Experts appointed by India's new government has recommended scrapping history textbooks that the previous Hindu nationalist administration allegedly distorted to villify religious minorities.
"We found it not advisable to continue with the present textbooks," historian S. Settar told reporters after submitting the panel's recommendations to Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh, who oversees education policy.
"There are other good books available in the markets published not only by individuals but also institutions. They conform to the... syllabus," Settar said on Thursday.
India's left-leaning government after being sworn in May 22 appointed the panel of three academics to examine the country's history textbooks.
Singh's predecessor, Murli Manohar Joshi, a hardliner in the Hindu nationalist government which lost April-May elections, began a programme of rewriting history textbooks in 2001.
Joshi, a former physics professor, said the revisions were needed to instil national pride and portray "equality" among religions.
But media reports have regularly highlighted controversial changes in the books, such as terming Muslims, Christians and Parsis as "foreigners" in Hindu-dominated but secular India.
Joshi was also accused of removing independent historians from education policy-making bodies and packing them with sympathisers to the right-wing cause.