Indian textbooks delete Nelson Mandela, English poets and country's first prime minister

In an omission akin to deleting George Washington or Thomas Jefferson from American history books, a new secondary school textbook posted online contains a few scant references to Nehru but no discussion of his role securing India’s independence from Great Britain or overseeing the country’s tumultuous early years as a new democracy, the report noted on Sunday.

The secondary education board in the state -- led by India’s governing conservative Bharatiya Janata Party -- earlier removed the work of Western poets like John Keats and T.S. Eliot and excised a chapter on Nelson Mandela from its textbooks -- calling it “meaningless.” The Mandela chapter was replaced with writing on India’s tribal communities, according to the Times of India.

Leaders said that they wanted to bring the work of Indian authors closer to students.

"It is strange and unfortunate Rajasthan students have been reading chapters on Africa and poems by foreign authors while they are ignorant about our own tribals and poets. These textbooks giving undue importance to foreign authors and chapters are meaningless," a senior committee member told the Times of India.

The move comes as the country’s central government is set to unveil a new national education policy which some historians and educators fear could bring similar changes. India’s education minister, Smriti Irani, came under fire in recent days for a plan for India’s ancient Sanskrit to be taught in its prized engineering and technical universities, whose alumni include Google’s Sundar Pachai, among others. She later said it would be taught as an elective.

Changing or rewriting Indian history has long been a source of controversy and political debate.
A similar effort occurred during the last Hindu nationalist-led government of 1999-2004, where educational texts were rewritten to celebrate the lives of Hindu Kings over the Mughal emperors. Hindu nationalists have long argued that much of Indian history has been written from a Euro-centric, colonial perspective and needs to be adapted.

Kayalvizhi wrote:This is what CBSE book says of 1965 Anti-Hindi agitation in TN.

Students threw stones aty police. Students damaged property. Even there is illustration of some people throwing stones.

It does not mention police/army shooting. It does not mention at least 63 died in shooting.