Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly voiced his opposition to the NCERT panel’s recommendation to replace “India” with “Bharat” in school textbooks. He expressed his concerns through social media, stating that such a proposal is unacceptable. He urged all citizens to unite and protect the essence of ‘India’. He also linked this move to recent instances of removing portions of Mughal history and banning the RSS from textbooks.
Vijayan accused the NCERT of favoring the Sangh Parivar’s attempts to distort history. He claimed that the high-level committee for social sciences appointed by the NCERT was trying to “whitewash the fake history created by the Sangh.” He expressed his concerns, saying, “The recent proposal by NCERT to replace ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’ in textbooks is not acceptable. Our Constitution recognizes both names, and this change appears to be another step in the Sangh Parivar’s ongoing effort to impose their divisive communalism in our educational institutions and curriculum.”
Vijayan further argued that the Sangh Parivar is opposed to the inclusive politics represented by the term ‘India’. He claimed that this move is another example of their aversion to the concept of “India” based on pluralism and coexistence.
Vijayan called for unity among citizens to protect the essence of ‘India,’ a nation founded on the principles of unity in diversity. He criticized the efforts to “saffronize” the curriculum and emphasized the importance of preserving the authentic history of the country.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty also opposed the name change recommendation, calling it “parochial politics” with a hidden agenda. He asserted that Kerala would reject the panel’s recommendation and highlighted the importance of democratic values. Sivankutty pointed out that every citizen has the right to use either ‘India’ or ‘Bharat’ as mentioned in the Constitution.
He emphasized the need for states to be consulted on significant decisions, especially concerning education. Kerala, as a progressive society, would defend against attempts to provide content that is unconstitutional or a distortion of history through textbooks.
Sivankutty also mentioned that Kerala would take its own decisions in the realm of education, given that it is a subject on the concurrent list of the Constitution. The state would convene the State Curriculum Committee to discuss preparing textbooks for the 11th and 12th standards within the state.
Regarding the NCERT’s recommendation, C I Isaac, the chairperson of the high-level committee, explained that they suggested replacing “India” with “Bharat” in textbooks, introducing “classical history,” and incorporating the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) in the syllabus. However, Dinesh Saklani, the NCERT Chairman, clarified that no final decision had been made on these recommendations.
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