A Class of Controversies

The NCERT has released new modules titled 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' for Classes VI to XII, stirring debate

- Avantika Mehta IS A SENIOR ASSOCIATE EDITOR BASED IN NEW DELHI

IN August 2025, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) released two new modules titled 'Partition Horrors Remembrance Day' for Classes VI to XII. As of 2024 and early 2025, there are more than 27 million students enrolled in Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools, with approximately 20 million kids in India. News of these additions to the CBSE school syllabus has made headlines. In a section titled “Culprits of Partition,” the NCERT module says, “Ultimately, on August 15, 1947, India was divided. But this was not the doing of any one person. There were three elements responsible for the Partition of India: first, Jinnah, who demanded it; second, the Congress, which accepted it; and third, Mountbatten, who implemented it. But Mountbatten proved to be guilty of a major blunder.”

NCERT published two separate modules: one module for Classes VI to VIII and another for Classes IX to XII. These resources are intended to be supplementary in English and Hindi and are not yet part of regular textbooks. These modules are designed for use in projects, posters, discussions and debates. Both modules open with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2021 message announcing the observance of Partition Horrors Remembrance Day on August 14.

The modules include notes that Mountbatten made a fatal mistake in that he hurried the transfer of power, moving the date of India's Partition from 1948 to August 1947, which gave Sir Cyril Radcliffe mere weeks to draw borders between India and Pakistan. Even Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is quoted as saying, the Partition was “bitter medicine” to avoid civil war, along with Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s quote that he “never expected to see Pakistan” in his lifetime.