NEW DELHI: Sparking fears of saffronisation of education in some quarters, the process to rewrite NCERT history textbooks may have begun. Earlier this month – between June 8 and 12 — NCERT conducted a workshop for a quick review of history textbooks attended by scholars from all parts of the country, including three council members of the Indian Council of Historical Research.Before the workshop, a meeting took place in the HRD ministry in which NCERT officials were called and the issue of change in history textbooks was discussed. Though both HRD and NCERT maintain that the meeting was to address “mistakes and controversial issues in history textbooks”, Sardindu Mukherji of ICHR who attended the meeting told TOI, “There are obvious problems with textbooks. These books should be replaced.”Since 1977, when Jana Sangh joined government as part of the Janata regime, there has been threat of changing NCERT textbooks, especially of history. In 1999 when NDA came to power, all NCERT textbooks were changed. In 2004, UPA replaced them again.One senior NCERT official involved with history textbooks told TOI, “Five day workshop is not held to correct minor changes. These books have been in use for more than 10 years and from time to time changes have been made and names of figures like Avantibai Lodhi were added.”He says one of the things that came up for discussion in the workshop is the time it will take to come up with new history textbooks. Mukherji says, “It is for government to decide. But we are told that commissioning and writing takes 18 to 24 months. If at all, new books can come only in 2017. Books are first written in English and then translated in Urdu and other languages.”Mukherji went along with two council members Meenakshi Jain and R S Agrawal. They were representing ICHR chairperson Y Sudershan Rao who could not make it to the meeting. Mukherji points out problemw with class XII history textbooks and alleges that Jinnah is highlighted as much as Gandhi while there is no mention of revolutionaries. He also says emergence of nationalism does not get proper treatment. When pointed out that it is part of textbooks in the earlier classes, he says, “It should be in class XII since those interested in history have opted for the subject. They should study in detail.” In fact, Mukherji has already prepared a compendium of big mistakes in the history textbooks and says his opposition has nothing to do with ideology.Refusing to divulge what happened in the meeting, officiating director of NCERT B K Tripathi said, “I have not yet received the report. I was busy with yoga workshop. It was about correcting minor changes.”