Highlights: The Indian Ministry of Education has published the program for new school books. The books will be used by a large part of public schools at the start of the next school year. Historical passages are controversial because they tend to redefine the origins of the population of the subcontinent. This is the fourth revision of public school textbooks in the space of seven years.. Hindu nationalists have previously removed some references to India's Muslim heritage. The new secondary school curriculum removes references to this migration, to present the Aryans as the indigenous people of India.

The Indian Ministry of Education has published the program for new school books, which will be used by a large part of public schools at the start of the next school year. And historical passages…

India: nationalists are still modifying history textbooks and causing controversy

The Indian Ministry of Education has published the program for new school books, which will be used by a large part of public schools at the start of the next school year. And historical passages are controversial because they tend to redefine the origins of the population of the subcontinent and claim that the Aryan people of northern India have always lived there. A position which seems more ideological than historical, dictated by the program of the Hindu nationalists in power.

University of New Delhi, India (Illustrative image) Getty Images - tirc83

By: RFI Follow

Where do Indians come from? Who are the “indigenous” inhabitants of India? It is this question dear to Hindu nationalists, behind

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

, which is at the center of this controversy.

According to archaeological research, the Aryan people living today in northern India came from the plateaus of Iran and migrated around 7,000 years ago to the northwest of the country. But the new secondary school curriculum removes references to this migration, to present the Aryans as the indigenous people of India.

However, this is aberrant, according to Mahalakshmi Ramakrishnan, professor of ancient history at Jawarhalal Nehru University in New Delhi: “

This idea that there is an indigenous population of India is stupid, because for more than 4,000

years , populations have moved a lot in this region, which is proven by genetic analyzes and surveys. But this fact bothers the nationalist government, because their policy always presents foreigners as oppressors. They therefore cannot accept that they themselves, the North Indians, come from abroad.

This is the fourth revision of public school textbooks in the space of seven years. Hindu nationalists have previously removed some references to India's Muslim heritage.

Read alsoIndia: indignation at the rewriting of history books imposed by nationalists

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India: nationalists are still modifying history textbooks and causing controversy

India: nationalists are still modifying history textbooks and causing controversy

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