Among the latest set of revisions that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has proposed in school textbooks are additions about findings from the DNA analysis of skeletal remains found at the archaeological site of Rakhigarhi in Haryana and the dropping of references to how the Narmada Dam project adversely affected tribals and drew them to displacement leading to greater destitution.
“That Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are social groups specially marked by poverty, powerlessness and social stigma,” are a few of the multiple deletions NCERT is making to its sociology textbooks for Class 12.
The new changes are yet to reflect in the online version of the revised textbooks, but NCERT, in a document where it has enlisted all changes, has highlighted these.
In a major addition to the Class 12 History textbook “Themes in India History Part - I” under the chapter “Bricks, Beads and Bones - The Harappan Civilisation”, NCERT has stated that study of ancient DNA from archaeological sources in Rakhigarhi, Haryana suggests that the genetic roots of the Harappans go back to 10,000 BCE.
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“The DNA of the Harappans has continued till today and a majority of the south Asian population appears to be their descendants. Due to trade and cultural contacts of the Harappans with distant regions there is a mixture of genes in small quantity. The continuity without any break in genetic history as well as cultural history rules out large-scale immigration of the so-called Aryans,” NCERT has stated. This text will be added in the revised book.
Spread of genes
Further, the added text states that this research also indicates that the people coming from the bordering areas and distant regions were absorbed in the Indian society. “At no stage, the genetic history of the Indians was either discontinued or broken. As the Harappans started moving towards Iran and Central Asia, their genes also gradually spread in those regions,” the revised text mentions.
In order to study the genetic history of the Harappans, DNA was extracted from the skeletal remains excavated at Rakhigarhi. This research was carried out by the Deccan College Deemed University, Pune in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad and The Harvard Medical College. The analysis of the data was interpreted by some that the Harappans are the indigenous people of this region. The same team of researchers also reconstructed 3D features of the Harappan people. NCERT has stated that the reconstructed facial features of the Harappans, male and female, show remarkable similarity with the modern population of Haryana and that the study has indicated unbroken continuity for 5000 years in this region.
In an article for The Hindu, archaeologist Mudit Trivedi had argued that “the DNA of this person from Rakhigarhi ... is a mixture with contributions coming from very ancient ancestry shared with Iranian populations and that from... Andamanese or South-East Asians in the deep past of her ancestry...media coverage has stressed her ‘indigeneity’ and not the fact that her genetic admixture makes one rethink the social geographies which the data groups her with, which are significantly more westerly than the limits of present-day India.”
NCERT has also added in the textbook that more research is also required on the relationship between the Harappans and the Vedic people as some scholars have argued that the authors of the Harappan civilisation and the Vedic people were the same.
Part deleted
Also, on Page 85, of Class 12 Sociology textbook titled ‘Indian Society,’ NCERT has said that the sentence — ‘Projects such as the Sardar Sarovar dam on the river Narmada in western India and the Polavaram dam on the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh displace hundreds of thousands of adivasis, driving them to greater destitution,’ will be changed to, ‘Projects such as the Sardar Sarovar dam on the river Narmada in Western India and the Polavaram dam on the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh displaced hundreds of thousands of adivasis from their original habitats,’ with deletion of the part — ‘driving them to greater destitution.
In other context of how the Narmada Dam project adversely affected communities, the mention of the project as an example has been completely dropped. On Page 47, Chapter three of the same textbook, the sentence — ‘The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage in the new system. The most recent such example is the series of dams being built on the Narmada, where most of the costs and benefits seem to flow disproportionately to different communities and regions,’ will now read, ‘The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage.’
NCERT says that the example (Narmada Dam Project) is not relevant in the present context in its clarification for removal of the text.
Also, from its political science textbooks, NCERT has dropped references, from multiple places, of the Babri Masjid demolition and given added emphasis to the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple movement.
Also, in Class 7 history textbook — Our Pasts II, on Page 57 of the chapter “Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities”, NCERT has added the mention of the victory of the Ahoms against the Mughal army stating that is an important happening in Indian History. “The battle of Saraighat is added as a box item, which also contains a visual illustration of the Ahom General, Lachit Barphukan,” NCERT has stated.
Also, NCERT has said that in the chapter — Eighteenth Century Political Formations, the word ‘Shivaji’ has been changed to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. “Chhatrapati and Maharaj are important honorific of Shivaji. Therefore, these honorifics have been added. Addition of the genealogy chart of the Chhatrapatis will make the students understand the history of the Marathas better,” it has said.
Also changing the language on 1857 mutiny, NCERT states that on pages 51, 55 and 57, in the title ‘When People Rebel’, the word ‘Rebel’ changed to ‘Revolt’. “The word Revolt is more appropriate as it reflects the overall uprising of the India against the colonial oppression. The word Rebellion to be changed to Uprising. The word Uprising is more comprehensive opposed to the word ‘Rebellion,’ NCERT has stated.
