‘Collective Effort In Jeopardy’: Academicians Ask NCERT To Drop Their Names From Textbooks

Stating that their collective efforts are in jeopardy, the academicians have asked the NCERT to remove their names from textbooks.

Academicians ask NCERT to drop their names from textbooks (representational image)

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Following the requests made by political scientists Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar to remove their names from NCERT textbooks, 33 other academicians have now asked their names to be dropped from NCERT textbooks. The academicians who were part of the Textbook Development Committee (TDC), have written to the academic counseling, stating that their collective effort is in jeopardy. 

Former JNU Professor and present vice dean at the National University, Singapore, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, former vice-chancellor of Ashoka University, Rajeev Bhargava, former CSDS director, Niraja Gopal Jayal, former JNU professor, Nivedita Menon, JNU professor, Vipul Mudgal, head of civil society watchdog Common Cause, K C Suri, former professor at the University of Hyderabad, and Peter Ronald deSouza, former director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, are some of the signatories who have written to the NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani. 

"Since there are several substantive revisions of the original texts, making them thereby different books, we find it difficult to claim that these are the books we produced and to associate our names with them.... We are now given to believe that this creative collective effort is in jeopardy," the letter read, as per news agency PTI. 

"The textbooks were the result of extensive deliberations and collaborations among political scientists from various perspectives and ideological backgrounds and originally intended to impart knowledge about India's freedom struggle, the constitutional framework, the functioning of democracy and key aspects of Indian politics, while also integrating global developments and theoretical principles of political science," it further added. 

Earlier last week, Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar said that the NCERT in its rationalisation process has ‘mutilated’ textbooks beyond recognition. They further added that the textbooks have been rendered academically dysfunctional and have been reduced from a source of pride to a source of embarrassment. 

In its response to the matter, the NCERT said that the termination of anyone’s association is out of question because school-level textbooks are developed on the basis of knowledge and understanding, with no individual authorship associated at any stage. 

The entire controversy stemmed after the NCERT recently removed certain portions of texts from its school textbooks as part of its syllabus rationalisation. What fuelled the dispute on the issue between the centre and the opposition parties is the fact that some textbook omissions made by the NCERT were not notified earlier.

(With inputs from PTI)