Chapters based on diversity and democracy, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Cold War Era and the rise of many Islamic empires in the Afro-Asian geographies have been edited or changed.
Similarly, for Class X, the CBSE has dropped the section on the impact of globalisation on agriculture from the Food Security chapter. It has also been reported that the translated excerpts from two poems in Urdu by Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the “Religion, Communalism and Politics — Communalism, Secular State” section have also been excluded. The chapter regarding “Central Islamic Lands” mentions about the rise of many Islamic empires in the Afro-Asian region and its impact on the socio-economic sector. The chapter focused on areas of Islam in reference to its emergence, the rise of the caliphate and empire expansionism. Similarly, in the Class XII history syllabus, the dropped chapter titled “The Mughal Court: Reconstructing Histories through Chronicles” examined the chronicles of Mughal courts to reconstruct the social, religious and cultural history of the Mughals.
Also, the revised syllabus shared with the schools for 2022-23 hinted at the Board’s decision to resume the single-board exam in a session from a two-term examination last year. The Central Board had announced the two-term exams as a special measure because of the pandemic. Asked about the rationale behind the choice of topics or chapters being dropped, the CBSE officials maintained that the changes are part of the rationalisation of the syllabus and are in alignment with recommendations made by the NCERT.
CBSE Board Exams 2023 were initially expected to have the same reduced syllabus. This reduced syllabus was actually rationalised approximately 30 per cent in view of the COVID-19 pandemic in the last two years. However, after analysing the newly released syllabus, one can infer that the CBSE Class XII syllabus has been revised. While some subjects like Class XII Physics have fewer edits with only about 15 per cent syllabus rationalised, others like Business Studies see a comeback of 100 per cent curriculum. Interestingly, the pattern of addition and subtraction of curriculum portions are not uniform and hence have raised many eyebrows in the academic circles.
A section of teachers calling this move as completely irrational have commented that in a secular country like ours, it is very important for the students to have in-depth knowledge of different religions. The chapter ‘Central Islamic Lands’ was a detailed study about Islam — from its origins till now. Similarly, the chapter dealing with the Mughal courts was the heart of medieval history in the Class XII syllabus.
It is important to note that it is not the first time that the education board has decided to drop learning material which has been a part of the curriculum for years. Previously, it had sought to drop off chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism in the Class XII Political Science textbook will not be considered while assessing students, triggering a significant controversy. However, the decision to drop critical chapters hinting at India’s democratic and diverse values comes at a time when several communal tensions have arisen in different parts of the country.
The question arises at this point of time on whether there really was a need to take this step or not? It would be interesting to know the thinking that went behind this decision and how different it was from the one that included these chapters and passages when the history books were being written and the Board had approved the syllabus for the first time. The sudden change does raise a lot of questions on the timing of this amendment and also places a shadow of some political intent. A debate in Parliament should have been orchestrated to get more insight into these changes as it may affect generations of students as the ‘history is being re-written’.
