Kerala to continue teaching NCERT-omitted 'Babri Masjid Demolition' in schools

Kochi, NT Bureau: Schools in Kerala will continue teaching portions about the demolition of the Babri Masjid that have been deleted from the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s political science textbook, the state’s general education minister V Sivankutty said, Manorama reported.

The autonomous education body’s updated Class 12 textbook for political science does not mention Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid by name.

Instead, it refers to the erstwhile mosque as a “three-dome structure [that] was built at the site of Shri Ram’s birthplace” by Mughal emperor Babur’s general Mir Baqi in the 16th century.

“Textbooks should not comprise narrow ideological positions or propaganda of any movement,” PTI quoted Sivankutty as saying.

“Actual history and science should be taught to students.” Sivankutty said that the Kerala government had, in the past, brought out parallel textbooks containing portions of lessons on Mughal history and the 2002 Gujarat riots that had been omitted from the council’s textbooks.

These parallel textbooks were prepared keeping in mind Kerala’s secular and progressive culture, and to uphold constitutional values, the minister said.

The state’s curriculum committee will decide on a similar course of action with regard to the deleted references to the Babri Masjid, Manorama quoted Sivankutty as saying.

The council’s old textbook had referred to mobilisation “on both sides” after the locks of the Babri Masjid were opened in February 1986 pursuant to a Faizabad district court order.

It had noted that the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had led the agitation for the Ram temple, had expressed regret “over the happenings at Ayodhya”. The textbook had also noted that the dispute had led to a debate on secularism.