NCERT module blame Congress, Jinnah & Mountbatten for partition

The NCERT, under the Ministry of Education, has blamed the Congress leadership for the division of the country, saying they "accepted the plans of Partition" and "underestimated Jinnah" while failing to anticipate the long-term horrors that followed. In a special module for schools to mark Partition Horrors Remembrance Day, the NCERT says,says partition was not the work of one individual alone but of three forces -- “Jinnah, who had been propagating the partition; the Congress, which accepted the partition; and Mountbatten, who had been sent to implement the partition.” It also notes that Partition turned Kashmir into a new security problem for the country, adding: “Since then, one of our neighbouring countries has been using this problem to put pressure on India in different ways.”

The text refers to the 1940 Lahore Resolution, where Muhammad Ali Jinnah claimed that Hindus and Muslims belonged to “two different villages, philosophy, social customs, and literature.” The module argues that the British initially sought to keep India united by offering dominion status, but Congress refused this proposal.Two modules, one for the middle stage and another for the secondary stage, were released this August to mark Partition Remembrance Day.Separate versions have been designed for Classes 6-8 and Classes 9-12, outside of the regular textbooks.

The text refers to the 1940 Lahore Resolution, where Muhammad Ali Jinnah claimed that Hindus and Muslims belonged to “two different villages, philosophy, social customs, and literature.” The module argues that the British initially sought to keep India united by offering dominion status, but Congress refused this proposal.The module quotes Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as saying that the situation in India had become explosive: “India had become a battlefield and it was better to partition the country than to have a civil war.” It cites Gandhi’s stance, noting that he opposed partition but would not resist Congress’s decision through violence. The text states: “He said that he could not be a party to the partition, but he would not stop Congress from accepting it with violence.”

The module strongly criticises Lord Mountbatten for preponing the transfer of power. It says: “Mountbatten had announced June 1948 as the date of transfer of power but later preponed it to August 1947.” It points out that the hasty demarcation of boundaries caused chaos: “In many places, people did not even know by August 15, whether they were in India or Pakistan.”

The modules describe Partition as an "unprecedented human tragedy, with no parallel in world history." They document mass killings, the displacement of nearly 1.5 crore people, large-scale sexual violence, and trains of refugees arriving "filled only with corpses, having been slaughtered en route.

The Congress has hit out at NCERT’s interpretation. Party spokesperson Pawan Khera said: “Burn this document as it doesn’t tell the truth. Partition happened due to nexus between Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League." "RSS is danger to this nation. Idea of partition was first propagated by Hindu Mahasabha in 1938. It was repeated by Jinnah in 1940," he said in a press conference.