[4] The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed that several Indian history textbooks had overt Marxist or Eurocentric political overtones.
[6] In states where the BJP or NDA had control of local government, textbooks were changed extensively to favour a Hindu nationalist narrative.
Since there can be no true consensus about that era due to divided and deeply entrenched political motivations, history for that period is highly subjective and particularly vulnerable to the influence of the textbook writer's sympathies and outlook.
[10] Critics have said that the changes to the textbooks have portrayed the medieval period as "a dark age of Islamic colonial rule which snuffed out the glories of the Hindu and Buddhist empires that preceded it".
[7] The state government of Rajasthan reportedly spent Rs 37 crore to reprint 36 textbooks used for classes 1 to 8 for the 2016–2017 academic session that will be based on an agenda that would promote Indian culture by including historical figures, such as Maharaja Surajmal, Hem Chandra, and Guru Gobind Singh.
[12] Saffronisation has also been attempted to portray Mahatma Gandhi's Hindu-nationalist assassin Nathuram Godse in a heroic manner,[13][14] as well as other Hindutva leaders like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar,[15][16] and M. S. Golwalkar.
Some major changes include the removal of chapters dealing with Islam and its origins, as well as cutting down content about Mughal dynasty rule in India.