We tracked Facebook and Twitter for weeks to understand how users on the internet are retelling Indian history.
In January 2021, an RTI response received from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) – an autonomous body under the government of India – by one Shivank Varma, made it to news headlines and primetime television debates.
The query was about a paragraph in a Class 12 history textbook which mentioned that Mughal rulers gave grants to repair temples destroyed during war and how many such temples were repaired.
But the response that no such information is “available in the files of the department” triggered a massive debate on the authenticity of textbooks and our education system’s whitewashing of the “real history” of India.
This story first appeared in thequint.com on April 6, 2021 here.