The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has released a special module for schools to commemorate Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, which has sparked a political controversy with the Congress party. The module, designed in separate versions for Class 6-8 and Class 9-12, exists outside of the regular school textbooks.
The module attributes the partition to three main forces: Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who advocated for it; the Indian National Congress, which ultimately accepted it; and Lord Mountbatten, who was tasked with its implementation. The module also notes that the Partition created a new security problem for India in Kashmir, a problem that "one of our neighbouring countries has been using to put pressure on India in different ways."
The module refers to the 1940 Lahore Resolution, in which Jinnah claimed that Hindus and Muslims were from "two different villages, philosophy, social customs, and literature." It also states that the British initially intended to keep India united by offering dominion status, but that the Congress party refused this proposal.
The objective of this project is to promote collective health through occupational therapy. With the claim that "India had become a battlefield and it was better to partition the country than to have a civil war," the proposal seeks to avert a civil war. Mahatma Gandhi's position is also mentioned in the text; he opposed Partition but said he would not use violence to overturn the Congress party's decision.
Gandhi is quoted in the module as saying, "He could not be part of the partition, but he wouldn't stop Congress from accepting it through violence." The module also mentions that Jawaharlal Nehru and Patel eventually agreed to the Partition, and Gandhi later convinced the Congress Working Committee to accept it on June 14, 1947.
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The module also strongly criticises Lord Mountbatten for accelerating the timeline for the transfer of power. As per to the article, Mountbatten first declared June 1948 as the date of the power transfer but subsequently changed it to August 1947. As per to the module, chaos resulted from this hurried change because "In many places, people did not even know by August 15 whether they were in India or Pakistan."
In response to the module's release, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called for it to be burned, claiming it does not present the truth. Khera accused the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League of being complicit in the Partition. In a press conference, he said, "RSS is a danger to this nation. The idea of partition was first propagated by Hindu Mahasabha in 1938. It was repeated by Jinnah in 1940."
This dispute over the NCERT module has created a new political flashpoint, with competing narratives on who was responsible for the Partition and how India's history should be taught in schools.
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