Panel suggests replacing 'India' with 'Bharat' in NCERT textbooks

'India' should be replaced with 'Bharat', victories of Hindu kings should be highlighted more and history since Independence should be better represented in school textbooks, a NCERT committee for curriculum development recommended in a 2022 position paper.

Curricular committee on social sciences chairman and historian CI Issac confirmed to ET that the recommendations were pending approval of the education ministry. NCERT said it was premature to comment on the matter since development of new textbooks was underway.

"We did recommend replacing India with Bharat in NCERT textbooks as that was the original name of the country for thousands of years, as also recorded by several scholars including in Kumarasambhavam by Kalidas. The British used the term India for roughly 200 years. It is important for children to be aware of this, hence the recommendation. Everyone agreed; no one in the committee, including NCERT officials who participated, objected to it. However, it is for the education ministry and NCERT to take the final decision. They have not said that the recommendation in the position paper is not accepted," Issac told ET. Position papers go towards development of the final NCERT textbooks expected to be brought out next year.


"NCERT states that since the development of new syllabus and textbooks is in the process and for that purpose various curricular area groups of domain experts are being notified by NCERT. So, it is too premature to comment on the news being flashed in the media...," NCERT posted on X. In another press statement on its Chandrayaan 3 module for school children, NCERT used 'India' and 'Bharat' to refer to the country.