‘Too premature to comment’, responds NCERT on renaming India as Bharat in textbooks

NEW DELHI: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said it’s too premature to comment on news about renaming India as Bharat in school textbooks.

Responding to the “uproar”, NCERT explained that the development of new textbooks and syllabus is under way for which it is notifying various focus groups for recommendations.

“So, it is too premature to comment on the news being flashed in the media on the concerned issue,” it said in a post on X.

So, it is too premature to comment on the news being flashed in the media on the concerned issue. #NCERT @ProfSaklani @ssrivastava66 @ap_behera

— NCERT (@ncert) October 25, 2023

“NCERT states that since the development of new syllabus and textbooks is in the process and for that purpose various Curricular Area Groups of domain experts are being notified by the NCERT,” it said.

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

The focus group for revising the social science textbooks has recommended the use of ‘Bharat’ instead of India in textbooks, said CI Isaac, chairperson of the panel. The panel has suggested to introduce the change in textbooks for Classes 5 to 12. As per the chairman, India is a name given by foreigners and the real name is Bharat and so it should be changed.

Meanwhile, opposition leaders criticised the recommendation and said that it is “confusing” and “anti-people”.

Recently, NCERT came under criticism for removing the periodic table from Class 9 chemistry textbooks in an attempt to rationalise the syllabus in order to reduce the load on students. The council later explained that the table was moved to Class 11.