UP: Biographies of eminent persons in classes 9-12 syllabus

Lucknow: The UP government has amended the syllabus for classes 9-12 of state-board affiliated schools to include biographies of Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, RSS and Bhartiya Jan Sangh leader Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya among 50 Indian personalities in a move aimed at acquainting the students with the lives of freedom fighters, revolutionaries, social reformers, etc.

The move follows an earlier directive of CM Yogi Adityanath regarding the same after which a list of the names was sent to the government by subject experts leading to an approval by the government, a govt spokesperson said on Friday. The biographies will be part of subjects like moral science, physical education and yoga and the changed curriculum will be implemented from July. While, it will be mandatory to clear the subjects containing study of these biographies, their marks will not be added to marksheets of classes 10 and 12, the spokesperson said.

Among the 50 personalities adopted by UP as part of its changed curriculum also includes names of Congress leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sarojini Naidu, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Lokmanya Tilak among others who contributed extensively towards Indian independence.


In the changed curriculum in UP, Savarkar's biography will be taught to class 9 students, while Upadhyaya will be taught to class 11 students. Other personalities to be read about by the 1 crore students enrolled between classes 9 and 12 include Chandrashekhar Azad, Begum Hazrat Mahal, Gautam Buddha, Jyotibha Phule, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Mangal Pandey, Lokmanya Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda, Bhagat Singh, BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Sarojini Naidu, Ramkrishna Paramhansa, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Maharana Pratap, Guru Nanak Dev, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, CV Raman, and others.