Maratha history downplayed in NCERT textbooks: BJP

MUMBAI: Maharashtra unit of BJP today alleged that there has been "inadequate" representation of Maratha rulers and social reformers in the NCERT social science and history textbooks and demanded immediate inclusion of their achievements.

"We will meet Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and request him to ask the Centre to discontinue these textbooks," party's state unit president Devendra Fadnavis told reporters here.

"Congress does not want the real history to be taught. That party wants to create a generation which forgets our history and culture," he said.

The CBSE history textbooks designed by NCERT have inadequate information on some of the important Maratha warriors and events, Fadnavis said. Some of the landmark events were of national importance and their significance was not just restricted to the history of Maharashtra, he said.

A team of history scholars evaluated nearly 1,600 pages of NCERT history textbooks from class VI to XII and found that the council has neglected the Maratha history, the BJP leader said.

"The history of the Marathas was confined to only one-and-a-half page and did not even carry a photo of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj," he added.