-The Economic Times The prospect of political cartoons going out of textBooks is a dangerous one. Lessons will become drab again. Worried scholars say the move could signal a devastating reversal in what was nothing short of a revolution in textBook-writing in India. Besides, an HRD ministry panel had vetted and cleared the text Books, they say. A beleaguered NCERT, which designed and published the Books, has set up a committee to...
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Save the classroom from the political class-Suhas Palshikar
We created a textBook that would encourage young citizens to think seriously about politics. But our politicians are not ready for that yet When an emotional issue erupts in the public domain, argument becomes difficult and secondary to decision-making. That is what happened over the controversy regarding the inclusion of a cartoon depicting Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in a class XI textBook. One self-proclaimed inheritor and interpreter of Dr. Ambedkar's legacy ensured...
More »Ambedkar cartoon row has academics bemused-Himanshi Dhawan
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...
More »Target of intolerance -Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
Religious and social groups have trampled on the freedom of expression of artists and scholars to serve their own agendas. “FOR all the big talk about India's great tradition of cultural and religious tolerance, many forces in the social life of our country and a number of established organisations, including the so-called non-political ones, have time and again resorted to blatant suppression of freedom of expression, pointing forcefully to the...
More »Critical struggle-Ananya Vajpeyi
Recently, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, the highest body that funds and guides the social sciences in India, has initiated an in-house debate about the current state and the future prospects of such research. What is the quality of work that has come out of our universities and research institutes over the past 10-20 years? Which new areas of inquiry deserve more time, money and attention in the...
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