Bharat & India to be used interchangeably in textbooks: NCERT

New Delhi, June 17

National Council of Educational Research and Training Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani on Monday said “Bharat” and “India” will be used interchangeably in NCERT textbooks as is the case in the country’s Constitution.

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The comments assume significance in the wake of a high-level panel working on the social science curriculum recommending that “India” should be replaced with “Bharat” in school textbooks for all classes.

In an interaction with PTI, the NCERT chief said both the words would be used in the books and the council has no aversion to either “Bharat” or “India”. Saklani asserted that the debate over these words was useless, as the Constitution upholds both of them.

“It is interchangeable….our position is what our Constitution says and we uphold that. We can use Bharat, we can use India, what is the problem? We are not in that debate. Wherever it suits we will use India, wherever it suits we will use Bharat. We have no aversion to either India or Bharat,” he said.

“You can see both being used in our textbooks already and that will continue in new textbooks. This is a useless debate,” Saklani said.

A high-level committee for social sciences, constituted by the NCERT to revise the school curriculum, had last year recommended that “India” should be replaced with “Bharat” in the textbooks for all classes.

( With PTI inputs)