Rajya Sabha MP and former deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi's tweet that claimed India's first five education ministers post Independence were Muslims who did not include Lord Ram as part of the history of India, created an uproar on Wednesday.
BOOM found that the claim about the first five education ministers being Muslims is partly false.
Dr. Kalu Lal Shrimali, a Hindu, served as a Minister of State from 1958 to 1962 and as the Education Minister between 1962 - 1963.
Four namely - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Humayun Kabir, Mohammadali Carim Chagla, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, out of the first five education ministers were Muslims.
The claim was part of a series of tweets where the Rajya Sabha MP attacked the Congress.
In one of the tweets Modi alleged that the first five education ministers under the Congress rule, who 'belonged to a certain community', propagated a twisted historical narrative of India and denied the existence of Lord Ram in the educational syllabi of Indian history.
Below is Sushil Kumar Modi's tweet and click here for an archive of the tweet.
Fact Check
A Google search about the first five Indian education ministers led us to the official website of Education Minister , which lists the former ministers of Education. Sushil Kumar Modi's claim is partly false as Kalu Lal Shrimali, served as Minister of Education since March, 1958 to August 1963.
According to the bio data available on the Lok Sabha website, son of Ratan Lal Shrimali and Ganga Bai Shrimali, served as the parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Education from December 1953 to May 1955. He then served as the deputy minister for education between the period May 1955 to April 1957, minister of state in the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research from April 1957 to March 1958, and Minister of Education from March 1958 onwards.
According to the list available in the website, the first five education ministers of India after independence were
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad | 15.08.1947 to 22.02.1958 |
Dr KL Shrimali | 22.02.1958 to 31.08.1963 |
Humayun Kabir | 01.09.1963 to 21.11.1963 |
Mohammadali Carim Chagla | 21.11.1963 to 13.11.1966 |
Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 14.11.1966 to 13.03.1967 |
Did Sushil Kumar Modi base his claim on viral Whatsapp forwards?
A similar narrative was viral in Bangla on Facebook in October, 2020. The narrative falsely stated that all the education ministers appointed between 1947 - 1977 were Muslims. Based on the false claims, netizens accused Muslim rulers of taking the centre-stage in the history of Modern India. The posts further termed this narrative as 'Sanskriti Jihad', where Hindu rulers and culture were ignored by the Muslim education ministers. BOOM Bangla's fact check can be read here.
The claim in Bangla translates to the following: "How did twisted history come into operation... think... did you know! All the education ministers from 1947 to 1977 in India were Muslims. That is why Muslim rulers have usurped the history books of India. The Sanskriti Jihad has wiped out Hindu civilisation and descriptions of Hindu rulers and kings" (Original text in Bangla: বিকৃত ইতিহাস কীভাবে হলো, চিন্তা করুন, আপনি কি যানেন! ১৯৪৭ থেকে ১৯৭৭ পর্যন্ত দেশের সমস্ত শিক্ষামন্ত্রী মুসলমান ছিলেন, তাঁর জন্য মুসলিম শাসকেরা ইতিহাস বইকে দখল করে নিয়েছে, সংস্কৃতি জিহাদের দ্বারা হিন্দু সভ্যতা ও রাজাদের বিবরণ মুছে ফেলেছে,)
Later in December 2020 , a graphic in Hindi was also viral , which listed five Muslim education ministers between 1947 to 1977. The narrative claimed that the ministers including Maulana Azad, Humayun Kabir, Mohammed Carim Chagla, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and Nurul Hasan were responsible for portraying rulers like Akbar, Babur, Aurangzeb, Khilji as great.
A tweet featuring the graphic can be seen below. The translation of the graphic reads, "5 names of Union Education Minister of India from 1947 to 1977 under Congress rule! 1- Maulana Azad, 2- Humayun Kabir, 3- Mohammad Karim Chagla, 4- Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, 5- Nurul Hasan...It must have been understood now that… how the great invaders like Akbar, Babur, Aurangzeb, Khilji were made… !!"
The same message was sent to BOOM's helpline for verification. While the names of the ministers listed in the message are true, the text below it peddles a communal narrative about Indian history.