Major Conflict in India on Education
Row Brewing on Pro-Hindu Slant
in Textbooks
Praful
Bidwai
NEW
DELHI: A major conflict is brewing in India on the issue of education
and religion, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last week that
upheld a controversial move by the federal government to rewrite
school textbooks by giving them a Hindu-chauvinist slant.
The conflict is unlikely to remain limited to a tussle between
secularists, who make up a majority of the population if one goes
by social attitude and political choice, and Hindu 
nationalists
represented mainly by the Right-wing religious-sectarian Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) which leads New Delhi's multi-party ruling
coalition.
The issue has a federal devolution dimension too. Many Indian
states are up in arms over what they see as blatant federal interference
in their school curricula without consultation or consent.
The controversy has major implications on the rights of the child
to unbiased information, and for the issue of tolerance and respect
for difference in the plural, multi-cultural, multi-religious
society of 1 billion people in this country.
Under the Supreme Court ruling, India's children will grow up
being taught a viciously prejudiced version of history that exclusively
privileges India's ''Hindu past'' while berating its ''non-Hindu''
periods. Also at stake are civic values and notions of citizenship.
India's education system primarily uses government-recommended
textbooks, whether in state-run or private schools. These are
approved by the Central Board for Secondary Education through
a multiple-stage process involving consultation among teachers,
experts and officials, and between the federal government and
states.
Pivotal to the process is the Central Advisory Board on Education
(CABE), which is a 104-member body consisting largely of state
representatives and independent experts, and the National Council
for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an ''autonomous''
body that
draws up the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) based on the
National Education Policy.
Following this framework, detailed syllabi for each class and
subject are formulated. The textbooks ultimately follow the syllabi.
CABE, established in 1920, approves the National Curriculum Framework.
Although not a statutory institution, its function and authority
are
considered indispensable.
Without
it, the states' views would be excluded from the curriculum-textbooks
process, a situation that would mean dangerous over-centralisation
in this country of 33 states and territories.
The source of the controversy is the National Curriculum Framework
produced by NCERT two years ago, and the textbooks being written
now under that plan. CABE did not approve the framework, and yet
the government arbitrarily imposed it on the Central Board of
Secondary Education.
The Vajpayee government never convened CABE. Instead, it packed
NCERT in 1998-99 with known supporters of the Hindu-chauvinist
ideology, who systematically and brazenly hijacked the curriculum
by introducing the concept of ''value education'' centred on religion.
Then, in November 2000, ignoring stiff opposition from teachers,
scholars, and from one-half of India's states, the government
declared the curriculum framework ''approved'', and thrust it
down the throats of the school education boards.
The willful short-circuiting and sabotage of democratic procedure
is only one ground on which the government was challenged in a
public interest petition in the Supreme Court.
The petition was filed by three eminent citizens, including an
award-winning right-to-information activist, a social scientist,
and a journalist-policy commentator. The group's composition is
interesting: two Hindus, of which one is married to a Muslim,
and one Christian.
The petitioners' second substantial ground was that the NCF militates
against the principles of secularism, equality, right to education
and to development, embedded in India's Constitution.
Under the Constitution, the state cannot favour a religion or
religious denomination or support religious instruction -- a sound
principle drawn from the U.S. Constitution. Article 28 of the
Constitution prohibits ''religious instruction'' in educational
institutions fully managed out of
state funds.
The National Curriculum Framework has numerous formulations which,
however subtly, favour religion and spiritual notions. It roots
its own philosophy in these. It holds that religion is ''a major
source'' of ''universal'' or ''essential'' values to be inculcated
though education.
Thus, it says, ''what is required today is à education
about religions, their basics, the values inherent therein and
also a comparative study of the philosophy of all religions. These
need to be inculcated à right from the primary years à
Students have to be given (sic) the awareness that the essence
of every religion is common, only the practices differ.''
This is a major departure from the National Policy on Education
of 1986, which speaks of fostering ''universal and eternal values'',
without mentioning religion.
India's Supreme Court has itself held in any number of cases that
''religion cannot be mixed with any secular activity of the State.
In fact, the encroachment of religion into secular activities
is strictly prohibited.''
However, the National Curriculum Framework insinuates religion
into secular education. The strong bias in favour of one specific
religion - Hinduism -- is evident in its school syllabi.
These syllabi and the textbooks based on them have drawn sharp
criticism because they blatantly depict Hinduism as the ''essence''
of Indian culture and other religions as ''alien'' or ''invaders'
'' faiths.
They glorify history through falsehood and distortion, presenting
India as the world's best or ''master'' civilisation, denying
the validity and value of other great civilisations.
They depict Hindu gods Rama and Krishna not as mythological, but
historical, figures. They minimise the caste system and its corrosive
influence on Indian society. In place of advocating sexual equality,
they talk of taking the ''best'' about each ''gender'' from tradition.
Even more laughably, the NCF speaks of differentiating gifted
students on the basis of their ''spiritual quotient'' -- defined
nowhere, but clearly a dubious idea -- as well as their ''intelligence
quotient'', a thoroughly discredited concept.
These questionable propositions about the nature of India, about
religion and education have had loathsome effects in textbooks:
deletion of whole periods of history, exclusion of Islam and Sikhism
in the list of ''major religions'', distorted presentation of
feudal-era wars between
kings as ''national'' wars fought by Hindus against Muslims.
There was a compelling case for ruling against the existing curriculum
framework and for reformulating it on a democratic and secular
basis, but the Supreme Court dismissed it.
By endorsing the curriculum that allowed the rewriting of textbooks,
the Supreme Court has allowed itself to be seen as ideologically
partisan toward those who drew up the curriculum framework.
This is a cruel blow to citizens fighting for secularism -- barely
six months after the Gujarat pogrom against Muslims and amidst
the BJP's hate campaign against India's religious minorities consisting
of 180 million people.
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