There is nothing inappropriate in the NCERT social science textbooks and the tools used are indeed imaginative exercises in critical pedagogy, says M.S.S. Pandian in his note dissenting with the S.K. Thorat panel, which has ordered deletion of several cartoons and words.
The six-member committee was constituted in the wake of a controversy over an Ambedkar cartoon in a class XI textbook.
“I read all the textbooks with care, and from my own location as a teacher, as a parent, and as someone who has a steadfast commitment to certain kind of transformative politics. While reading these textbooks, I did take into account the suggestions by subject experts and the concerns expressed by political parties, educational and other NGOs, and public intellectuals. After the rewarding exercise of reading them, I do not find — let me confess, contrary to my expectation — anything educationally inappropriate in them; and they should be used as they are,” Prof. Pandian says in his three-page note.
This, however, does not mean, these textbooks are forever. Like everything else — be it life, society or political icons — these books will court redundancy over time. “In my judgment, that time is not yet. After all, what is often being perceived as ‘politically incorrect’ need not be ‘educationally inappropriate’.”
Prof. Pandian cites the particular role of visuals in the textbooks. Democratic Politics - I: Textbook in Political Science for Class IX, for instance, notes, “Munni and Unni are two characters specially designed for the book by cartoonist Irfan Khan. The two of them keep appearing every now and then to ask all kinds of questions: impish, irrelevant, irreverent or even impossible. The questions are sparked off by the points made in the text. But in most cases you will not find the answer in the textbook itself... They give the space to take a detour and get into a side discussion that is often richer than the main one...”
In other words, the visual material in the textbooks does not merely illustrate the text, but engages with it in a critical dialogue, opening up spaces for the learners to enquire, question, and interpret. Given this pedagogical method, the text and the visuals cannot work independent of each other. In a manner of speaking, only in the mutuality of the text and the visuals, these textbooks realize their pedagogical intent. Doing them apart will be pedagogically deleterious. “Let me add here, the visuals do not spare even the textbook writers.”
Referring to Indian Constitution at Work: Textbook in Political Science for Class X, Prof. Pandian says lrfan Khan’s Unni poses the question: “Am I just a figurehead or am I asking real questions? Did the textbook writers give me power to ask questions I wish to ask or am I asking questions they have in their mind?”
Keywords: NCERT, social science text books, political cartoons, Ambedkar cartoon row, anti-Hindi agitation, M.S.S. Pandian
Thanks and Kudos to Prof Pandian to be the lone dissenter among the group of yes-men that the Thorat committee seems to have been. The group seems to have gone overboard in banning all cartoons which depict institutions or people as animals, without understanding the underlying meaning. If all dissent is stamped out, and the encouragement of extreme sensitivity to comments on identity, that is the start of the end of free speech and liberal thought. I wonder if any of the people on this committee have read Orwell's Animal Farm. For they would surely ban this book from getting anywhere near a textbook chapter.
Thank you Prof. Pandian for this wonderful analysis.....brilliant!!
I am sorry to say but its just disgusting to see a panel recommending to delete content from the textbooks.
Indian education system can never be revamped with the people sitting in the panel with all those old ideologies.
I totally agree with the author.I was a humanities stream student and
these cartoons are really thoughtful. It makes the student think more
about the situation and to go deep into that matter. They helps in
healthy discussions. As a political science student they are supposed to
analyse the situation and be critical about that rather than mugging up
what the text says.
very correct. Our classrooms are devoid of discussions. Books are not for rote learning. but should enable critical thinking, even rejection of the contents.
Mr Pandian's statement, "What’s politically incorrect need not be educationally inappropriate" is quite true. In the name of political correctness, many complex issues with uncomfortable truths are ignored or distorted. However, if such controversies should be introduced at school level or left to collegiate programs needs deliberation and introspection.
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