BYJU's retracts IAS course text on Sardar Patel after facing backlash

Edtech company BYJU’s, after facing heavy backlash on the Internet over alleged wrong portrayal of facts related to India’s first home minister Sardar Patel and his role in the liberation of Kashmir in its history textbook, informed that it had later removed the controversial points and the same would not be featured in any of its publication in the upcoming academic year.

The matter came into light on Thursday after many users took to Twitter criticising a point made in BYJU’S' IAS course history textbook in its chapter 15 which briefly explains the introduction, background, attack by militias, liberation and aftermath in Kashmir.

While describing the political situation and liberalisation process of Kashmir, the textbook mentioned, “Whereas, Pandit Nehru was in favor of accession of Kashmir, Sardar Patel was of the opinion that it should be made a part of Pakistan. But later, he changed his mind on 13th of September after the government of Pakistan accepted the liberation of Junagadh”

Several users then came down heavily against the edtech platform and accused it of deliberately spreading misinformation and biased propaganda after which BYJU’s issued a statement and informed, “At BYJU’s we take utmost care that the information provided to the students is authentic and corroborated from various sources. We regularly review our content for factual accuracy. In this case, we had already identified the highlighted bullet point as contested and variously interpreted in different sources and marked it for corrective action. Our editorial team has removed this point already and we would like to inform you that it will not feature in the new prints of this booklet in the upcoming academic year. We assure you that historical authenticity is central to our academic efforts,”