Centre dumps Kerala's plea to rethink on use of Bharat instead of India in school textbooks
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has rejected Kerala's demand to reconsider the suggestion of an NCERT panel to replace the name "India" in school textbooks with "Bharat.
FollowThiruvananthapuram: Sources from the state administration on Friday said that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has turned down the Kerala administration's request to reexamine the recent suggestion of an NCERT panel to replace the name "India" in school textbooks with "Bharat." According to the sources, Pradhan stated that both names are recognised under the Constitution. In reply to a letter from Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty, the union minister reaffirmed the central government's position on the matter.
In defence of the proposal made by the NCERT-appointed Sociology Committee to rename the country in social science textbooks, Pradhan stated that the autonomous body does not prefer "India" or "Bharat" and views both as appropriate.
"India's Constitution recognises both 'India' and 'Bharat' as the official names of the country which can be used interchangeably. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) duly acknowledges this spirit as enshrined in our Constitution and does not differentiate between the two," the Union Education Minister said in the letter.
In October last year, Sivankutty sent emails to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pradhan, requesting their intervention in the matter. Sivankutty pointed out that for generations, students have learned about the country's rich past, history, and heritage under the name 'India.'
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also categorically made it clear that the NCERT panel's recommendation cannot be accepted.
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