What We Remember: How Different Versions Of History Attack Past And Present In Kashmir

Adil Nazir, 19, believes the revocation of Article 370 has left young Kashmiris at a disadvantage. He says the change has opened up land and jobs in the Union Territory to ‘outsiders’, leaving locals with fewer opportunities. However, the views of Adil and many of his student peers, stand in sharp contrast to what they actually study in their class 11 political science lessons, both from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and from the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE), where the abrogation of Kashmir’s special status and the wider history of the region are presented somewhat differently.

School textbooks present a version of history at odds with Kashmiri recollections. While Valley leaders call the revocation of Article 370 a setback, the class 12 NCERT text says militancy and Pandit migration persisted despite it, framing its removal as justified, and portrays Dogra rulers as welfare-oriented despite local memories of oppression under their regime. The backdrop lies in the Centre’s August 5, 2019 decision to scrap Article 370 and downgrade Jammu and Kashmir to a Union Territory, carving out Ladakh separately. Recasting Dogra rulers as heroic is seen as aimed at Hindu-majority Jammu, where the BJP won all 29 seats in 2024.

In a school in Budgam, housed in a low-roofed single-storey building along a narrow lane, a teacher leafed through a textbook in a small classroom where only a few students sat at their desks. The teacher said the new syllabus had changed how history was taught. “The chapter on ‘Formation of Erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State and the Dogra rule’ has now become ‘Unification of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Dogra Rulers,’ with the revised version praising the administration of Dogra rulers.

I think that is what the official history is now. We know history has been rewritten, but we can’t teach any other history to the students,” the teacher said, requesting anonymity.

Another teacher said she found parts of the revised history at odds with what had long been taught in schools. “We have to close our eyes. Questions arise in our mind about how the Dogra rulers can be presented the way they have been when there is a history of a fight against them,” she said.

Waseem Nabi, 17, a class 10 student, felt that the way the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked, when the Valley remained cut off during the internet shutdown, was not reflected in the new textbooks. “There was a lockdown and we got disconnected from the rest of the world due to the internet shutdown. The land of Kashmir belonged only to Kashmiris, but now anyone from any part of the country can buy it. Such things are missing in the textbooks now,” he said.

In contrast to the general perception in Kashmir against the revocation of its special status, and the heavy security lockdown and protests that followed the annulment, the class 12 NCERT political science book states: “Jammu and Kashmir had a special status under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. However, in spite of it, Jammu and Kashmir experienced violence, cross border terrorism and political instability with internal and external ramifications. It also resulted in the loss of many lives including that of innocent civilians, security personnel and militants. Besides, there was also a large-scale displacement of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley.

There is a section of people outside of J&K that believed that the special status of the state conferred by Article 370 did not allow full integration of the state with India. This section felt that Article 370 be revoked and J&K be treated like any other state of India.”

The same text notes that some Kashmiris felt the autonomy granted by Article 370 was not sufficient, which gave rise to the demand for a plebiscite. It also notes a perception that the federal status promised under Article 370 had eroded in practice, and that democracy seen elsewhere in India had not been fully institutionalised in the state. While no mainstream politician in Kashmir has supported the idea of a plebiscite, those who backed the revocation of Article 370 argued that it had already been “hollowed out by the Congress”.

The class 9 political science textbook of the JKBOSE refers to the delimitation exercise that raised the number of Assembly seats to 42 in Jammu and 47 in Kashmir. Politicians in the Valley describe the process as one driven by the BJP to shore up its electoral base. The same book recalls that in the first election to the constituent assembly in 1951, the National Conference won all 75 seats, while the nominations of Praja Parishad candidates from Jammu were rejected on what it calls flimsy grounds, prompting them to boycott the polls.

Political commentator Shiekh Showkat said that curfew and restrictions on public movement did not match the claim that people had demanded the scrapping of the special status. “If the revocation of special status is what fulfilled the aspirations of people, then what was the need to impose the curfew in Jammu and Kashmir?” he asked.

BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir General Secretary Organisation, Ashok Koul, argued that the history of the erstwhile state had been misrepresented in the past. He said the presentation in textbooks showing the removal of Article 370 as a development that was in line with the people’s aspirations was a factual account. “Earlier the real history of Kashmir was distorted. The late Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was killed in Kashmir when he raised a movement that in one country there has to be only one constitution and one flag. Nobody was talking about this in the past.”

The revised textbooks have also praised the Dogra rulers, even though their rule is widely remembered in Kashmir as one with harsh overtones. The 53 people who died on July 13, 1931, resisting forced labour and poverty under Maharaja Hari Singh, are considered martyrs in the Valley. The new class 8 JKBOSE chapter notes instead that during Hari Singh’s rule, “communities, races and religions were equal”. It cites a speech of the ruler: “As a ruler I have no religion, all religions are mine and my religion is justice.”

Madhulika Singh, Associate Professor of Jammu University’s History Department, who was among the experts who suggested changes, said: “We have mainstreamed J&K’s history. We had received a format from the government that it shouldn’t be seen in isolation and should be contextualised with Indian history. We have worked out elaborate chapters on Dogra rule in the new books.” Lauding the work of the rulers of the Hindu dynasty, she said, “What was the need to condemn Maharajas, we have presented an unbiased view of the history. We felt that there was no need for teaching separatist politics to students. We have given a nationalist perspective.”

Sushma Jamwal, Research Consultant at the Maharaja Gulab Singh Research Centre, Jammu, said: “Jammu was not getting reflected properly in the JKBOSE textbooks even though it was part of the Harappan civilisation. We have revised the books. If Harappan civilisation was in other places, Jammu was also its part, which was not included earlier,” she said. Jamval added that the revised texts highlight Akhnoor as a Harappan trade route, following JKBOSE’s direction to emphasise Jammu’s role. The updated JKBOSE textbooks also state that Hari Singh introduced a Legislative Assembly with seven members, describing the first Assembly of 1934 as having a limited electoral element, with only 33 members elected.

Official commemorations have shifted with schoolbook changes. Hari Singh’s birth anniversary is now a public holiday, while Sheikh Abdullah’s was dropped. The NC has sought its restoration. Omar Abdullah, with limited powers under the LG, was blocked by police from paying homage to the July 13 martyrs. People’s Democratic Party spokesperson Mehboob Beg, whose father, Mirza Afzal Beg, served as Deputy Chief Minister under Sheikh Abdullah and fought alongside him against the feudal order, said the Dogra period denied Kashmiris jobs and kept living conditions poor. “When we are not allowed to pay tributes to the martyrs, we are effectively being told that we have no freedom to choose our heroes. That way a new history is being imposed on us. How is that possible when we believe that the people who died fighting the Dogra rule are our real martyrs?” he said.

Senior Congress leader G N Monga said the BJP was distorting the history of Jammu and Kashmir at both the national level and in the Union Territory. “The party is hell-bent on espousing communal politics and it is pushing ahead with its agenda at the school level as well,” he said.

Ishfaq Naseem is senior special correspondent, Outlook. He is based in Srinagar

Democracy is about ballots, but also about memory—who safeguards both, and who seeks to rewrite them? Outlook’s September 11, 2025 issue, 'Election Omission' probes these erasures—of voters, voices, and histories—asking what they mean for India’s democratic future. This article appeared in print as 'Staking Claim To The First Spot'.