NCERT controversy

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The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an apex resource organisation set up by the Government of India, with headquarters at New Delhi, to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on academic matters related to school education. NCERT publishes books that are uniformly used in government and private schools across India and printed in various languages.

The controversy centers around the charges of an attempted "saffronized" rewriting of Indian History (i.e., make lessons consonant with the Hindu world view)^[1]. Allegations of historical revisionism with a Hindu nationalist agenda arose in two periods, under the Janata Party government 1977 to 1980, and again under the Bharatiya Janata Party government 1998 to 2004.

1 JP government
2 NDA government
3 UPA Government
4 Notes
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] JP government

The most hotly contested issue in the 1977 to 1979 controversy was the depiction of Mughal era (Muslim ruled) India, and the role of Islam in India. Romila Thapar's Medieval India was criticised for being too sympathetic to Muslim viewpoints, and for showing too little enthusiasm for Hindu revivalism. Prime Minister Morarji Desai suggested that the criticized textbooks be withdrawn combined with a campaign against an alleged "communist" infiltration of academic positions, resulting in a storm of controversy in the press and in parliament. R.S. Sharma's 1977 Ancient India was withdrawn from the syllabus by the Central Board of Secondary Education in July 1978. In the course of the controversy, both sides became deeply suspicious of the other's motivations, contributing to the intensification of Indian "communalism" and leaving resentments that were to resurface in the renewed controversy under BJP rule twenty years later.

[edit] NDA government

In 2002, under the NDA government spearheaded by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) the government made an attempt at changing the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) school textbooks through a new National Curriculum Framework.^[2] The changes made were deemed to be of the hindutva ideological leanings of the party, which were regarded as a narrow sectarian and Hindu chauvinist ideology (some media referred to it as “saffronization of textbooks”).^[2]. An op-ed column by Kal Friese in the New York Times also criticized this move^[3]. The NDA governments term prompted criticism when it attempted to "saffronize" public education by raising the profile of Hindu cultural norms, views and historical personalities in school textbooks and portraying other religions in a negative light.^[1]

The BJP opines that their only goal was to overhaul the stagnant and saturated institutions like NCERT and free them from the dynastic control and hegemony of the Indian National Congress and the Communists^[4]. Party members also opined that their goal was not to promote sectarianism, but present a more accurate picture of Indian history and Indian culture (such as Vedic science), which was being downplayed by the left wing ideologues^[5].

[edit] UPA Government

The NDA was defeated in the elections of 2004 and the new UPA government pledged to "de-saffronize" textbooks and curricula nationwide and restore the secular character of education.^[1] In March, the UPA Government released new NCERT textbooks, based on the texts used prior to the controversial 2002 updates.^[1] The Ministry of Human Resource Development, which oversaw this project, stated that it had made only minor modifications to the books that predated the "saffronized" era.^[1]

In Delhi, the Directorate of Education, in collaboration with the State Council of Educational Research and Training, prepared 47 new textbooks, and other state governments were expected to do likewise.^[1] In June 2004, a panel constituted by NCERT reviewed the new textbooks and determined that they had poor content, shoddy presentation, and significant amounts of irrelevant information.^[1] The panel recommended to the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister that the new books not be used until the defects could be resolved. resulting in Delhi students also using texts from the pre-"saffronized" period.^[1]

Press reports indicated that the rush to "de-saffronize" school texts resulted in Urdu versions not being ready for the academic year, which began in April.^[1] The reports asserted that this failure hurt Urdu-speaking students by depriving them of needed textbooks. The NCERT denied the claims.^[1]

In turn, the UPA government was accused of revising history to present a Marxist bias ^[6], and whitewashing the record of Muslim atrocities in order to acquire Muslim votes^[4]. The BJP opines that their only goal was to overhaul the stagnant and saturated institutions like NCERT and free them from the dynastic control and hegemony of the Indian National Congress and the Communists^[4].