Dinesh Prasad Saklani, director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), said that the terms ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’ will be used interchangeably in NCERT textbooks, aligning with the terminology in the country’s Constitution.
Saklani’s comments are significant in the wake of a high-level panel working on the social science curriculum recommending that “India” should be replaced with “Bharat” in school textbooks for all classes.
The NCERT Director said, “It is interchangeable….our position is what our Constitution says and we uphold that. We can use Bharat, we can use India, what is the problem? We are not in that debate. Wherever it suits we will use India, wherever it suits we will use Bharat. We have no aversion to either India or Bharat,” he said.
“You can see both being used in our textbooks already and that will continue in new textbooks. This is a useless debate,” he added.
The name Bharat gained prominence recently when the Government issued G20 invitations under the title “President of Bharat” instead of “President of India.” Later, the nameplate of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the summit in New Delhi also read “Bharat” instead of India.
Last year, a high-level committee appointed by NCERT to revise the school curriculum recommended replacing “India” with “Bharat” in textbooks across all classes. Committee chairperson C I Isaac, leading the panel, mentioned they proposed these changes, introduced “classical history” in place of “ancient history,” and incorporated the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) into the syllabus for all subjects.
Isaac said, “The committee has unanimously recommended that the name Bharat be used in the textbooks for students across classes. Bharat is an age-old name. The name Bharat has been used in ancient texts, such as Vishnu Purana, which is 7,000 years old.”
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