‘Remove Our Names from Textbooks’: Yogendra Yadav, Suhas Palshikar Reiterate Their Demand to NCERT

“Please remove our names from the textbooks that were once the source of pride for us but are now a source of embarrassment,” the political scientists said.

New Delhi: Political scientists Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar have reiterated their demand that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) remove their names from political science textbooks.

The fresh demand from Yadav and Palshikar comes after NCERT published a statement on its website, in response to their letter which had sought the removal of their names from textbooks on account of recent controversial changes made.

“Please remove our names from the textbooks that were once the source of pride for us but are now a source of embarrassment,” the latest statement released by Yadav and Palshikar said.

On Friday, June 9, Yadav and Palshikar had written to the NCERT director stating that they do not see “any logic except to please the powers that be” talking of the recent changes and sought their names be removed from the textbooks, which mention as chief advisors.

Among the changes the NCERT made to its political science textbooks earlier this year are removing references to the 2002 Gujarat riots from its Class 12 book, chapters titled ‘Democracy and Diversity’, ‘Popular Struggles and Movements’ and ‘Challenges of Democracy’ from its Class 10 book and a section on sedition from its Class 8 book.  The NCERT also removed chapters relating to Mughal history from a Class 12 history textbook, and last year it deleted a chapter on Darwin’s theory of evolution from its Class 10 biology textbook.

“While the modifications have been justified on the grounds of ‘rationalisation’, we fail to see any pedagogic rationale at work here. We find that the text has been mutilated beyond recognition,” their letter to the NCERT director had said. Both of them were chief advisors for the NCERT’s political science textbooks that were published in 2006.

Without citing any reference to the letter by Yadav and Palshikar, NCERT put up a statement on its website, essentially stating that it will consider their demand. It said that the efforts of members of Textbook Development Committees in preparation of the textbooks were part of a joint advisory effort and as a result, no individual members could disassociate themselves from the textbooks.

“Textbooks at the school level are ‘developed’ based on the state of our knowledge and understanding on a given subject. Therefore, at no stage individual authorship is claimed, hence the withdrawal of association by anyone is out of question,” the NCERT statement had said.

The NCERT’s statement rather interestingly does not refer to Yadav and Palshikar’s letter and does not provide any context why such a statement had to be put out on its website all of a sudden. In fact, it is an unsigned statement without referring to any authorizing authority.

Against this backdrop, Yadav and Palshikar issued afresh an open statement reiterating their demand, in which they countered each of the arguments made by NCERT turning down their demand.

“We have not raised issues of authorship, copyrights and NCERT’s legal authority to modify these textbooks. Our point is very simple: If they [NCERT] can use their legal right to distort and mutilate the text, we must be able to exercise our moral and legal right to dissociate our name from a textbook that we do not endorse,” the open statement said.

Yadav and Palshikar further said, “If the name of the Textbook Development Committee is there to acknowledge our contribution, as the NCERT claims, then we must be free to decline this generosity.”

They also objected to NCERT’s argument that their names will remain in print because of their contributions and as a matter of record. “If the names of this committee are reported as a matter of record, as claimed in this statement, then it must also be recorded that we do not approve of the present version,” they hit back. “The continuation of our names inside the present version of the book creates a false impression of endorsement, and we have every right to dissociate with this insinuation.”

They also go on to say in their statement that the NCERT is free to make changes as it desired but it cannot “hide” behind their names as chief advisors. “Besides, the two of us are clearly the ‘authors’ of the signed letter that introduces each book. How can we be forced to introduce a textbook that we no longer recognise? Surely, if the NCERT can get experts to make changes as desired, it can publish their names. The NCERT cannot hide behind our names as Chief Advisors.”