Pressure on CBSE to include ethnic history in syllabus

AfterR the All Manipur Students Union launched the anti-foreigner campaign aimed against the influx of non-Manipuri settlers in the state, another student body has taken up...

AfterR the All Manipur Students Union launched the anti-foreigner campaign aimed against the influx of non-Manipuri settlers in the state, another student body has taken up the ethnicity call. The influential Democratic Students’ Alliance of Manipur (DESAM) has issued a diktat to CBSE-affiliated schools in the state to include the social science books brought out by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur, as part of their curriculum.

DESAM said the CBSE curriculum, which follows the NCERT syllabus, does not have much on the ethnic history of Manipur. Announcing that it would not take no for an answer, the student body’s publicity wing said a pure CBSE syllabus would be robbing the state’s future generation of native history, geopolitics and economics knowledge. “There are vast differences in the history of India and Manipur. We have our own 2,000 years of history and the need of the hour is to mould students with knowledge on local natural resources and history. It could translate into a source of self-sustenance,” said the Alliance.

With DESAM announcing its intention to conduct “surprise checks” at CBSE schools, it’s not surprising that several bookshops have said their entire stock of Manipur Board textbooks is sold out. “There has been urgent demands from CBSE schools to supply them with the social science textbooks, especially for Classes VII and VIII. This is over and above what we generally stock for the local schools. We don’t have a single copy left,” said a salesperson at Job Centre, a texbook stockist in Babupara district.

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Manipur Board Director Rajmohan said that, as with state boards elsewhere, 30 per cent of the syllabus content is based on local history and environment. “Neither the CBSE schools nor the student body has approached us regarding this matter, so I won’t be able to comment on it. But the local content has been a component of our syllabus since the beginning of education under the state board here.”

Most CBSE school officials refused to comment. However, a teacher said that despite their syllabus being the CBSE one, Manipuri was available as a subject option and it covered ethnic topics.

In September 2005, Nagaland’s secondary education board had gone a step ahead of the National Curriculum Framework — then under way in Delhi — and introduced textbooks up to Class IV with chapters on Naga history and the community’s post-British era struggle for sovereignty. The Nagaland Board’s textbooks have, for example, replaced typical depictions of an “Indian” village and customs (sari, dhoti, chapati, etc) with those of a Naga village showing traditions and customs unique to the state.