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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Ambedkar cartoon row has academics bemused-Himanshi Dhawan

Ambedkar cartoon row has academics bemused-Himanshi Dhawan

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published Published on May 16, 2012   modified Modified on May 16, 2012

As the government scrambles to contain the political damage from the Ambedkar cartoon, one may be tempted to believe that somebody surreptitiously slipped Shankar's satirical work in the NCERT textbook. Or that the HRD ministry was caught unawares by the political heresy. 

However, the fact is that the books were released by NCERT after having been thoroughly vetted by a National Monitoring Committee appointed by the ministry which includes several civil servants from various states, experts and academics as members. 

Also, there was no protest against the contents of NCERT books, now being blamed for pollution of impressionable minds, before April when RPI leader Ramdas Athawale woke up to the insult to dalits. The political science books for Classes IX to XII which have been recalled were being used in at least 15 states for the past five years. Not one state ever complained to the National Monitoring Committee. 

Naturally, the political uproar caught former NCERT director Krishna Kumar unawares. "I am totally puzzled by the reaction. The textbooks have been approved through due processes. All textbooks have been approved by the National Monitoring Committee appointed by the HRD ministry that includes several civil servants, experts, academicians and mediapersons. It is being taught in 15 states of very different political ideologies for the last five years only because the books are of very high quality," he said. 

The books that were put together for political science were Democratic Politics 1 & 2 (a compulsory read for Class IX and X students); Contemporary World Politics, Political Theory, Politics in India Since Independence and Indian Constitution at Work prescribed for Class XI and XII students of political science. 

This last book, Indian Constitution at Work is what caused the furore over the inclusion of a B R Ambedkar cartoon that's been in existence since 1949 but was never a subject of controversy. On Monday, another NCERT book, Democratic Politics 1, prescribed for Class IX, was also criticized in Parliament for another set of cartoons. 

The textbooks were developed in 2005 to 2007 by Textbook Development Committees constituted by the NCERT, and chaired by experts in the concerned areas. In case of political science and social science, it was chaired by Prof Hari Vasudevan and the chief advisors were Prof Suhas Palshikar and Prof Yogendra Yadav. 

These textbooks were placed before the National Monitoring Committee chaired by Prof Mrinal Miri and Prof G P Deshpande and consisting of representatives of state governments and educational experts from across the country. It was only after the approval of the committee that the textbooks were released from 2006 onwards. 

It is the same set of academics who were celebrated for the innovation in enriching the books with cartoons as a device to provide students respite from bland texts. The sense of betrayal among academics is palpable as nobody in the ministry is stepping forward to defend them who only carried out their brief. 

Social scientist Shiv Vishwanathan said, "Instead of treating it (the cartoon) as an act of pride, our politicians, in an act of cowardly populism, read it as something shameful. It is a misreading of politics, an act of bad faith, made doubly ridiculous by the fact that an education minister lets down a responsible group of academics.'' 

Vishwanathan added that there was no academic or political argument in removing the cartoons. "There is only a populist argument.'' If BJP leader Yashwant Sinha felt that young minds would be influenced by lampooning cartoons, Vishwanathan said, "All of them (politicians) behave like cartoons on TV every day... Do they think that a 14-15-year-old is so naive?'' 

Prof Yash Pal, who headed the steering committee, said education was a continuing process and there could be complaints even after such thorough processes. But the strong backlash against cartoons has come as a shock to him. "People have to learn to laugh at themselves. There are different ways of looking at things and humour is one of them,'' he said. 

The "inappropriate material'' now rendered orphan was the work of several years. NCERT's executive committee had taken the decision in July 2004 to revise the National Curriculum Framework following concerns of saffronization, rote learning and the need to develop a new pedagogy. 

The NCF proposed five guiding principles for curriculum development: connecting knowledge to life outside the school; ensuring that learning shifts away from rote methods; enriching the curriculum so that it goes beyond textbooks; making examinations more flexible and integrating them with classroom life; and nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic polity of the country. 

Subsequently, national steering committee, chaired by Prof Yash Pal, and 21 national focus groups were set up. Membership of these committees included representatives of institutions of advanced learning, NCERT's own faculty, school teachers and non-government organizations. Consultations were held in all parts of the country, in addition to five major regional seminars held at the NCERT's Regional Institute of Education in Mysore, Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Shillong. Consultations with state secretaries, SCERTs and examination boards were carried out. 

Indian Council of Social Science Research chairman Sukhdeo Thorat, who is chairing the review committee, said the group was likely to meet this week and try to finish the task in the required time. The committee includes A S Narang from the School of Social Sciences, IGNOU, Patricia Mukhim from Shillong Times, scholar M S S Pandian, Abha Malik, teacher of social sciences in Sanskriti School and Saroj Yadav, head of department of education in social sciences, NCERT.

The Times of India, 16 May, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ambedkar-cartoon-row-has-academics-bemused/articleshow/13156713.cms


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