The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has removed several verses of Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem from the Political Science NCERT textbook of class 10. The changes were made in the ‘Religion, Communalism and Politics’ section of the book ‘Democratic Politics II’ with the release of CBSE’s 2022-23 academic curriculum this Thursday, reported a leading news daily.

As per the new social science curriculum for class 10, the segment on religion, communalism, and politics has been retained. However, it states that images from several pages of the textbook have been excluded from the curriculum. These are images on pages 46, 48, and 49 of Democratic Politics –II.

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Reportedly, those pages contained a political cartoon and two posters and is said to be the only images excluded from the course content. One of the posters which had Faiz’s verse on it was issued by NGO ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy). The co-founders of ANHAD are social activists Harsh Mander and Shabnam Hashmi among others.

The excluded verses are “We remain strangers even after so many meetings, bloodstains remain even after so many rains” and “Not enough to shed tears, to suffer anguish, not enough to nurse love in secret…Today, walk in the public square fettered in chains.”

The poem from which these verses are taken was written by Faiz when he was being taken from a Lahore jail to a dentist’s office in a tonga while in chains, according to literary web portal Rekhta.

The second excluded poster, which had verses from Faiz’s other poem, was issued by Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI). It is a non-profit organization formed in 1970 and describes itself as federation of 27 state associations. According to Rekhta, this poem was written by Faiz in 1974 after his visit to Dhaka.

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The excluded cartoon from the curriculum was made by Ajith Ninan and featured an empty chair with religious symbols on it. It was taken from The Rashtra News and has a caption which reads “This chair is for the CM-designate to prove his secular credentials…There will be plenty of rocking!”

Besides this, other excluded content from the curriculum includes a chapter on ‘democracy and diversity’, ‘popular struggle and movements’, and ‘challenges to democracy’. A chapter on ‘Central Islamic Lands’ has also been removed form class 11 history course.

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