Key facts
- Civil group alleges J&K school textbook calls terrorists 'great personalities'
- Claim reported by NDTV; education authorities yet to respond
- Controversy arises in context of post-Article 370 integration policy
A civil society group has alleged that a school textbook in Jammu & Kashmir contains content describing terrorists as "great personalities", triggering a political and administrative controversy in the Union Territory. The claim has drawn sharp reactions and calls for immediate investigation and withdrawal of the offending material.
The allegation is particularly sensitive in J&K, which has been under central administration since the revocation of its special status under Article 370 in 2019. The government has made mainstreaming, de-radicalisation, and integration core pillars of its J&K policy — making any official educational material that could be seen as glorifying militancy a direct contradiction of that agenda.
Civil groups monitoring educational content in the region say the textbook in question presents certain individuals associated with terrorism in a positive light, without appropriate context about the violence they perpetrated. If confirmed, such content would represent a serious failure of the curriculum review process that authorities were supposed to have tightened post-2019.
The J&K education department and central authorities had not issued a public response at the time of reporting. Opposition parties and security analysts are expected to raise the issue, and it may well surface during the forthcoming Parliamentary Monsoon Session as a question of governance accountability in the Union Territory.