'Constitution uses both names...' Kerala Governor backs NCERT over name change of India to Bharat in textbooks
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Thursday (Oct 26) supported the NCERT panel's recommendation to change 'India' to 'Bharat' in textbooks. He said that actually both names are used in the Indian Constitution.
FollowKozhikode: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan backed the NCERT panel's suggestion to substitute "Bharat" for "India" in textbooks. Speaking to the media on Thursday, Khan claimed that the recommendation was in accordance with the constitution and that "others" gave the name "India" while we had given the name "Bharat." According to his understanding, the term "Bharat" will be used more frequently for official purposes, he continued.
"Actually our Constitution uses both the words. India that is Bharat shall be a union of states… Nobody has proposed to make any amendment in the Constitution," he said.
Under the direction of historian CI Isaac, an NCERT panel suggested changing the word "India" in school textbooks to "Bharat." The National Council of Educational Research and Training established the seven-member Committee for Social Sciences, one of the committees tasked with preparing position papers on a range of subjects, and they made the recommendations.
Meanwhile, earlier today CPI(M) General Secretary M V Govindan said that the name India cannot be changed just by the order of an RSS worker.
Govindan said, "India's name cannot be replaced just by an order of an RSS worker. This is actually Savarkar's stand. There is also a notion to make Puranas as RSS-produced Puranas and convert to Hinduism and communalism."
The members of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) panel have unanimously agreed to print the next batch of books with the name "Bharat" rather than "India."
The suggestion of the NCERT panel was made in the midst of much conjecture over whether or not the nation will be called "Bharat." The controversy started earlier this year when President Droupadi Murmu's G20 dinner invitations were delivered by the Centre using the title "President of Bharat" rather than "President of India," sparking a political controversy.
Article 1 (1) of the Constitution defines the name of our country as "India, that is Bharat shall be a Union of States".
The controversy started earlier this year when President Droupadi Murmu's G20 dinner invitations were delivered by the Centre using the title "President of Bharat" rather than "President of India," sparking a political controversy.
