Opinion Avijit Pathak writes: Textbook deletions are an assault on curiosity and debate in the classroom
As students and teachers, we must rediscover ourselves as wanderers and fight for the recovery of the classroom, free from the technologies of surveillance and the authoritarian gaze
The hired political theorists or historians of the NCERT variety think that there is no need to make these school children aware of “the ban on the RSS following Gandhi’s assassination”. (Wikimedia Commons)
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The inevitable seems to have happened. When hyper-nationalists guided by the discourse of militant Hindutva become overwhelmingly powerful, how can we assume that they would refuse to play the role of educators? It is, therefore, not surprising that the politically appointed academic bureaucrats or their hired experts who run the NCERT are over-enthusiastic in “rationalising” the school textbooks, and deleting chapters and select paragraphs which, they feel, our children need not learn. Yes, for consolidating ideological hegemony, the political establishment — particularly, all potentially authoritarian regimes — take an active interest in shaping the contents as well as the culture of learning. In a way, what is “worth teaching” or “worth learning” is never free from politics. The texts once written by the liberal/left academic fraternity, therefore, cannot remain untouched as we see the assertion of right-wing nationalism. Hence, there is no reason to believe that the NCERT has done this exercise only to relieve school children from the excessive burden of academic load. The act is purely political; it is inseparable from the politics of knowledge.
Is there any reason to doubt that Hindu nationalists dislike Gandhi? Well, because of Gandhi’s international “brand” value, they might show their token respect to the Mahatma on October 2 and January 30, and charm foreign delegates through the act of playing with the spinning wheel at Sabarmati Ashram. Otherwise, their hyper-masculine aggression is the antithesis of Gandhian ahimsa; the cult of narcissism which is inseparable from the ruling regime is always uncomfortable with the Gandhian spirit of dialogue and reconciliation; and above all, the parameters of Hindutva — shaped by the likes of Savarkar and Golwalkar — can never coincide with the Gandhian principle of cultural and religious pluralism. Not surprisingly then, the NCERT experts think that our children — as they grow up and begin to think politically — should not be told that “Gandhi was convinced that any attempt to make India into a country only for the Hindus would destroy India”. Likewise, it is also not necessary to know that “his steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists so much that they made several attempts to assassinate Gandhiji”.
Moreover, the hired political theorists or historians of the NCERT variety think that there is no need to make these school children aware of “the ban on the RSS following Gandhi’s assassination”. Likewise, it is also not desirable to know that Nathuram Godse was the “editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper”. How can we avoid the deletion of these insightful passages from school texts when even a documentary film on the Gujarat riots can unsettle the otherwise “powerful” regime? In fact, when Nathuram Godse is openly valorised and hate speech is normalised, who bothers about Gandhi? In a way, this politically engineered deletion from the NCERT texts reaffirms the politics of Hindutva.
Think of the prevalent state of school education in the country. Barring exceptions, the tyranny of the textbook, the normalisation of rote learning, and the steady erosion of creative and critical thinking through the continual recurrence of unimaginative examinations and MCQ-centric standardised tests have made it almost impossible to celebrate the dialogic spirit of critical pedagogy. However, it’s only through the vibrancy of critical pedagogy that our children can learn to debate and interrogate, raise new questions and acquire the courage to see the world through multiple perspectives. But then, these “experiments” with the NCERT texts would further diminish the spirit of critical pedagogy. Think of it. These texts do not want our children to be aware of, or debate and reflect on the Gujarat riots, the Narmada Bachao Andolan or the Naxalite movement. And particularly when the overflow of fake news has become the new normal amid the instantaneity of social media, there is no escape from this pathology without a culture of learning that encourages young students and their teachers to debate on every issue without fear, be it Gandhi or Nehru, Ambedkar or Phule, Savarkar or Jinnah, development or displacement, and neoliberal glitz or heightened social inequality. It is sad that our academic bureaucrats seldom bother about the spirit of critical pedagogy without which it is impossible to nurture the ethos of democratic and enlightened citizenship.
Amid this crisis or death of studentship, a disturbing question haunts me. As teachers and educators, can we see beyond all sorts of reductionism or determinism — “leftist” or “rightist”? Is it possible for a “Marxist” teacher to encourage her students to read, reflect and write an essay on Swami Vivekananda’s “practical Vedanta”? Can a professor who cherishes Ambedkarism inspire her researchers to write a review of Nirmal Kumar Bose’s My Days with Gandhi? Can a teacher who loves Savarkar acquire the courage to gift the books of Sumit Sarkar and Bipan Chandra to her students? Yes, a reductionist doctrine is likely to see this openness or dialogic spirit as an impossible project. But then, any form of indoctrination, be it in the name of Gandhi or Ambedkar or Marx or Savarkar, negates the fundamental ethos of studentship — the curiosity to know, enquire and evolve an informed opinion.
The organised assault on critical pedagogy can be fought meaningfully only when, as students/teachers, we begin to rediscover ourselves as wanderers (not passive consumers of diverse brands of politico-ideological capsules) and fight for the recovery of the classroom, free from the technologies of surveillance and the authoritarian gaze.
The author writes on culture and education
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