CA TEXTBOOKS
ISSUE |
On Previous Attempts to "Saffronize" Textbooks
in India
The attempts
to impose Hindu
Supremacist theory in school texts are not new and have been carried
out earlier in India. Starting in 2002, when the Hindu Nationalist
party BJP was in power, the BJP government tried to change the NCERT
(National Council for Educational Research and Training) school
books to insert its particular sectarian and Hindu chauvinist
ideology (popular media referred to it as “saffronization of
textbooks”), raising an international storm of protest from
scholars, intellectuals and secular governments all over the world.
We draw your attention to two examples in particular of such commentary on the NCERT changes.
"Communalization
of Education: The History Textbooks Controversy", by the Delhi Historians' Group,
2002.
A
report by the Delhi Historians Group on the communalization of
education, in the context of the controversy surrounding changes to
NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training)
history textbooks, in India.
Excerpts
from the United States International Religious Freedom Reports,
2002-2005, on attempts to saffronize textbooks in India.
In the US, these attempts to alter the texts have
been carefully documented by the International Religious Freedom
reports on India that were submitted to Congress each year starting
from 2002 till the most recent one in 2005. These reports are annual
submissions to the Congress through which the Department of State
provides additional detailed information regarding matters involving
international religious freedom.
RESOURCES
on
Saffronization of Education / Insertion of Religious or Fundamentalist
propaganda in Education in South Asia
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