?Amendment of Article 370? to be taught in political science in the revised Class 12 NCERT syllabus

Students of Humanities Stream will now get to study a new chapter on the amendment of Article 370 as the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has revised a chapter in its Class 12 political science textbook, adding a portion on abrogation of Article 370 from J&K. It has also replaced the old map of Jammu & Kashmir in the book from this year.

The textbook ‘Politics of India since Independence’ has been revised for the 2020-21 session and this topic has been included in the chapter ‘Regional Aspirations’. The topic explains how on August 5, 2019, Parliament amended the special status of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 and bifurcated the state into two union territories — Ladakh which would have no Legislative Assembly and Jammu & Kashmir which would have one.

The revised political science textbook has deleted a portion which explained the categories of separatists in Kashmir in the chapter ‘Separatism and Beyond’. The removed part read, “One strand of separatists who want a separate Kashmiri nation, independent of India and Pakistan. Then there are groups that want Kashmir to merge with Pakistan. Besides these, there is a third strand, which wants greater autonomy for the people of the state within the Indian union.”

NCERT is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India which was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies’ Registration Act. Textbooks published by NCERT are prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) from classes I to XII, with exceptions for a few subjects. Around 19 school boards from 14 states have adopted or adapted the books.

Earlier this month, the CBSE which planned to cut down 30 per cent of the syllabus for the academic session 2020-2021 was criticised for deleting certain topics. Some of the topics that were removed from class 10 syllabus included a chapter on Democracy and Diversity, Gender, Religion and Caste, popular struggles and movement, and challenges to democracy. For Class 11, the deleted portions include the chapters on Federalism, Citizenship, Nationalism, Secularism.