New Delhi: On Friday, a new book for the sixth class was published by the NCERT for social science, which has a tone that is only applicable to the Indian context. The textbook, titled ‘Exploring Society: Published under the title of ‘India and Beyond,’ is accessible in electronic format on the NCERT website. This step falls under the National Education Policy (2020) implementation and the fresh NCF documenting the need for a curriculum based on Indian and local culture and values. Currently, updated texts are published for classes third and sixth; most of them can be downloaded, but many have not been physically delivered yet.
In the new textbook, peer-revised by L. Singh, the fifth chapter is called “India, that is Bharat,” describing the country’s naming history. It states that the early settlers referred to this area as ‘Jambudvīpa’ and ‘Bhārata,’ and this latter name finally gained popularity and is now acceptable in all major Indian dialects. The name ‘’Bhārata’’ is discovered for the first time in the Ṛig Veda, where it is used to denote one of the core Vedic groups. In the given historical context, which appears in numerous ancient Sanskrit texts, including the Viṣhṇu Purāṇa, the term ‘Bhārata’ expanded its meaning to refer to the entirety of the Indian subcontinent.
The book also narrates how the strangers and intruders acquired such appellations as ‘Hindu,’ ‘Indoi,’ and lastly, ‘India’ from the Sindhu or Indus. This source states that the word ‘Hindustān’ was introduced 1800 years ago in Persian writing, and anybody who invaded India used it to refer to the present India. The first outsiders to record anything about India were the Persians, who used ‘Hind,’ ‘Hidu,’ and ‘Hindu’ to describe the region since these are adaptations of ‘Sindhu. ’ The Greeks thereafter referred to the region as ‘Indoi’ or ‘Indike’ since the letter ‘h’ was non-existent in this language.
Notably, the officially recognized name for India today is underlined in the title of the Constitution: ‘India, that is Bharat. ’ Another committee set up at the high level of NCERT has suggested that the official name ‘India’ should be replaced with ‘Bharat’ in all textbooks.
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