Evidently, the pressure created by the pandemic on students has served as a good enough pretext for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to purge and prune the sections from NCERT books arbitrarily. Over time, NCERT books have earned tremendous credibility for their well-researched content, and compact and cryptic but comprehensive language style. Each sentence has been loaded with meaningful significance. Last year, NCERT released a list of rationalised content. Now, as the reprints of the books have hit the market, allegedly with additional changes to those listed by the Council, there is a need to find the exact rationale behind each deletion — be it a phrase, sentence, paragraph, page or chapter. In absence of a convincing rationale, the authenticity of any deletion has to be questioned. Due diligence will have to be exercised to ensure that the impartiality and objectivity of the vital NCERT books are preserved and that no political bias creeps in. The evidence, however, reveals the contrary. The fact that Mahatma Gandhi was “particularly disliked by those who wanted Hindus to take revenge or who wanted India to become a country for the Hindus” is vital to the understanding of both the assassination of Gandhi and the prevailing political mood at that time. The deletion of such facts will snatch away from students the opportunity to develop a subjective understanding of perhaps one of the most defining moments of Indian history and polity. Gandhi devoted a large part of his life to the pursuit of building a peaceful and prosperous India. But in his death, too, was the potential to trigger the Indian government to impose crackdowns on nefarious organisations, including a ban on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. There is no rationale behind why Indian students should be deprived of understanding this “magical effect” of the death of the greatest individual born in this country. By removing the qualifiers ‘Brahmin’ and ‘the editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper’ before Nathuram Godse’s name — which has little to do with the unburdening of students from Covid pressures — the council made its intent glaringly clear. When political narratives and agenda of the ruling party of any country start creeping into the education system, that too in a documented form meant for young learners, one should take a pause and critically analyse the possible manipulative intentions behind such moves. The lives of students are meant to serve the interests of the nation which is often a mosaic of many ideologies and philosophies, of which the ruling party’s narrative is a tiny portion. The attempts to narrow down the vision and knowledge of students to such insignificant particulars is detrimental to the future of the country. Amid the allegations of political bias, NCERT and the Indian government must ensure that the knowledge pool of students is not truncated. At the same time, one must also note that history is more about facts rather than perceptions. Overturning the reality that has already unfolded in the past is an obvious impossibility. History can neither be expanded nor curtailed to suit the fancies of the present. Any such endeavour, even by a slight margin, can reduce history to the standards of fiction. It will create a dark room where one cannot see anything, and thus lose the opportunity to learn from the past — destroying the entire essence of history as a subject. History is a mix of good and bad, desirable and undesirable, and its significance lies in totality rather than fragments. Reportedly, all the references to the Gujarat riots have been removed from the text. Several chapters related to the Muslim rule in India have been purged — the Director of NCERT clarified that “students still study Mughal history in NCERT’s class 7 book, as well as in class 11 and 12 books”. Portions related to the caste system have also been curtailed. Ironically, the highlighted deletions by the NCERT are made in segments that hold immense significance in today’s India — be it communalism or casteism — or are politically controversial. Manipulation and hijacking of the education system had been among the most despicable authoritarian practices of the past. When the French took control of Vietnam, education was among the first things they targeted. The act had boomeranged against the French disastrously. Taking lessons from the past, the concerned authorities and institutions in India should refrain from tinkering with syllabuses asymmetrically, whether deliberate or otherwise.