With the Kerala SCERT releasing supplementary texts that now include RSS ban, Gujarat riots, Mughal history to stay in Kerala syllabus, Kerala becomes the first state to reassert constitutional first principles of federalism: Education comes under the State Article 1 of the Indian Constitution states, ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of states’. The distribution of powers between the union and state governments is what makes India a federal country. In India, there are three lists divided between the center and state governments, i.e. Union List: It includes areas of national importance like defense, foreign affairs, currency, banking, and communications.

With 52 items in the Concurrent List of the Indian Constitution that include subjects of common interest to both the Union as well as the States. These include education, forest, trade unions, marriage, adoption, and succession. What is the state list in Indian Constitution? The State List is a list of 66 subjects in the Schedule Seven to the Constitution of India. The respective state governments have exclusive power to legislate on matters relating to these items. The Union List details the subjects on which the Parliament may make laws while, the state list details those under the purview of state legislatures. The Concurrent list on the other hand has subjects in which both Parliament and state legislatures have jurisdiction.

Now, the Curriculum Committee of Kerala’s SCERT has decided to release a supplementary textbook by SCERT to cover these portions. Earlier, Education Minister V Sivankutty had stated that Kerala will not accept the central decision to exclude subjects like RSS ban, caste system and social movements from the curriculum.

 According to Hindustan Times, CM Vijayan expressed deep concern over the changes introduced by NCERT for the 2023-24 academic year. He criticised the “rationalisation” process, which led to the removal of crucial segments from the syllabus. The CM stated that these eliminated lessons were vital components that should never have been expunged.

“The lessons that were deleted were those that should not have been removed. As a result, we have prepared additional textbooks by including those portions that should not have been taken out,” asserted CM Vijayan. The state government’s move aimed to preserve the integrity of education, prevent skewed perspectives, and ensure that students are presented with a holistic view of history and society.

The CM shared the news on Twitter, with the following caption: “A set of new textbooks was unveiled, with sections that were omitted by the NCERT, seemingly driven by a political agenda aimed at undermining scientific awareness and democratic values. This marks Kerala’s unwavering stand against the Sangh Parivar’s insidious attempts to transform our educational institutions into breeding grounds for communalism.”

A set of new textbooks was unveiled, with sections that were omitted by the NCERT, seemingly driven by a political agenda aimed at undermining scientific awareness and democratic values. This marks Kerala’s unwavering stand against the Sangh Parivar’s insidious attempts to… pic.twitter.com/VaBXmb5zl0

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) August 24, 2023

Jayaprakash RK, the director of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), revealed that six textbooks across four subjects were promptly revised by incorporating sections removed by NCERT.

CM Vijayan further highlighted that the removed sections included significant events such as the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, raising concerns about an attempt to distort historical narratives for political interest. He further stated that the omissions from textbooks could potentially pave the way for glorifying individuals and organisations associated with Gandhi’s assassination, leading to a dangerous erosion of social values. The textbooks released by the CM also count the  deletion of Mughal history, industrial revolution, partition of India, five-year economic plans, and capitalism.

Background

The corrections were made in textbooks from 6th to 12th grades as part of ‘syllabus rationalisation’.

The NCERT has omitted references of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, a freedom fighter and India’s first education minister , from the new political science textbook for class 11. The council also dropped certain portions including lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement, among others from its textbooks citing ‘overlapping’ and ‘irrelevant’ as reasons..

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As Covid-19 has created havoc all round, the rulers of certain countries are using it to further intensify their set agendas. The democratic freedoms are being curtailed in certain forms, the reaction to which has come in America in the form of a campaign, which is opposing “stifling” cultural climate that is imposing “ideological conformity” and weakening “norms of open debate and toleration of differences”. In India similar intimidation has intensified. In addition the occasion has been used by the sectarian forces first to link the spread of Corona to Muslim community and now in the name of reducing the burden of curriculum certain chapters on core concepts related to Indian nationalism are being deleted from the text books.

It has been reported that chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism, Human Rights, Legal Aid and Local Self Government and the like are being dropped. Education has been an important area for communal forces and they constantly keep saying that leftists have dominated the curriculum content, it suffers from the impact of Macaulay, Marx and Mohammad and so needs to be Indianised. The first such attempt was done when BJP came to power in 1998 as NDA and had Murli Manohar Joshi as the MHRD minister. He brought the changes which were termed as ‘saffronisation of education’. Their focus is more on social science. Some of the highlights of this were introduction of subjects like Astrology and Paurohitya, and chapters defending caste system, nationalism of the type of Hitler was praised.

With the defeat of NDA in 2004, the UPA did try to rectify some of these distortions. Again after 2014 the RSS affiliates working in the area of education have been active, interacting with MHRD officials to impress upon them the need to change the curriculum matching with their Hindu nationalist agenda. Its ‘Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas’ has been asking for removal of English, Urdu words in the texts. It has asked for removal of thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore on Nationalism, extracts of autobiography of M F Husain, references to benevolence of Muslim rulers, references to BJP being Hindu party, apology of Dr. Manmohan Singh for anti Sikh pogrom of 1984, the reference to killings of Gujarat carnage in 2002 among others. This they call as Bhartiykaran of syllabus.

As RSS is a multithreaded hydra one of its pracharak Dinanath Batra has set up ‘Shiksha Bachao Abhiyan Samiti’ which has been pressurising various publishers to drop the books which are not conforming to their ideology. One recalls their pressuring withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s ‘The Hindus’, as it does present ancient India through the concerns of Dalits and women. Mr. Batra has already come out with a set of nine books for school curriculum, giving the RSS view of the past and RSS understanding of social sciences. These have already been translated into Gujarati and thousands of the sets of these books are being used in Gujarat Schools.

The present step of deleting parts of the curriculum which gives the basics of Indian Nationalism, secularism and human rights is a further step in the same direction. These are the topics which have made the Hindu nationalists uncomfortable during the last few years. They have been defaming secularism. They removed it from the preamble of Indian constitution, when they put out an ad on the eve of Republic day in 2015. From the last few decades, since the Ram Temple movement was brought up, simultaneously the secular ethos of India’s freedom movement and secular values of Indian constitution have been constantly criticised. Many an RSS ideologue, and BJP leaders, have been asking for change of Indian Constitution for this very reason.

Secularism is part of the concept of Indian nationalism. In the name of religious nationalism, sectarian divisive nationalism they have been attacking various student leaders in particular. When we study Nationalism, the very genesis of Indian nationalism tells us the plurality of our freedom movement with its anti-colonial roots. The struggle was for Indian nationalism and so the Muslims and Hindu communalists kept aloof from this great struggle against colonial masters, it was this struggle which built the Indian nation with all its diversity.

Similarly as we have equal rights as citizens the chapters on citizenship are being dropped. Federalism has been the core part of India’s administrative and political structure. As the dictatorial tendencies are becoming stronger, federalism is bound to suffer and that explains the dropping of this subject. Democracy is decentralization of power. Power reaching the lowermost part of the system, the villages and average citizens. This got reflected in Local Self Government. The power is distributed among villages, cities, state and center. By removing chapters on federalism and local self government, the indications of the ideology of the ruling party are on display.

While we are not dealing with all the portents of the planned omissions, one more aspect that is related to dropping a chapter on Human rights needs our attention. The concept of Human rights and dignity are interlinked. This concept of Human rights also has international ramifications. India is signatory to many UN covenants related to Human rights. The indications are clear that now rights will be for the few elite and ‘duties’ for the large deprived sections will be put on the forefront.

In a way this incidental ‘Corona gifted opportunity’ to the ruling Government is being fully used to enhance the agenda of the ruling party in the arena of Educational Curriculum. The part of the curriculum with which the ruling party is uncomfortable is being removed. This act of omission does supplement their other acts of commission in changing the shape of educational curriculum, which are reflected in RSS affiliates’ suggestions to MHRD regarding Bhartiyakaran of contents of syllabus. As per this the things like regarding the great epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata as History, the things like India having all the stem cell technology, plastic surgery, aviation science etc. will have a place in the changes planned by communal forces!

* The writer is a human rights defender and a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay).  

Other pieces by Dr. Puniyani:

Freedom of Religion: Indian Scenario
Palakkad, Kerala & death of a pregnant elephant: Communalisation of a Tragedy
Dealing with Corona Virus: No place for blind Faith
Delhi violence: Genesis of carnage

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As a group of individuals and organisations, we express our solidarity with the head teachers, staff and parents of children at Parkfield and Anderton primary schools in Birmingham and those elsewhere that are struggling against the onslaught of religious fundamentalist forces. In the face of a fierce and well – orchestrated campaign mounted by Islamists (and supported by other fundamentalist and right wing forces), we defend their courageous struggle to deliver an inclusive education curriculum based on the principles of acceptance, equality and humanity.
 
The protestors claim that aspects of the schools’ curriculums are incompatible with their religious beliefs. They have used misinformation, intimidation, harassment and abuse to generate fear and to impose their bigoted and homophobic world views on others. We reject their tactics and we reject their claim to speak on behalf of minorities or represent ‘community values’. Many parents from minority communities do not subscribe to their fundamentalist vision, they struggle on a daily basis to give their children – boys and girls – educational opportunities that they never had. They struggle to protect their children from a range of inequalities – racism, sexism, and homophobia – and they believe, as do we that equality and freedom depend on access to education and knowledge.  
 
‘Parent power’ has become a key tool used by conservative and fundamentalist forces to curtail what is taught within schools and to withdraw children from those aspects of the curriculum that do not align with their views. Rather than challenge their anti- equality agenda and fight for children and young people’s right to a full and comprehensive education, some local councillors and MPs are ready to extinguish their rights in order to bolster and appease their own vote banks. The leaders of all the main political parties have also been completely silent. But silence is impunity.
 
We will not allow fundamentalists of any hue to hijack the education system. This is not about liberal values versus religious values but about those who support equality for all and those who do not. This is not about religious freedom but about the politics of hatred, division and violence. This is not about minority rights but about fundamentalist bids for power and control over people and resources.
 
We urge all those who care about education to speak up and defend the teaching of equality in schools everywhere. We call upon the government to defend without reservation the right of schools to teach an inclusive school curriculum; to promote equality and age appropriate sex and relationships education for all children and young people; and to properly fund and support state schools to deliver a secular, egalitarian and accessible education for all.
 
Supported by:
 
If you wish to support this petition, please send your name, organisation (if any) to Pragna Patel (pragna@southallblacksisters.co.uk) so your name can be added to the list of supporters.
 

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