The fight between the Congress and the BJP over the removal of the word “Great” from the names of Mughal emperor Akbar and Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan in new NCERT textbooks refused to die on Sunday.
Congress leaders have accused the government of narrowing history to fit its politics.
They pointed to BJP’s political dislike for certain rulers, especially those from the Mughal era.
But the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) say the changes were part of a long-needed correction.
Reportedly, NCERT books reach more than 24,000 CBSE schools across the country.
Congress MP Imran Masood reminded the government that Akbar and Tipu Sultan “ruled the country for 700 years. They didn't rule for just a day or two.”
He questioned what the removal or addition of titles would achieve. He cited economic prosperity during their time. “During their rule, GDP was 27 per cent. India was also called the golden bird,” he said to ANI.
Masood invoked the last Mughal emperor’s execution by the British and the humiliation of seeing “his sons' heads adorned on a platter.” He said descendants of those rulers now “clean utensils in the streets of Calcutta.” He accused those who “served the British” of holding power in the present government.
He asked who “betrayed Rani Lakshmibai” and why her descendant “sitting as a minister” in the current administration had not been questioned.
Congress leader, K. Muraleedharan, also criticised the revisions.
“Akbar was a king of communal harmony. He accepted the Hindu religion also,” he said. Tipu Sultan, he added, “fought against the English. That is the reason he was killed.” Both, he argued, were great administrators. “So this attitude of the central government is not right.”
In Uttarakhand, senior Congress leader Harish Rawat said the removals were part of a larger pattern. “We will have to see what all the BJP will remove,” he told reporters.
He warned that “if they get the chance, they will remove a lot.” He framed the 2029 national election as a turning point, saying change “will start from 2027.”
The RSS has defended the changes.
On Saturday, RSS leader Sunil Ambekar said history textbooks had undergone “many positive changes.” Speaking at the Orange City Literature Festival in Nagpur, he said that while the titles had been removed, “nobody has been removed” from the books. Students, he said, “should know their cruel deeds.”
Ambekar, the Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh of the RSS, said India’s ancient knowledge traditions offered resources for modern life. He said NCERT had revised textbooks for 11 of 15 classes, and more changes would follow next year for Classes 9, 10 and 12. “Many good changes have been brought,” he said. “And more could be done.”
Then he stated the line that sparked the debate: “But now, they do not have ‘Akbar the Great’ nor do they have ‘Tipu Sultan the Great’.”
He acknowledged criticism but said revisions were necessary and “should be told.”
The NCERT revisions come against the backdrop of ongoing disputes over how Indian history should be told in schools.
Topics including the Mughal era, the freedom struggle, caste history and scientific contributions have been repeatedly revisited and revised in recent years.
The NCERT has maintained the changes since COVID-19 were made to “reduce student stress” by removing “overlapping” and “irrelevant” material and has got nothing to do with academic pruning.
But the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition have disappeared from textbooks, both politically sensitive for the ruling party.
The removal of details about Gandhi’s assassination, tribal uprisings, Dalit and Muslim literature, and even Darwin’s theory of evolution have also led to questions among scholars and the Opposition.