The National Council for Educational Research and Training on Tuesday said it has removed references to Khalistan from the Class 12 political science textbook. Khalistan refers to an independent Sikh state sought by some groups.
The changes to the textbook were made after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee last month raised objections about the content.
It had alleged that the NCERT misrepresented historical details about Sikhs in the textbook. The Sikh body had particularly objected to the mentioning of the Anandpur Sahib resolution in the textbook, Politics In India Since Independence.
The Anandpur Sahib resolution was a document adopted by the Shiromani Akali Dal in 1973. The resolution affirmed the party’s commitment to the Sikh religion and demanded greater autonomy for Punjab. It also demanded that the city of Chandigarh should be handed over to Punjab and that Punjabi should be given second-language status in neighboring states.
In the textbook, a passage about the resolution read: “The resolution also spoke of the aspirations of the Sikh community and declared its goal as attaining the ‘bolbala’ [dominance] of the Sikhs. The resolution was a plea for strengthening federalism, but it could also be interpreted as a plea for a separate Sikh nation.”
On Tuesday, the NCERT said that the sentence – “but it could also be interpreted…
