In a controversial remark, Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma on Tuesday said Mughals were "not our ancestors", they were actually “plunderers”.
"They looted the country. This is not our history," Sharma said while responding to a question during an award ceremony in Lucknow, reports India Today.
He added that In Uttar Pradesh, every religion would be given equal respect, “but we won't accept Pakistani-Talibani culture”.
Sharma, who is also the education minister in the Yogi Adityanath government, said that the UP government will introduce new syllabus in schools which could be based on modern history.
If reports are to be believed, educational bodies in the BJP-ruled states across India seem to be making a conscious effort scrap history of Mughals from textbooks.
The textbooks for Class 7 and 9 students of schools under Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education will not contain detailed chapters on Mughal rulers and Western history, which includes the French Revolution, Greek philosophy, American War of Independence and others in detail.
Rajasthan’s official Class 12 history textbook reads: "Maharana Pratap didn’t flee the 1576 Battle of Haldighati against Mughal emperor Akbar but turned the battle towards the hills”. This, many experts claimed, was part of a BJP effort to saffronise history.