NCERT row: 33 political scientists want their names deleted from textbook development panel

Raising concern over the “unilateral revision” of NCERT textbooks, 33 political scientists involved in the preparation of the political science textbooks by NCERT have urged the organisation’s director to remove their names as members of the Textbook Development Committee.

In their letter dated June 13, and addressed to National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani, the social scientists have raised have concerns over the disdain towards academic freedom, pedagogic integrity and institutional propriety in the recent revision of the textbooks.

The scholars argued that the NCERT cannot quote its Intellectual Property Rights to liberally introduce “substantive changes” to textbooks vetted by them, and attribute the revised content to them.

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The development comes days after two other political scientists Yogendra Yadav, and Suhas Palshikar urged NCERT to remove their names as chief advisors for textbooks on political science.

‘Creative collective effort in jeopardy’

The scientists in their letter said that while they had put in a collaborative attempt – incorporating multiple perspectives and varied ideological positions and employing a pedagogic strategy that was collectively deliberated upon – to produce the school textbooks, the recent changes in textbooks have put these “creative collection effort in jeopardy.”

“Through these textbooks we hoped to explain to school students the ideals of our freedom struggle, the aspirations of the constituent assembly, the principles of our constitutional order, the role of leaders and movements, the nature of our federal system, the promising and dynamic qualities of our democratic republic, key episodes of contemporary politics in India, and the global developments and theoretical principles of political science in this uniquely Indian context,” the writers said.

“NCERT is now making changes to the textbooks. These involve deletions of sentences and removal of some sections (even chapters) considered unacceptable with emphasis given to others considered desirable. The decision of who decides what is unacceptable and what is desirable has been kept rather opaque, violating the core principles of transparency and contestation that, we believe, underlies academic knowledge production,” they said.

‘Consultative protocol formed core of book writing’

They said the production of a textbook involved meticulous pedagogy and vetting by contributors and Chief Advisors.

Stating that considerable professional time was devoted in the making of a book, they said, “political scientists from colleges, universities, and schools, from across India, accepted this responsibility of producing a set of engaging and accessible textbooks for school students in the discipline of political science.”

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They said the book writing followed a consultative protocol as part of which drafts of texts produced were sent to the Chief Advisors who after vetting them sent playbacks to contributors for suggestions and revisions if necessary.

“This consultative protocol was at the core of the process because it underscored the academic autonomy and freedom of the scholars who were involved,” the letter said.

‘NCERT can’t attribute substantive revisions to us’

The writers said while they accept the NCERT’s argument that it has Intellectual Property Rights on the textbooks published by it, they won’t buy the argument that the publisher can make “substantive changes, minor or major” and attribute those to the same set of contributors and Chief Advisors.

“You say that NCERT has the IPR on the textbooks. This we accept. It can publish the textbooks as they were produced under the guidance of the Chief Advisors in as many copies and editions that it wishes. But it is not at liberty to make substantive changes, minor or major, and then claim that the same set of contributors and Chief Advisors continue to be responsible for the revised text as it now stands,” the social scientists said.

The writers said while the NCERT should have consulted contributors or Chief Advisors on the revisions, the “several substantive revisions of the original texts, making them thereby different books” make them difficult to associate these books with their names.

“With greatly regret at this turn of events we, therefore request you to delete our names as members of the Textbook Development Committee, from the political science textbooks of NCERT,” the letter added.

‘NCERT’s rationalisation exercise has mutilated books’

In a similar letter sent to Saklani on June 9, Palshikar and Yadav had said that the NCERT’s rationalisation exercise has “mutilated” the books beyond recognition and rendered them “academically dysfunctional”.

Stating that they were embarrassed to be mentioned as chief advisors, Palshikar and Yadav had said that the recent cuts in NCERT textbooks were arbitrary and irrational.

Also read: NCERT drops democracy, periodic table, energy sources from Class 10 textbooks

“We were never consulted or even informed of these changes. If NCERT did consult other experts for deciding on these cuts and deletions, we explicitly state that we fully disagree with them in this regard,” they said.

Palshikar, an academician and political scientist, and Yadav, political scientist and Swaraj India leader, were chief advisors for the Political Science books for classes IX to XII originally published in 2006-07 based on the 2005 version of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

Their names are mentioned in a “letter to students” and the list of textbook development team at the beginning of each book.