The six-member committee, constituted to review ‘inappropriate' cartoons in the political and social science textbooks for Class IX-XII, held its first meeting here on Tuesday amid questions over the inclusion of a professor in the panel. His Class XII textbook was withdrawn as part of project ‘detoxification' by the UPA government in 2004.
The maiden meeting was a formal affair. Prof. A.S. Narang of the School of Social Sciences at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) — the only political scientist on the panel — had authored the political science textbook (Democracy in India — Issues and Challenges, 2003) for the NCERT during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.
The committee is chaired by S.K. Thorat, chief of the Indian Council of Social Sciences and Research (ICSSR) and includes Patricia Mukhim, editor of Shillong Times and social worker; Prof. M.S.S. Pandian, a historian; Abha Malik, teacher of social sciences, Sanskriti School; and Saroj Yadav, head of the department of Education in Social Sciences (NCERT).
Report in a month
It has been mandated to submit its report within a month and identify educationally inappropriate materials in social science/political science textbooks.
“It was an introductory meeting with the members going through the books carrying inappropriate cartoons and drawing up a road map for reviewing, including seeking opinion from child psychologists,'' one of the members told The Hindu. They were given a presentation by the NCERT on the broad objectives of the National Curriculum Framework-2005 and its linkage with the books.
“Hasty job”
When contacted by The Hindu, educationist Vinod Raina said: “The review panel should have had members of eminence. There are some very good political scientists. It looks like a hasty job.”
“The issue is not with regard to who is on the panel but the hurry in which the material was removed from the textbooks without any expert opinion. The government should have either asked the NCERT to set up a review committee or at least waited for the present committee to give its opinion,” Prof. Zoya Hassan of the Jawaharlal Nehru University said.
Prof. Hassan was a member of the National Monitoring Committee that approved the textbooks containing the cartoons and co-chaired the committee that examined the communal content in the textbooks published during the NDA regime, often referred to as the ‘detoxification' exercise.
Another educationist Arjun Dev said the National Curriculum Framework-2005 needed to be evaluated as also the textbooks prepared after its implementation and the impact these have had on the students.
Keywords: Professor Narang, review committee, cartoon row, NCERT book syllabus, National Curriculum Framework-2005,
Is Prof. Narang some sort of intellectual untouchable or he has been branded as saffron by the left type intellectuals. In my view there is no need to teach political science in schools. The live education given by our top class politicians is more than enough, It is real and practical education for the students. They can fully equip themselves as future political leaders by emulating our MPs and other great politicians. All it takes is to have a murder charge and corruption scandal and you are ready to be an MP.
When there are more pressing matters like corruption, internal security,
poverty, etc, the GoI is hell-bent upon wasting the tax-payers money on
non-entities to create a society that will think as they want them to...
Are people in India still alive? Or are they just stupid to allow this melodrama...
What's meaning of Cartoon of 1949 to add in book of political science in XII class NCERT? In my opinion, this cartoon is irrelevant in 21st century. What we will feel if such kind of cartoon of Mahatma Gandhi add in text books? Ambedkar is a social icon and emanicipator of Dalits in India. In this regard, he has more respected place in the mind and hearts of dalit people than Nehru. What students of XII teach from this cartoon, is that, humiliation of Ambedkar by Nehru? The cartoonist was great in his art and knowledge of cartooning. But we have to decide, what is kind of learnings and teachings are just important for students of any class standard?
instead of cleansing the book they should concentrate more on training
programs of teachers so that they can influence student to think in a
broad spectrum. Everything has some pros and cons and students should
be given the opurtunity so that they can understand the both and take
the good one. If all the controversial cartoons are removed then it
will be against liberty to express. we can express our opinion and it
depends on the party to accept or reject it.
So better we should concentrate on better training of the teacher and
the student rather doing all these things.
Since the final decision is to be taken by the sitting parliamentarians who, sometimes, "cross" their party lines to condemn anybody and everybody (if they hurt their vote banks) (and nothing else), at least educationists and scientists should avoid such (farce) review committees.
As the controversy over the text book cartoon heats up and different opinions are published in your newspaper , one stance that we all must take including the media is to “ save the classroom from the political class”. This nation can do without interference of the political class in the education system and contents of text books .
The cartoon issue cannot be and must not be settled through the discretion of the executive as pointed out by academics , scholars , historians and eminent persons from across the country viz Amitabh Kundu, Mushirul Hasan, C.P. Chandrasekar, Pralay Kanungo Gopal Guru, Jayati Ghosh, Ram Rahman, N.K. Sharma, Sudhanva Deshpande, Rajendra Prasad, P.K. Shukla, Romila Thapar, Prabhat Patnaik and Zoya Hasan.
Activists and even Dalit intellectuals viz Prem Krishna Sharma, Kavita Srivastava and Radha Kant Saxena of the PUCL, Rajasthan; M. Hasan of Idara; Komal Srivastava of the BGVS; and academicians and other activists Prakash Chaturvedi, Vishwambhar, Rajeev Gupta, Rajendra Saiwal, Govind Beniwal and Shiv Singh have expressed concern over the move to review & carry out changes in NCERT textbooks solely on the Ministers directive .>These voices must be heard . The media like THE HINDU , must make sure that these voices are heard in the corridors of power . Vote bank politics must be kept aside and must not be allowed to interfere in our education system . The minister cannot and must not be allowed to order the removal of the cartoons , punish scholars or investigate NCERT officials , without his or the Govt referring the matter to an academic committee.
The uproar in parliament over a 60 year old cartoon was nothing but brazen vote-bank politics . Our Ministers , MPs & MLAs claim to a monopoly of knowledge, wisdom and concern for the well-being of their constituencies and the nation may not be extended to the education system . Let our education system be left in the hands of a committee comprising academics , intellectuals , historians scholars & eminent persons only . Let this message go out loud and clear through THE HINDU also .
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