Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has refused to implement the recommendations of an NCERT-constituted panel recommending replacing "India" with "Bharat" in the school textbooks, calling it “wrong” and alleging the Centre behind the move.
The remarks came after a high-level committee for social sciences, constituted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to revise the school curriculum, recommended that "India" should be replaced with "Bharat" in textbooks for all classes.
Committee chairperson C I Isaac announced this and the introduction of "classical history" instead of "ancient history" in the curriculum, as well as the introduction of Indian Knowledge System (IKS) in the syllabus for all subjects.
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Shivakumar reacted sharply to it, questioning why there is the Reserve Bank of India, Indian Administrative Services and Indian Foreign Services, where the word "Bharat" was not used. "Why the Republic of India is written on Indian passport," he asked.
Shivakumar said, "In Karnataka, we will continue with whatever earlier was there. We will discuss in the Cabinet. We will not change anything."
"I think something wrong has happened to this government. I don’t know why they are confusing the young minds of Indians," the Karnataka state Congress president said.
"Who is saying that we are not Bharatiyas, but we are proud Indians? I think whatever stand they have taken is anti-people, anti-India and anti-Bharat," Shivakumar said, alleging that the NDA government forced the NCERT to take the "decision".
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"You can’t change the history of India. Though you try to change Congress' history, you can’t do it. The Congress’ history is the country’s history... We have gained independence for India. We call it Indian independence. We don’t call it Bharat independence," he said.
The recommendations by the NCERT panel have received a lot of criticism from opposition parties.
Earlier, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said, "The BJP is restoring to name-changing politics to divert the attention of people from its misdeeds and maladministration."
Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said, "They are suggesting so many things. You can see how they are distorting the history of India through textbooks, syllabi and everything... For us, India and Bharat are equal."
The revision to the curriculum of the school textbooks is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The council recently constituted a 19-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) to finalise the curriculum, textbooks and learning material for these classes.
