Curriculum under Siege

Abstract

Citizenship education being central to the process of nation-building, changing political regimes promote a re-imagination of the ‘ideal’ citizen. A perusal of the successive national curriculum frameworks introduced by the NCERT (1975–2005) shows how curricula and textbooks have been repeatedly re-designed to suit the requirements of changing political regimes, throwing up contesting visions of citizenship and nationhood. While this explains the seemingly inevitable state-curricular linkage, the announcement made by the current political dispensation regarding an urgent need for drastic reduction of the curricular load at the school level raises serious concerns. It is widely speculated that the current ruling dispensation supported by its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is going to introduce curricular reforms aimed at reshaping the national identity in accordance with its ideological framework. As during the previous NDA regime (1998–2004), this would not only severely damage the multicultural narrative of India’s past and present, but would also pose a serious challenge to the very idea of India.