-Reshma Ravishanker

The Karnataka BJP government’s 26 position papers on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which is being rolled out nationally after being kept on hold during the Covid-19 pandemic disruption, submitted in early July to the National Council for Educational Research & Training (NCERT), have sparked outrage within the academy.

Submitted in response to the Union education ministry’s invitation to state governments for suggestions to finalise the new K-12 National Curriculum Framework (NCF) being finalised by NCERT, the position papers have provoked a hail of criticism for promoting Hindutva ideology, language chauvinism, passing of myth as history, and undermining scientific temper.

Drafted by a committee of experts chaired by H.V. Ranganath, former chief secretary of Karnataka, the 26 papers offer suggestions relating to language education, knowledge of India, curriculum and pedagogy, science and gender education among other issues. Yet it has sparked academic outrage because a ‘Knowledge of India’ paper proposes introduction of indigenous (bharatiya) pedagogies and rejection of “Western science”. In particular, this paper posits that the Pythagoras theorem and Newton’s law of gravity are “fake news”, and should be excised from all school syllabuses. Another position paper on health and wellness recommends discontinuation of eggs in school children’s mid-day meals as “they cause lifestyle disorders”.

In a statement dated July 21, several medical practitioners and educationists including Dr. Yogananda Reddy, former president of Indian Medical Association, Karnataka and Niranjanaradhya V.P, fellow and programme head — Universalisation of Education at NLSUI, Bengaluru, severely criticised the state government’s position papers.

“An elaborate study conducted by the Karnataka Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University, Gadag has very clearly shown that children in Yadgir district where mid-day meals were supplemented with egg protein recorded significant gains in weight and body mass index… Therefore, the recommendation of the position paper completely goes against the decision of the Karnataka government,” says the statement.

Yet the Ranganath Committee’s NEP 2020 recommendation paper that has angered educationists most, is on language education. It recommends that in foundational classes (nursery-class V) the compulsory medium of instruction should be mother tongue and/or Kannada.

Private schools are shocked that the expert committee has raked up this issue settled by the Supreme Court in 2014 after a 33-year battle in the courts. In State of Karnataka & Anr. vs. Associated Management of (Government Recognised Unaided English medium) Primary and Secondary Schools & Ors. (AIR 2014 SC 2094), the apex court ruled that parents have a fundamental right to choose the medium of instruction of their children.

“The Ranganath Committee’s position paper on language education is in contempt of the Supreme Court of India. We demand immediate withdrawal of this position paper. The state government should refrain from imposing a new medium of instruction policy under the guise of implementing NEP 2020,” says D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary, Associated Managements of Private Schools in Karnataka (KAMS).
Meanwhile, responding to the volley of criticism against the state’s NEP position papers, education minister B.C. Nagesh says they are “only recommendations; a final decision will be taken by NCERT”.

Most academics in Karnataka, which has a long tradition of liberal education, are of the opinion that a discernable hindutva spin is being given to education policies and initiatives by the state’s BJP government which was sworn in after engineering mass defections from opposition parties in 2019. With legislative assembly elections scheduled for next summer, the BJP leadership is working furiously to implement the party’s strategy of consolidating the Hindu vote by ramping up anti-minorities rhetoric. It prohibited Muslim girl children from wearing the hijab (headscarf) in classrooms, and has rewritten history textbooks.

The Ranganath Committee’s NEP 2020 position papers which call for rejection of Western science, promotion of vegetarianism, and ancient (Hindu) culture and languages, are part and parcel of this electoral strategy which has proved successful in north Indian states, especially Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous (215 million) state. However, peninsular India has a separate and distinct Dravidian culture of harmonious co-existence with large Muslim and Christian minorities. Besides, while it has been decimated across the country, the opposition Congress party is still a force to reckon with in Karnataka. The BJP government’s NEP 2020 position papers which confirm its Hindutva agenda could boomerang.

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