study some of the history of Mughals in Class 7 (around age 12), a little in Class 8, none in Classes 9 to 11, and a shortened version in Class 12, according to Indian Express, which inspected each textbook for chapters on and references of the Mughal era.
Before the school syllabus overhaul, undergraduate courses in Delhi University’s BA History honours program had already axed and revamped chapters relating to Mughal history.
Supporters of the revamp argue the Mughals have been over-represented in Indian history and this is all part of what they call “right-sizing.” But having reigned over the country from 1526 to 1761, the Mughal dynasty was one of India’s longest-lasting rulers, and hence has an outsize footprint in the nation’s history. The wealthy and culturally-rich set of Muslim emperors have also left marks from centuries to come, from Delhi’s Red Fort to Agra’s Taj Mahal.
