NCERT Textbook on Mughal Rulers: A Complex Overview

• The new NCERT Class 8 social science textbook introduces the complex nature of Mughal rulers, including Babur, Akbar, and Aurangzeb.

• Babur is described as cultured, intellectually curious, and a ruthless conqueror, but also brutal and ruthless.

• Akbar’s reign is described as a blend of ‘brutality and tolerance,’ with a message of occupying forts and towns belonging to infidels and establishing Islam.

• Aurangzeb’s farmans are mentioned, ordering the destruction of schools and temples of infidels, and persecution of Sufis and Zoroastrians.

• The textbooks aim to present Indian history as a complex and sanitised experience, acknowledging both bright and dark periods.

• The Delhi Sultanate and Mughal era are shifted to Part 1 of the new textbooks, which will serve as a resource for the first six months of the academic year.

• The new textbook chapter has also added a section on the heroic exploits of resistance to Mughals.