New Delhi. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani has said that ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’ will be used interchangeably in NCERT textbooks, as is in the country’s Constitution. He said that a high-level committee working on the social science curriculum recommended this. The committee has recommended the word “Bharat” in place of “India” in the school syllabus of all classes.
Speaking to PTI, the NCERT chief said both the words will be used in the books and the council has no objection to “Bharat” or “India”. “They are interchangeable…Our stand is what our Constitution says and we stand by it. We can use Bharat, we can use India, what is the problem in that? We are not in this debate. Wherever we feel appropriate we will use India, wherever we feel appropriate we will use Bharat. We have no objection to Bharat or India,” he said.
Saklani said, “You can see that both are already being used in our textbooks and this will continue in the new textbooks as well. This is a useless debate.” A high-level committee on social sciences constituted by NCERT to revise the school curriculum had recommended last year that the word “Bharat” should be replaced by “India” in textbooks of all classes.
Committee chairman C.I. Isaac had said that they have suggested replacing “India” with “Bharat” in textbooks, including “classical history” in place of “ancient history” in the curriculum and including Indian Knowledge System (IKS) in the curriculum of all subjects. Isaac had told PTI-Bhasha, “The committee has unanimously recommended that the name Bharat should be used in textbooks for students of all classes. Bharat is an age-old name. The name Bharat has been used in ancient texts, such as Vishnu Purana, which is 7,000 years old.”
NCERT had then said that no decision had been taken on the committee’s recommendations. The name Bharat first officially came to the fore last year, when the government sent out G-20 invitations with the name “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India”. Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nameplate during the summit in New Delhi also appeared with “Bharat” written instead of India.
NCERT is once again at the centre of a controversy as the revised political science textbook for Class 12 does not mention the Babri Masjid but refers to it as a “three-domed structure”. Recently deleted references in the textbooks include: the BJP’s ‘rath yatra’ from Somnath in Gujarat to Ayodhya; the role of kar sevaks; communal violence following the demolition of the Babri Masjid; President’s rule in BJP-ruled states; and the BJP expressing “regret over the Ayodhya events”.
The new Class 11 political science textbook now states that political parties “prioritise the interests of minority groups” keeping in mind “vote bank politics”, leading to “minority appeasement”. This marks a complete shift from what was taught until the 2023-24 academic session – that if students “think deeply”, they will realise that there is “little evidence” that vote bank politics favours minorities in the country.
Tags: Indian Government, New Books
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 17, 2024, 23:47 IST