No Difference Between India And Bharat Says Education Ministry

The Union Education Ministry has informed the parliament that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) does not differentiate between India and Bharat. The Union Minister of State for Education Annpurna Devi, in response to the question posed by CPI (M) member Elamaram Kareem in the Rajya Sabha regarding the NCERT panel recommendation of replacing the name India with Bharat in textbooks, stated that Article 1 of the Constitution stated that India, that is Bharat shall be a Union of states. She further emphasized that the Indian constitution recognises both India and Bharat as the official names of the country. 

The NCERT duly acknowledges this spirit as enshrined in our Constitution and does not differentiate between the two," she said. The minister further added that the country is moving away from the colonial mindset and encourages the usage of words in the Indian languages. 

The minister when speaking in the parliament pointed out that NCERT is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education which is involved in the preparation of school curriculum and textbooks. Recently, a high-level committee was formed to revise the school curriculum in October 2023 which recommended replacing the name India with Bharat in textbooks. 

Although the recommendation triggered political controversy, the NCERT maintained that no decision had been taken on the panel recommendation. The NCERT at the time reacting to the name change mentioned stated that since the new syllabus and textbooks are under development and various curricular area groups of domain experts are being notified by the NCERT it is immature to comment on it.