Mughal History Chopped Down To Emphasize Shivaji Empire in Maharashtra Textbooks: Is it Politics?

For years the Mughal history has been taught as a remarkable period in school history textbooks but now, the Maharashtra school textbooks will have only three lines of that and will the works of Mughals become a long forgotten history in India? Was the recent decision to cut down Mughal history in textbooks of Maharashtra a vindictive and political move?

Maharashtra Textbook Restructuring

In its recent announcement, the school education department in Maharashtra declared that the textbooks of class VII is restructured such that Shivaji and Maratha empire is taught elaborately while the Mughal history is reduced to just three lines.

What is the problem?

Upon this announcement, education activists lashed out at the decision of the government that such a move is unjust as it is politically motivated.

Government's response

However, the education department of Maharashtra came up with a clarification that the class VII and IX textbooks were restructured to emphasize more on the local history and that the decision did not have anything to do with politics.

"There is a restructuring of the history text book this year which is why there is an emphasis on the history of Marathas. The syllabus is approved by a panel of subject experts and there is no question of politics here," said a senior official from the state education department.

What about the Mughal history?

"The Mughals are introduced as part of the Maratha history in keeping with the theme of the text book," said the official.