Class 3 Textbook Sparks Row With Allegations Of 'Love Jihad', NCERT Responds

A Class 3 textbook has sparked allegations of 'love jihad' for featuring a Hindu girl writing a letter to a Muslim boy.

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A controversy has erupted over a lesson titled 'Chitthi Aayi Hai' in the "NCERT Class 3 environmental studies textbook", Aas-Paas. Dr. Raghav Pathak, a resident of Khajuraho, has lodged a complaint, alleging that the lesson promotes "love jihad". The controversy has now drawn the attention of Bageshwar Dham’s Peethadhishwar, Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, who has also expressed his concerns.

Chapter 17 of the Class 3 environmental studies textbook is titled 'Chitthi Aayi Hai', in which a girl named Reena invites her friend Ahmed to visit Agartala during the holidays. She writes him a letter, which she signs off with, "Yours, Reena." This particular detail was the point of objection in Pathak's complaint, which has accused the chapter of promoting "love jihad". 

Shastri also questioned the intent behind the lesson, asking: “Why didn’t Reena write the letter to someone named Akash, Avinash, or Adarsh? Why did she specifically write to a person from a particular community?” He further claimed that inappropriate ideas are being planted in the minds of young children. Shastri has demanded the immediate withdrawal of the textbook.

According to Dhirendra Krishna Shastri, such content in the textbook is intended to instill harmful thoughts in innocent children from an early age. There might be an agenda behind including such material in the textbook. He insisted that the lesson should be removed immediately.

Shastri also expressed concerns about what he referred to as the growing influence of "anti-religious forces," stating that the sentiments of 100 crore Hindus were being hurt. He raised questions about the language used in the letter format, which, in his view, has raised several important issues. “Why should a Hindu girl studying in Class 3 be writing a letter to a Muslim boy?” he asked, calling for strict legal action against those responsible for fostering such ideas in young children.

In his remarks, Shastri emphasised that the responsibility for tackling such "conspiracies" cannot rest with any single individual. He urged all Hindus across the country to raise their voices collectively against these forces and put an end to such agendas.

UPDATE: NCERT ISSUES CLARIFICATION 

The NCERT Thursday issued a clarification about the letter in the Class 3 textbook, and said it "has no basis".

The council said a new subject, 'The World Around Us' has been introduced from Class 3 onwards in place of Environmental Studies "as per the perspective of new National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023".

"This is an interdisciplinary area which provides focus on Environmental Education simultaneously taking care of development of basic competencies in Science and Social Science from Grade 3 onwards. Accordingly, NCERT has introduced new textbooks for this subject having a broader perspective, including social environment. Hence, instead of the old textbooks, a new one titled “Our Wonderous World” has been brought out for Class 3," NCERT said.

The council said all schools should "only use the new textbooks in Grades 1, 2, 3, and 6 published by NCERT for these grades", which are based on the National Education Policy 2020.

This report has been updated to include the response of NCERT.