CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has said that Kerala would reject the National Council for Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) proposal to supplant India with Bharat in the social sciences curriculum for schools.

CPI(M) State Secretary M. V. Govindan told reporters in New Delhi that schools following the State syllabus would resist the NCERT’s move to inject “science, fact and history-denying Sangh Parivar rendition of India’s past into younger generations.

“Kerala school textbooks will cite the country’s name as India as articulated in Article I of the Constitution. They will dwell on subjects abandoned by the Sangh Parivar-led Central government, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, the Mughal empire, and the life, times and assassination of Mahatma Gandhi”, Mr. Govindan said.

Mr. Govindan said the formation of the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was the immediate provocation for the BJP’s move to supplant India with Bharat in school textbooks, official communication and public fora.

He said the Centre had suspiciously flip-flopped on its recent commitment to the Supreme Court that no circumstance warranted changing India’s official name to Bharat.

The CPI(M) and Congress in Kerala also found themselves on the same side of the India-Bharat debate.

On Wednesday, Congress Working Committee (CWC) member K.C. Venugopal objected to rejecting India for Bharat in school textbooks.

“For Congress, both names carry equal weight. However, one should not be at the cost of the other. The BJP is attempting to distort India’s history to suit its political ends”, he said.

The CPI(M) has also found a common cause with the Congress and the DMK governments in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Both administrations have objected to the NCERT proposal. (Education is a subject in the concurrent list, allowing States to accept or reject NCERT proposals.)

C. I. Isaac, a retired history teacher and Padma Shri awardee who heads the NCERT panel for curriculum change, told a news channel in Dubai that it had not rejected the name India.

“Instead, the panel has proposed to make it statutory to teach Bharath in school curriculum. It is to instil self-respect in students and not to compel them to stop using the term India when referring to the country. The panel has also proposed displaying a framed copy of the constitution preamble in classrooms prominently”, Mr. Isaac said.

Meanwhile, the BJP in Kerala has encouraged the use of Bharat because it was “an emphatic rejection of the country’s colonial past”. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had recently urged citizens to use Bharat instead of India.

RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat on June 20 laid importance on organic- and ancient methods of farming and said it would be wrong to reject such local knowledge as unscientific without examining them.

He was speaking at the annual ‘Convocation-cum-Scientific Convention’ jointly organised by National Academy of Veterinary Sciences (India), New Delhi and Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur.

Union Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Parshottam Rupala, who was the guest of honour, was bestowed honorary fellowship along with Mr. Bhagwat and State Minister Sunil Kedar at the event.

India’s farming and animal husbandry methods are the oldest, Mr. Bhagwat said, adding that modern science has side effects but our ancient knowledge and methods do not have side effects. “Focus must be on flexibility in research and use of local knowledge. It is wrong to reject local knowledge by terming it unscientific. You can reject it after examining it, you are free to reject it if it is not right,” he said at the event.

“Secondly, mechanised farming would not last long. Even today, 65% farmers cultivate on small land holdings and mechanised farming is not very beneficial for them. Because of fertilizers etc, he [farmer] falls into debt and then commits suicide. He should be taught sustainable agriculture which he can understand,” the RSS chief said.

He stressed on “Bharat centric” method of farming, which can increase our GDP, adding that the country was the number one economy in the world till 1700 AD. “We had agrarian economy that time and industry and commerce were also related to agriculture. We will need to have Bharat centric approach to achieve this [increasing GDP],” he said.

The RSS chief said there was need for public partnerships for sustainability as the government was not rich enough to provide funds for all departments. He also spoke on the “language block” being faced by farmers, stating that most information on animal husbandry was in English.

“The new education policy has included the use of local language in technical subjects. We need to spread this knowledge in local languages,” Mr. Bhagwat said.