Activist Sends Notice To NCERT Demanding Removal Of False Claim That Aurangzeb Gave Grants To Repair Hindu Temples

RTI activist Tapinder Singh has sent a legal notice to the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to make changes in its Class 12 history book that falsely claims that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had given grants to rebuild Hindu temples in his regime.

The activist has now taken legal action to ensure that the incorrect information printed for CBSE students across the nation is corrected, Times Now reports.

The contested portion of the Part II of NCERT's Theme of Indian History textbook's page 234 reads, “All Mughal emperors gave grants to support the building the maintenance of places of worship. Even when temples were destroyed during war, grants were later issued for their repair - as we know from the reigns of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. However, during the reign of the latter, the jizya was re-imposed on non-Muslim subjects.”

Incidentally, one of the biggest demands of the supporters of Narendra Modi led central government has been to revise and reform the content of NCERT textbooks. This content has been dubbed by many as a legacy of left's almost ironclad control on educational content - especially in the social sciences field.

In 2018, the then HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that his government had not rewritten a single history chapter in the last four years.