Misuse of textbooks to spread and promote communal hatred was blatant, soon after Partition. In his letter dated 29 September 1951 to Sampurnanand, governor of UP, Nehru had enclosed a cutting from the National Herald which reproduced some sentences found in a Hindi textbook prescribed for VIII standard students. One sentence read: ‘Mere mandir Men Hari Rehta, Tere Masjid Men Shaitan’ (God lives in my temple and Satan lives in your mosque).
