A Textbook CASE

Will the NCERT pass the test of democracy?

- Rakhi Bose

IN the last week of October, a panel overseeing the development of textbooks in the NCERT, one of 25 such committees, unanimously decided to suggest changing the name "India" to Bharat" in school textbooks. The proposal came against the backdrop of an ongoing debate about renaming the country as 'Bharat'.

The debate was stoked earlier when the Centre sent G20 dinner invites hosted by President Droupadi Murmu in the name of "President of Bharat". According to committee chairperson CI Issac, the move is intended to decolonise the Indian education and knowledge system.

"After 75 years, it is time to shed this colonial name and revert to what the nation was originally called. 'Bharat' is more representative of India's past heritage," Isaac, a Padma Shri, states. The historian has been known for his support of the Modi-led government at the Centre and is an RSS ideologue.

He suggests that up till Class 6, textbooks can carry both "India" and "Bharat" but from Class 7 to Class 12, Bharat should be the only word they read in books. "The teenage years are important," Isaac says. While the NCERT has not yet given its nod, stating that it's too premature to react at this point, the move has raised questions about the NCERT's role in the new nation building project undertaken by the BJP.

One can understand the politics behind it, says academic and Delhi University professor Apoorvanand. He explains how the name change is part of the "so-called decolonisation process by the BJP through which it is trying to tell its constituents that it is giving back to them their original self, which was at some point lost or distorted". "India" is the distorted self and BJP is restoring the "original Bharat to Bharatwasis," he explains. "That is the broad political ideology behind not just this proposal but also behind the whole syllabus rationalisation project".