It’s almost a ritual that the BJP, whenever it comes to power in Rajasthan, targets the state education board’s textbooks and either scraps the entire book or a few chapters introduced by the Congress government when it was ruling the state.
This trend in textbook politics recently saw the scrapping of Azadi Ke Baad Ka Swarnim Bharat from the reading list. This book for 12th standard students is a non-evaluative text that is nevertheless part of the teaching programme to showcase India’s post-Independence development. It was approved for addition to the syllabus five years ago, in 2020.
The new BJP government under Bhajan Lal Sharma continued to use this book until recently — after all, surely it supports the theme of a developed Bharat, right, that the BJP likes to make much of?
But now, suddenly, it found that the book has an ‘overemphasis’ on Congress prime ministers, including the Gandhi–Nehru family, and feels that only limited coverage has been given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his contribution to the country over the past 11 years.
This book, published by the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education, has seen 4.90 lakh copies printed for the 2025 academic session and has already been distributed to 19,200 schools. Approximately Rs 2.50 crore has been spent on this printing and distribution until now — all a loss to the exchequer, now that it has been scrapped.
“Yes, we know that this is a loss that cannot be recovered, but the government as a policy cannot allow glorification of one family (Gandhi-Nehru) and minimising [of] the contribution of other prime ministers,” said education minister Madan Dilawar.
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The praise supposedly showered on the Gandhi–Nehru family in the book was noticed by the education department only this year — and the publishing and distribution. Of course the state government can bear the losses on printing and transport — it must, rather than allow students to read of the good works and international triumphs of the Nehru-Gandhi family, with the imbalance of ‘lesser space’ given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Or so education minister Dilawar argued, saying, “The removal of the book is fully justified as its contents are inadequate and imbalance both.”
After the formation of the BJP government led by Bhajan Lal Sharma in 2023, a syllabus overhaul had been ordered by the BJP government. A committee headed by Dr Kailash Sodani, vice chancellor of Vardhman Mahaveer Open University (VMOU), Kota, was formed. However, the advisory body had just the one meeting and offered little enough by way of suggestions on the syllabus. They certainly did not think to remove the book in question.
Prof Om Prakash Mahala of the department of public administration, University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, feels the book covers all post-Independence milestones adequately.
“The textbook has content dealing with the Non-Cooperation, Civil Disobedience, and Quit India movements, the Kakori case and the Gandhi era of 1920–1947,” he notes. “The book also deals with the world’s biggest employment programme, the MGNREGA; the Right to Education Act; Aadhaar; RTI; the Green and White Revolutions under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri...”
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“The book has also given adequate coverage to Atal Behari Vajpayee lauding the Pokhran nuclear test,” he adds. “The book is not only about the Congress, but is an honest compilation of facts to educate the younger lot on post-Independence development in India, irrespective of the various governments at the helm, be it the Congress or the BJP,” says Prof Mahala.
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The state government, meanwhile, has disbursed books relating to the RSS, with an instruction to keep them stocked in the school libraries — Jane Sangh Ko and Dr Keshav Baliram Hegdewar. These books contain details of RSS policies and viewpoints, Sarsanghchalaks, Shakhas and saffron flags. The book on the RSS, especially, deals in detail about its ideals and functionaries. The book on Hedgewar also talks of his anti-secular notions on Muslims.
These books thus propagate the Hindutva ideologies of the BJP and also detail ‘Hindu–Muslim conflicts’. They are published by the Rajasthan School Shiksha Parishad, an autonomous body of the state government.
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In contrast to the BJP position, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot defended the Congress’ post-Independence contributions and posted his comment on X: “It’s a fact that Congress led the most govts after independence and deserves credit for taking the country to historic heights. The BJP govt cannot hide this truth. Under Congress rule, scientists built Chandrayaan and engineers constructed large factories, dams and institutions,” he stated.
Highlighting the sacrifices made by Congress members, Gehlot questioned, “Our great leaders Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi even sacrificed their lives for the country. Can the BJP govt change these facts too?”
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The Swarnim Bharat book was first approved five years ago, when the Congress government was in power, led by Gehlot. However, the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education published the latest edition of these books only after receiving the approval of the BJP state government that took over in 2023 — until education minister Dilawar, a staunch RSS follower, a few days ago summoned a copy of the book and ordered it be withdrawn from schools and scrapped.
The minister has also ordered the removal of RBSE senior assistant director Dinesh Kumar Ojha, under whose supervision the book was approved. He has been ‘transferred’.
Gehlot wondered at the logic behind Dilawar ‘accepting the losses’ on behalf of the BJP government, suggesting: “Instead of wasting the Rs 2.5 crore worth of books, if they want to teach about the NDA regime, they should print additional pages highlighting their contributions and send them to schools. How can it be justified to waste public money by turning books into scrap?”
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