From India to ’Bharat’: NCERT panel recommends name change for school textbooks

mangaloretoday.com/News18

New Delhi, Oct 25, 2023: National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) panel has proposed to universally replace “India” with “Bharat” in all school textbooks. NCERT director told News18 that as of now it is just a recommendation and it is yet to get an approval.

 

“We have not accepted anything at the moment. The panel sent their report,” NCERT director said. The proposal was put forth several months ago.

This development comes amid Centre receiving backlash from the Opposition for replacing India with ‘Bharat’ in official documents such as invite, with the first such mention being on an ASEAN event invitation extended to PM Modi referring him as the “Prime Minister of Bharat”.

The India-Bharat row, however, gained pace when Rashtrapati Bhawan sent out invitations for a G20 dinner on September 9 on behalf of ‘President of Bharat’.

Amid all this, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that the connotation of the word ‘Bharat’ is reflected in the Constitution.

“India, that is Bharat, is there in the Constitution. Please, I would invite everybody to read it,” Jaishankar had said while speaking to news agency ANI.

The minister was inquired about the response from opposition parties and whether the government intends to rebrand India as “Bharat” in alignment with the G20 summit.

Congress leader Priyank Kharge, while speaking about Centre’s move to change name on NCERT books, said: “This move was very evident. The government is on a name-changing spree. No game-changing scheme is happening, only name-changing schemes are happening. Why the sudden hatred for the name INDIA? Why did they wait for nine years?”