Excavation website RGR 7 of Archeological Survey of India, the place 60 skeletons have been discovered within the earlier excavations, at Rakhigarhi in Hisar district on May 7, 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Among the most recent set of revisions that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has proposed in class textbooks are additions about findings from the DNA evaluation of skeletal stays discovered on the archaeological website of Rakhigarhi in Haryana and the dropping of references to how the Narmada Dam mission adversely affected tribals and drew them to displacement resulting in higher destitution.
“That Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are social groups specially marked by poverty, powerlessness and social stigma,” are a number of of the a number of deletions NCERT is making to its sociology textbooks for Class 12.
The new adjustments are but to mirror within the on-line model of the revised textbooks, however NCERT, in a doc the place it has enlisted all adjustments, has highlighted these.
In a serious addition to the Class 12 History textbook “Themes in India History Part – I” below the chapter “Bricks, Beads and Bones – The Harappan Civilisation”, NCERT has said that examine of historic DNA from archaeological sources in Rakhigarhi, Haryana means that the genetic roots of the Harappans return to 10,000 BCE.
“The DNA of the Harappans has continued till today and a majority of the south Asian population appears to be their descendants. Due to trade and cultural contacts of the Harappans with distant regions there is a mixture of genes in small quantity. The continuity without any break in genetic history as well as cultural history rules out large-scale immigration of the so-called Aryans,” NCERT has said. This textual content will likely be added within the revised guide.
Spread of genes
Further, the added textual content states that this analysis additionally signifies that the folks coming from the bordering areas and distant areas have been absorbed within the Indian society. “At no stage, the genetic history of the Indians was either discontinued or broken. As the Harappans started moving towards Iran and Central Asia, their genes also gradually spread in those regions,” the revised textual content mentions.
In order to check the genetic historical past of the Harappans, DNA was extracted from the skeletal stays excavated at Rakhigarhi. This analysis was carried out by the Deccan College Deemed University, Pune in collaboration with the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad and The Harvard Medical College. The evaluation of the information was interpreted by some that the Harappans are the indigenous folks of this area. The identical group of researchers additionally reconstructed 3D options of the Harappan folks. NCERT has said that the reconstructed facial options of the Harappans, female and male, present exceptional similarity with the trendy inhabitants of Haryana and that the examine has indicated unbroken continuity for 5000 years on this area.
In an article for The Hindu, archaeologist Mudit Trivedi had argued that “the DNA of this person from Rakhigarhi … is a mixture with contributions coming from very ancient ancestry shared with Iranian populations and that from… Andamanese or South-East Asians in the deep past of her ancestry…media coverage has stressed her ‘indigeneity’ and not the fact that her genetic admixture makes one rethink the social geographies which the data groups her with, which are significantly more westerly than the limits of present-day India.”
NCERT has additionally added within the textbook that extra analysis can be required on the connection between the Harappans and the Vedic folks as some students have argued that the authors of the Harappan civilisation and the Vedic folks have been the identical.
Part deleted
Also, on Page 85, of Class 12 Sociology textbook titled ‘Indian Society,’ NCERT has stated that the sentence — ‘Projects such as the Sardar Sarovar dam on the river Narmada in western India and the Polavaram dam on the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh displace hundreds of thousands of adivasis, driving them to greater destitution,’ will likely be modified to, ‘Projects such as the Sardar Sarovar dam on the river Narmada in Western India and the Polavaram dam on the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh displaced hundreds of thousands of adivasis from their original habitats,’ with deletion of the half — ‘driving them to greater destitution.
In other context of how the Narmada Dam project adversely affected communities, the mention of the project as an example has been completely dropped. On Page 47, Chapter three of the same textbook, the sentence — ‘The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage in the new system. The most recent such example is the series of dams being built on the Narmada, where most of the costs and benefits seem to flow disproportionately to different communities and regions,’ will now learn, ‘The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage.’
NCERT says that the instance (Narmada Dam Project) shouldn’t be related within the current context in its clarification for removing of the textual content.
Also, from its political science textbooks, NCERT has dropped references, from a number of locations, of the Babri Masjid demolition and given added emphasis to the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple motion.
Also, in Class 7 historical past textbook — Our Pasts II, on Page 57 of the chapter “Tribes, Nomads and Settled Communities”, NCERT has added the point out of the victory of the Ahoms towards the Mughal military stating that is a crucial taking place in Indian History. “The battle of Saraighat is added as a box item, which also contains a visual illustration of the Ahom General, Lachit Barphukan,” NCERT has said.
Also, NCERT has stated that within the chapter — Eighteenth Century Political Formations, the phrase ‘Shivaji’ has been modified to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. “Chhatrapati and Maharaj are important honorific of Shivaji. Therefore, these honorifics have been added. Addition of the genealogy chart of the Chhatrapatis will make the students understand the history of the Marathas better,” it has stated.
Also altering the language on 1857 mutiny, NCERT states that on pages 51, 55 and 57, within the title ‘When People Rebel’, the phrase ‘Rebel’ modified to ‘Revolt’. “The phrase Revolt is extra applicable because it displays the general rebellion of the India towards the colonial oppression. The phrase Rebellion to be modified to Uprising. The phrase Uprising is extra complete against the phrase ‘Rebellion,’ NCERT has said.
Source: www.thehindu.com
