Raj scraps textbook over ‘Gandhi family focus', sparks curriculum controversy

Time of India

10-07-2025

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Jaipur: Rajasthan's Education minister Madan Dilawar announced Thursday the withdrawal of the supplementary textbook 'Azadi Ke Baad Ka Swarnim Bharat' for Classes 11-12, citing its emphasis on the Gandhi family's contributions.
The two-part book which has been in circulation for over two decades, was revised in 2015 and 2019, and serves as non-evaluative reading material.
Following the formation of the Bhajan Lal Sharma-led BJP govt in 2023, a syllabus overhaul was ordered in Nov 2024, including the textbook's content. A nine-member committee, chaired by Prof Kailash Sodani of Vardhman Mahaveer Open University, Kota, was tasked with the revision, but the panel has since met only once.
Dilawar criticized the supplementary textbook for omitting contributions of leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, BR Ambedkar, and BJP stalwarts Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Vasundhara Raje, while highlighting the Gandhi family. While the book has several references to former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with their pictures, former PM Rajiv Gandhi and Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi also finds space in the books.
"These books suggest only the Gandhi family contributed to India's development, which is wrong and disrespectful," he said. He also underscored the need to update the curriculum to reflect current educational standards, particularly emphasizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's achievements, such as the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. The textbook currently mentions Modi in five paragraphs, highlighting policies like the Swachh Bharat Mission, demonetization, GST, and the replacement of the Planning Commission with NITI Aayog as the govt's key achievements.
Despite it's revision in 2015, however, the books have no photographs of the current PM.
The decision follows the distribution of the textbook to 80% of govt schools for the current academic year. Dilawar dismissed concerns about wasted funds. "Just because poison is bought doesn't mean it must be consumed. We cannot teach incomplete information," he said, claiming the absence of Article 370's abrogation in the book implies "supporting terrorists," even though the 2019 revision predated the event.
The textbook covers pre-independence milestones, including the Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience, and Quit India movements, the Kakori case, and the Gandhi Era (1920-1947). It also details schemes like MNREGA, Right to Education, Aadhaar, RTI, and the Green and White Revolutions under Shastri's leadership. Prof Om Prakash Mahla, a co-author, defended the book, saying it was written without bias to document national progress, including Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Pokhran nuclear tests.
"Our attempt was to compile all facts so that young minds can get knowledge, irrespective of which govt was in charge. It is not just that developments under the Congress regime are mentioned; the book also talks about developments under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, like the Pokhran Nuclear tests," Prof Mahla told TOI.
The move to rewrite the textbooks, meanwhile, has sparked a political controversy with Pradesh Congress Committee chief Govind Singh Dotasra accusing the BJP govt of imposing an RSS-driven narrative.
Speaking in Sikar, Dotasra defended the curriculum, introduced in 2020 after a govt committee's recommendations, for including leaders like Vajpayee, Morarji Desai, Manmohan Singh, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Modi.
"The aim is not education but enforcing RSS ideology," Dotasra said, criticizing Dilawar's focus on Modi-centric teaching as "dictatorial." He said that 80% of students already have the textbooks and vowed to raise the issue with the Chief Minister's Office, warning against using education to push ideological agendas.