NCERT releases new syllabi

  By Our Special Correspondent

  NEW DELHI, JAN. 21. The National Council of Educational Research and
  Training (NCERT) today finally released its new syllabi for all subjects;
  three-and-a-half months after announcing their finalisation and just two
  months ahead of the start of the 2002- 03 academic session by when the
  new textbooks ought to be ready.

  Announcing the release of the syllabi for all classes - starting from Class I -
  the NCERT today claimed that all the courses it had developed were aimed
  at ``inculcating a thorough knowledge of and love for the country, its rich
  and long cultural, scientific and spiritual tradition, and a strong sense of
  unity and togetherness''.

  Given the fact that the revision of the history syllabus - purportedly ``to
  tailor it to a particular school of thought'' - had kicked up a nation-wide
  controversy, a copy of the social sciences syllabus for all levels was
  provided to the media.

  The syllabus was released two days after the NCERT convened a review
  meeting for history in which it was apparently decided that the course
  content for the subject and draft manuscript for the textbooks would be
  finalised sometime next month after incorporating the suggestions made by
  the historians brought in from across the country to whet the syllabus.

  Over a dozen historians participated in the day-long meeting on Saturday.
  Among them were four members of the Indian Council of Historical
  Research, including its chairman, M.G.S. Narayanan, and D.N. Tripathi,
  A.R. Khan and S.K. Mittal; and S.C. Bhattacharya who was formerly with
  the Allahabad University.

  Some of the members reportedly found fault with the chronological
  sequence in the syllabus for Medieval and Modern India. Others observed
  that the general framework of the syllabus was the same as the old one,
  and the changes were not adequate enough to justify this long exercise.

  Also, none of the observations made by D.N. Jha - the convener of the
  Committee of Courses for history at the Central Board of Secondary
  Education who was removed from the post after he aired his reservations
  about the draft syllabus in public - have been taken into consideration by
  those in charge of drawing up the syllabus.

  Some of the rubrics that Dr. Jha found out of place in the Ancient India
  syllabus - `Eternal India', `Traditional history of India', `Germination of
  High Philosophy', `The antiquity of the Vedas and the Vedic people' - have
  been retained.

  Other ``objectionable attributes'' that some historians have found in the
  new syllabus are the manner in which it leap-frogs from
  `Paramaras-Chandelas-Chahamanas' to the `advent of the Muslims', and
  the clubbing of the Delhi Sultanate under the rubric `The Rise of the
  Ghaznavis'.

  The latter, it was observed, sought to identify an entire era - which gave to
  the country such architectural marvels as the Qutub Minar - with Mahmud
  Ghaznavi who primarily plundered India.