‘Bharat should be used instead of India from Class 5’: NCERT panel on social science textbooks

NEW DELHI: The focus group for revising the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for social science has recommended that ‘Bharat’ be used instead of India in textbooks from Class 5 to Class 12.

The recommendation has already been submitted to the NCERT through their final position paper four months ago, said CI Issac, historian, Padma Shri awardee, RSS ideologue and chairperson of the panel on social science curriculum. The position papers act as a guide for preparing the final curriculum.

The NCERT in December 2021 appointed 25 focus groups for revising the new textbooks.

Issac said that India is a name that is given by foreigners and that the true name of the country is ‘Bharat’. He said that the panel has recommended that Bharat should be the name of the country in textbooks from Classes 5 to 12.

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“India is a name given by the British. Before that was Hindustan. The real name is Bharat. It is used in Vishnu Puranas. Kalidasan mentions Bharat in Kumarasambhavam. Foreigners called us by the wrong name and then the British started calling us India from 1257. That should be changed to Bharat,” said Issac.

Issac also said that the current textbooks “focus on our failures” and that this will create “mental backwardness” among students.

“The history textbooks are focussing on our failures not on our victories. This makes the students feel mentally backward. Indian victories are not mentioned. The textbooks speak about Alexander but do speak about why he discontinued his journey towards the east after the battle with Porus,” said Issac.

NCERT History: ‘Classical India’ vs ‘ancient India’

He also said that the panel has recommended renaming ‘ancient Indian history’ to ‘classical Indian history’. Issac said that the term ancient denoted this period of history as “without significance”.

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“The British divided India into ancient, medieval and modern. What does ancient mean? It means really old, without any significance, is that what Indian history is? Without significance? We had people like Aryabhatta, we used solar calendars from the beginning, the Middle East only the lunar calendar in which each moon rise is considered as a new year. We recommended that it should be renamed to the classical period of Indian history,” said Issac.

Issac also claimed that the “wonderful Indian knowledge systems” have also been ignored in the syllabus. He said that the textbooks do not talk about people like Sangamagrama Madhavan who is the “father of calculus” and the Indian achievements in Ayurveda like “surgery”. The panel has recommended the inclusion of these topics in the new textbooks.

Issac is also the working president of rightwing think-tank Bharatiya Vichara Kendram, which describes itself as an organisation that is “waging a consistent battle on the intellectual plane against the anti-national campaign initiated by the leftists”.