Amid the India-Bharat row, a high-level committee for social sciences, constituted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to revise the school curriculum, recommended replacing the name ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’ in textbooks, reports emerged on Wednesday.

According to reports, the committee’s chairperson CI Issac said that Bharat is an age-old name and the use of the name finds its mention in ancient texts such as Vishnu Purana, which is 7,000 years old.

“The term India started being used commonly only after the establishment of the East India Company and the battle of Plassey in 1517. Therefore, the committee has unanimously recommended the name ‘Bharat’ should be used in textbooks for students across classes.”

He further informed that the panel also recommended introducing ‘classical history’ instead of ‘ancient history’ in the textbooks.

He said, “The British divided Indian history into three phases- ancient, medieval and modern showing India in darkness, unaware of scientific knowledge and progress. However, many examples of India’s achievements in that age include Aryabhatta’s work on the solar system model.”

“Therefore, we have suggested that the classical period of Indian History be taught in schools along with medieval and modern periods,” Issac said.

It may be mentioned that NCERT is currently revising the curriculum of the school textbooks in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2023 for which the council recently formed a 19-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) to finalise the curriculum, textbooks and learning material for these classes.

Meanwhile, NCERT Director informed that the proposal is yet to get an approval. He was quoted by News18 saying, “We have not accepted anything at the moment. The panel sent their report.”