A new social science textbook for Class VIII released by the NCERT has claimed that historians “earlier” viewed India’s independence mostly as the outcome of the nationalist movement led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress, a contention disproved by the contents of the old books that are set to be replaced.
Part II of Exploring Society: India and Beyond, released by the textbook body last week, states that the country’s freedom was hard-won and a collective victory.
“Historians have debated the causes for Britain’s exit from India. The earlier view was that it was mostly thanks to Gandhi, his doctrine of non-violence, and the Congress’s policies. This view has given way to a recognition that multiple other factors were also at work — the popular uprisings, the numerous attempts by revolutionaries, the mutinies in the Royal Indian Air Force and the Royal Indian Navy. Also, Britain’s diminished status after World War II and the worldwide trend towards decolonisation—the age of empires was over at least in that form,” says the new book in the chapter called “India’s Long Road to Independence”.
“From 1857 to 1947 — for 90 long years — generations of Indians fought, suffered and sacrificed themselves for this objective. From revolutionaries to farmers, every act of defiance of the colonial rule contributed to weaving the tapestry of independence. Though history records only a few names (and our chapter so very few of those), India’s freedom was a hard-won, collective victory,” it added.
A historian, who did not wish to be identified, said historians had never portrayed Gandhi and the Congress as solely responsible for the end of British rule.
“The new textbook is creating an impression that historians were giving credit to the Congress and Gandhi for India’s independence. That is not true. The Indian National Congress indeed spearheaded the freedom movement, but historians have never cited any single cause as being responsible for freedom. The old textbooks have outlined all the important events leading to freedom,” he said.
The new textbooks are replacing the books prepared by the NCERT between 2006 and 2008. An old book for Class VIII, called Our Pasts-III, contains a chapter on revolutionary nationalists such as Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad and Sukhdev and their contribution to the fight for independence, apart from the Gandhi-led movement.
The chapter titled “The Making of National Movement: 1970s-1947” states that consciousness about India as a country and the way the Britishers were exploiting its resources emerged in the 1850s and spawned political outfits such as Poona Sarvajanik Sabha, Indian Association, Madras Mahajan Sabha and the Bombay Presidency Association.
Another textbook for Class XII, Themes in Indian History Part-III, recounts how the nationalist movement was inspired by the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.
“The nationalist movement in the twentieth century drew its inspiration from the events of 1857. A whole world of nationalist imagination was woven around the revolt. It was celebrated as the First War of Independence in which all sections of the people of India came together to fight against imperial rule,” a chapter titled “Rebels and the Raj” states.