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| CURRENT AFFAIRS |
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CARTOON CONTROVERSY |
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Dalit delegation demands reconsideration of Ambedkar cartoon
Activists also requested for a fair representation of social minorities in various NCERT committees
Prakhar Jain
New Delhi
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Cartoon by Abhijeet Kini, Freelance Cartoonist |
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A delegation of Dalit writers, scholars and activists submitted a petition on Thursday, 7 June, demanding a re-evaluation of the controversial BR Ambedkar cartoon in Class XI political science textbook. The cartoon had sparked an outrage among many politicians in the last session of the Parliament, leading to a textbook review committee being formed by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal.
The petition urged the committee to “…examine the textbooks to reconsider the Ambedkar cartoon (and possibly other insensitive material)”, while asking the HRD ministry to desist itself from “seeking any major overhaul of the basic National Curriculum Framework on which the textbooks are based”.
Professor Sukhadeo Thorat, the Chairperson of National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbook review committee, accepted the petition in presence of Dr Saroj Yadav who is the head of Department of Social Sciences at NCERT and a member of the review committee.
Historian Uma Chakravarti, speaking while submitting the petition, rejected the debates that took place during the controversy as too flat and simplistic and urged the committee members to go back to the larger principles beyond the immediacy of the crisis. “The unnecessary defence of cartoons is more problematic than the cartoons themselves. Open dialogues for what is insensitive or hurtful should take place and not all cartoons should be thrown out of the textbooks,” she said. Chakravarti has also contributed to the history textbook of class XII.
The petition expressed dismay of the petitioners about the two polarised sets of reactions that emerged about the cartoons and said, “The textbooks, however good they are, and even if they mark a radical departure from past efforts, cannot be above criticism, discussion and improvement.” The petition has accused the media for portraying the “democratic struggle” of Dalits against the cartoon as “otherwise”, and not reporting the support shown by Dalit activists for Prof Suhas Palshikar when his office was vandalised.
Going further, it seeks “…fair representation of Dalits and other social minorities in NCERT’s various committees, as well as in the Senates and Syndicates of Central and State Universities”.
The delegation of around 15 people, who met Mr Thorat, had seven of the 43 people named in the petition and also included the students of United Dalit (SC/ST) Students’ Forum of Jawaharlal Nehru University. An online signature campaign has also been started at www.change.org
“We’ll place the petition before the committee for further consultations,” said Prof Thorat. He also hinted that the committee’s report could be submitted by Saturday after taking into account all other representations that have been received by the committee.
Prakhar Jain is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
prakhar@tehelka.com
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