A major controversy agitates India around the release of new secondary school books. The ruling Hindu nationalist government removed significant parts of the country’s Muslim history, which spanned centuries. This is decried by historians and widely seen as a way to rewrite history and demonize Muslims.
With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sebastien Farcis
The Indian Council for Education says it wants to lighten school books to facilitate educational recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic. But the cut seems selective: a whole part of Mughal and Muslim history, which spans several centuries, has been erased. At the same time, the violent acts of Hindus, such as theassassination of gandhi or the anti-Muslim pogroms of 2002, are watered down.
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A shocking and disturbing rewrite for Aditya Mukherjee, historian and President of the Indian History Congress. ” There is a attempt to erase Muslims from Indian history : Muslim names are removed from streets and towns, and now they erase the history of the Mughals, while it is one of the most important periods of our history. This is what usually precedes a genocide. And this is what was done in Turkey against the Armenians: removal of names, ghettoization, erasure of history, then genocide. And it is shocking, because we are following the same steps: there are already public calls for the genocide of Muslims! »
A ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) leader applauded the move, saying the Mughals were “ thieves, looters and decadents “, and ” their place is not in history books, but in a trash can “.
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