As India moves toward decolonising its education system through the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, fresh resistance is emerging from a familiar axis — the governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This time, the target of their criticism is not the content of education reforms but the titles of English-medium school textbooks. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), in its new editions, has rechristened English textbooks with Indian names like ‘Mridang’, ‘Santoor’, ‘Poorvi’, and ‘Ganit Prakash’—and this has sparked allegations of “Hindi imposition.”
But a deeper dive into the facts exposes the political opportunism and selective outrage of the critics. Behind the veil of linguistic pride lies a larger unwillingness to embrace Bharat’s composite culture and acknowledge the need for a national identity rooted in civilisational pride.
What NCERT Has Actually Done: Context over Controversy
The titles changed by NCERT under NEP 2020 include:
- Class 1 & 2 English textbooks: Now named Mridang
- Class 3 English textbook: Now called Santoor
- Class 6 English textbook: Renamed from Honeysuckle to Poorvi
- Class 6 Maths textbook: Now Ganit Prakash
- Class 3 Maths textbook: Renamed Maths Mela
Contrary to misleading claims, the medium of instruction remains English. The change is symbolic, a conscious attempt to introduce Bharatiya cultural vocabulary into the education system.
NCERT officials have clarified that these names reflect Bharat’s cultural, musical, and linguistic heritage, and were introduced in Roman script to ensure readability across linguistic lines. Moreover, not all books were renamed with Hindi titles. For example:
Science textbook for Class 6: Named Curiosity (English), Jigyasa (Hindi), Tajassus (Urdu)
Social Science textbook: Titled Exploring Society: India and Beyond (English), Samaj Ka Adhyayan: Bharat aur Uske Aage (Hindi)
This balanced, multi-lingual naming completely debunks the narrative of “Hindi imposition.”
Kerala’s Hollow Allegations
Kerala’s Education Minister V. Sivankutty rushed to condemn NCERT’s new titles, calling them “illogical” and “non-inclusive.” But his argument collapses under basic scrutiny.
Is it “non-inclusive” to name an English book Mridang—a classical Bharatiya percussion instrument—when Western musical instruments and mythologies have dominated our curricula for decades? Why is it that when textbooks are named Honeysuckle or Wren and Martin, there is no protest, but when a book is titled Santoor, it becomes a “linguistic imposition”?
This is not a question of Hindi vs. regional languages—it is a matter of Bharatiya culture vs. colonial residue. Kerala’s government, which celebrates Onam with Sanskrit-origin mythologies and promotes Arabic and Urdu in minority schools without protest, seems singularly allergic only to Hindi.
Tamil Nadu’s manufactured outrage
The Dravidian narrative in Tamil Nadu, constructed over decades, has consistently painted Hindi as an external threat. But the very same state actively promotes English education and French language electives. The hypocrisy is glaring.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K. Selvaperunthagai echoed the same fears, calling the renaming “unacceptable.” His party, however, forgets that the three-language formula was introduced with national consensus in 1961, and NEP 2020 does not mandate Hindi—it simply allows states to choose.
Moreover, the NEP promotes the learning of any two Bharatiya languages, along with English, to foster multilingualism and unity. Instead of using this as an opportunity to strengthen Tamil while also embracing Hindi and English, the DMK-Congress combine has chosen to cling to a separatist linguistic narrative.
The Irony of ‘Imposition’
The names Mridang, Santoor, and Poorvi are not “Hindi” in the political sense—they are pan-Bharatiya cultural symbols found in music, art, and literature from Assam to Andhra Pradesh, Kashmir to Kanyakumari. These terms are known in Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Odia, Marathi, Manipuri, and yes—Tamil and Malayalam too.
To claim these names as exclusive to Hindi is to deny their place in the Bharatiya cultural mosaic. Opposition to these titles is not about defending language—it is about resisting a unifying Bharatiya identity. And that’s dangerous.
At its core, NEP 2020 seeks to:
Break free from colonial hangovers in content and pedagogy
- Encourage learning in mother tongue at the foundational level
- Expose students to Bharat’s diverse languages and knowledge systems
- Promote critical thinking and cultural rootedness
These are not prescriptions for cultural dominance—they are tools for national self-respect. The inclusion of Bharatiya terms in English-medium textbooks is not regressive. It is revolutionary. It says to every Bharatiya child: “You can speak English, and still own your Bharatiya identity.”
Language, unfortunately, has often been weaponised for vote-bank politics. Both Kerala and Tamil Nadu have a history of opposing every central education reform, regardless of merit, to fuel their federalist image. But this short-sighted strategy harms the very students they claim to protect.
By rejecting NEP’s inclusive reforms, these states risk:
- Isolating their students from pan-Bharatiya opportunities
- Diluting cultural confidence
- Fostering hostility over harmony
NEP 2020 is Bharat’s most ambitious educational reform in decades. Its goal is to liberate the Bharatiya learner from colonial binaries, promote critical thinking, revive Bharatiya knowledge systems, and build linguistic bridges between children of different states.
