Bangladesh's National Curriculum and Textbook Board has updated school textbooks for the 2025 academic year. These changes will change how the country’s history is taught. The updates come after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was removed in August 2024, showing that the interim government wants to change the national story, according to The Indian Express.

India’s participation in the liberation war removed

India’srole in the Liberation War has been removed. While the textbooks still mention that India helped Bangladesh become independent, some key details have been changed. Two important old photos have been removed. These photos showed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh and father of Sheikh Hasina, with former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. One photo was of their joint speech at a Kolkata rally on February 6, 1972, and the other showed Gandhi being welcomed in Dhaka on March 17, 1972, according to the newspaper.

However, the textbooks still show the Indian Army and Mukti Bahini's role in the 1971 war. They also include the story of Pakistan's surrender on December 16, 1971.

Sheikh Hasina and Mujibur Rahman's role removed 

One big change is that Sheikh Hasina has been completely removed from all textbooks. Instead of her usual message on the back cover, there are now graffiti images from the July 2024 protests that led to her removal.

The textbooks now have less informationabout Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Chapters that once focused on his leadership in the Liberation War have either been removed or rewritten to include other leaders from the independence movement.

Bangladesh updates 441 school books

A team of 57 experts hired by the Bangladesh education ministry made these changes. They revised 441 textbooks for primary, secondary, and higher secondary students. More than 40 crore new books have been printed for this school year.

NCTB chairperson AKM Reazul Hassan told The Indian Express that these changes follow the 2012 curriculum framework, replacing the 2022-2023 textbooks. One important fix in the new editions is about which country first recognized Bangladesh’s independence. Earlier, the books said India did, but now they say Bhutan was the first, on December 3, 1971. Hassan mentioned that more factual changes might be made in future editions.

Hassan told The Indian Express that the old textbooks used to include a picture of Mujibur Rahman with Indira Gandhi. "Now that the 2023-24 books are canceled, that picture is gone. But the role of India in the Liberation War and the Mitro Bahini remains unchanged," he said.

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