New Delhi: An NCERT committee’s “unanimous” recommendation to change India’s name to “Bharat” in school textbooks has triggered a storm of political and social criticism.
It all began on 28 December 2021, when the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) quietly issued a notification, announcing the formation of a set of expert committees to guide its curriculum and textbook development process, which was being undertaken for the fifth time since Independence.
Out of the 25 committees, the one on ‘Education in Social Sciences’ was helmed by historian CI Issac, a Kerala-based retired professor with a long history of affiliation with RSS-linked bodies. Two other academics of the seven-member committee had close association with RSS outfits as well.
Over the next 18 months, the committee held several meetings, drawing up a paper charting the roadmap that social science education in the country should follow. It submitted the paper to another 12-member committee, led by former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan, formed by the Ministry of Education in September 2021.
The recommendations of the Issac committee, however, were never made public. Between 13-25 October, ThePrint published three stories, revealing for the first time the recommendations of the sub-committees such as the one headed by Issac. The proposals, particularly the one to change the country’s name from “India” in school textbooks to “Bharat” drew the ire of opposition parties as well the civil society. The opposition bloc, led by the Congress, dubbed the move as a tool for “polarisation”.
Political activist and commentator Yogendra Yadav, who was involved in the writing of NCERT’s Political Science books that are currently taught in schools, hit out at Issac over his comments that the 1975 episode of Emergency is presented in a watered-down manner in the books.
“Seems chair of NCERT committee hasn’t read NCERT textbook. There is one FULL CHAPTER on the Emergency in the NCERT Pol SC textbook for class XII. Provided all details of constitutional, legal and human rights violations during the Emergency, till this BJP govt pruned it,” Yadav tweeted on 26 October.
That’s why NCERT is ThePrint’s Newsmaker of the Week.
The Issac committee has also recommended that textbooks focus less on “Muslim victories and Hindu defeats’”, and highlight more post-Independence political events such as the Emergency.
“Yes, we need to revise curriculum and textbooks from time to time. But preconceived notions must not guide our decisions, instead the changes in occupations and way of life should. It is a fact that our textbooks have a distinct tilt towards North India, while the peninsula, or the history of the Northeast, have a sparse presence. A fixation on Hindu or Muslim identity shouldn’t form the basis of the discourse on curriculum or textbook revisions. We could do with less hyperbole and glorification of some, or vilification of others. For instance, children should learn more about the excellence of the Cholas in building infrastructure,” historian Narayani Gupta told ThePrint.
Beyond politics
In August 2022, the Centre released the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) – School Education, prepared by the Kasturirangan-led steering committee, which proposed a series of structural reforms such as conducting board exams twice in a year and the introduction of a semester system. The sub-committees’ recommendations on the other hand, mentioned in documents called ‘Position Papers’, deal with the changes in the textbooks.
Curriculum revision and politics, however, have always gone hand in hand. Since Independence, India’s school curriculum has undergone four revisions—in 1975, 1988, 2000 and 2005.
The 2005 revisions were driven by the politically contested nature of syllabus restructuring that happened in 2000, during the BJP’s second time at the Centre. And the face behind the revisions that would trigger a political firestorm and draw charges of “saffronisation” of Indian education was Murli Manohar Joshi, the human resources development minister at the time.
The NCF 2000, prepared by a curriculum group led by then-NCERT director JS Rajput and six other members, laid major emphasis on teaching students the “contribution of India to the world wisdom”. “Paradoxical as it may sound, while our children know about Newton, they do not know about Aryabhatta, they do know about computers but do not know about the advent of the concept of zero or the decimal system…The country’s curriculum shall have to correct such imbalances,” it said in the chapter titled ‘Context and Concerns’.
The teaching of social sciences, it added, “ought to promote a humane and national perspective, and inculcate a sense of pride in the country and in being an Indian.”
It recommended incorporation of elements from the Chhandogya Upanishad, introduction of Vedic Mathematics, and knowledge of Ayurveda and Yoga.
In 2004, soon after the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government came to power, steps were rolled out to undo the changes brought in by the BJP government. First, a committee was formed under retired bureaucrat S Sathyam to conduct an inquiry into alleged irregularities in NCERT during the BJP’s tenure.
Among its other findings, the committee established that the NCF Review 2000 was “carried out without following the correct procedures and when it was released, it had neither the concurrence of the Executive Committee nor the Governing Council of the NCERT. It was also not placed before the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).”
Although, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had in September 2002, in a 2:1 majority ruling, upheld the syllabus changes, declaring that non-consultation of the CABE was no ground for declaring NCF 2000 as unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, even as a political blame game erupted over the Sathyam report, the NCF 2005 was set in motion with Prof Yash Pal, who passed away in 2017, as the chairman of the steering committee. In this regard, a letter dated 21 June 2004, from then-education secretary BS Baswan to NCERT director HP Dixit, is telling.
“While undertaking the review, you may kindly ensure that the processes as laid down or that have evolved over a period of time, are not violated. You are aware of the criticism regarding the short-circuiting and the inadequacies of procedures followed during the finalisation of the earlier review,” Baswan wrote.
He added that the “textbooks of the NCERT have drawn serious academic criticism during the last few years. You are already in the process of handling the controversy regarding the History books. While understating the present review, you may like to address the question of how the books emanating from a new curriculum framework could be insulated from such distortions.”
Over 280 experts were involved in the NCF 2005 revision. Apart from Prof Yash Pal, some of the prominent names in the 35-member steering committee included poet-essayist Ashok Vajpeyi, Prof Valson Thampu, former NCPCR chief Prof Shantha Sinha, former EPW editor Prof Gopal Guru, and historian Ramachandra Guha among others.
Twenty sub-committees were also set up on themes ranging from ‘Aims of Education’ to ‘Teaching of Social Science’. The nearly 250 members of the focus groups included academics such as DU professor Apoorvanand, ecologist Madhav Gadgil, artist Shubha Mudgal, academics Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar among others. JNU professor Nivedita Menon also worked as one of the ‘contributors’ in the sub-committee on gender education.
The NCERT curriculum and textbooks prepared then are currently taught in CBSE schools across the country. Since education comes under the Concurrent List, the Centre cannot force states to follow the NCERT curriculum, but over the years, many states adopted it.
But those textbooks have already underwent many rounds of revisions, including in 2022, when NCERT, in the name of content rationalisation to reduce study load on students in the view of learning interruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, made many significant deletions such as passages on the role of Hindu extremists in the murder of MK Gandhi.
The inputs of academics such as Issac, who was awarded the Padma Shri by the BJP government this year, assumes significance since the new set of NCERT textbooks, which may hit the market by the next academic session, may bear the imprimatur of the current government and its ideology.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant)