IV

NORMALISING THE BOUNDARIES

INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter had examined how the textbooks constitute a national-cultural

imaginary by defining the nation's symbols, icons and narratives- historical and mythical.

I explore in this chapter, the structure and nature of the nation which the texts construct

through a description of the everyday lives of people. I consider how they describe an ideal

citizen and normalize these descriptions, how they include some people within its

imaginary boundaries and marginalize others. This construction entails a process of re­

fashioning, one which celebrates, even fetishizes certain themes and represses others.

Inevitably this is a contestatory process because what is being defined is the very nature

and activity of a post-colonial modem nation. Self-fashioning is a process which is

common to the construction of any nation- what is interesting through these textbooks, is

the specifically nationalist vision of postcolonial India. Partha Chatterjee discusses how

even under colonization, nationalism carves out a separate private sphere for itself: some of

the same impetus is visible in post-colonial self-fashioning as well: "In fact, here

nationalism launches its most powerful creative and historically significant pr~ject: to

fashion a 'modern' national culture that is nevertheless not Western. If the nation is an

imagined community, then this is where it is brought into being.' (Chatterjee: 1993:6-7)

To conceive of a non-Western, nationalist modernity is in fact an important element of

these textbooks. Yet this construction is simultaneously a process of omission and

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hierarchisation. If typical markers of modernity are industrialisation and public investment

in infrastructure, these are consistently cited. On the other hand, the rural world is idealised

as morally superior, the farmer becoming an important motif for national contentment 1•

Equally, the material progress of the nation is celebrated, but that of the individual is

condemned as implicitly disruptive of social order. Similarly, secularism is a consistently

stated ideal, but themes and characters in stories posit Hinduism as normative. It is in these

conflicts that the under-belly of postcolonial contestation is made apparent. As the nation

struggles with economic disparities and social inequalities or the dominance ofthe urban

metropolis despite a recognition of the importance ofthe rural world, it attempts to obscure

these conflicts through celebration. Independent India emerges in these textbooks as

ascetic and self-disciplined, progressive and secular, its problems and uneven development

reshaped to enable its location in a new modernity. In the process it sets imagined

boundaries outside which the dalit, the infirm or the rebel fade into obscurity.

In this chapter therefore, I consider how the education process through English textbooks

seeks to distance as well as integrate the constituents of its nation, inferiorizes and

marginalizes social groups in the very act of assimilating them and in the process seeks to

contain social conflict.

RURAL INDIA

One of the strongest markers of the social ordering of India is the emphasis on rural life.

All textbooks devote a significant space to a description of a rural idyll, focussing on its

1 The invocation of rural India as signifying the 'real' and even the noblest aspects of the nation, finds constant reiteration from the nationalist slogan of 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' to popular cinema.

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beauty and productivity. This is clearly a recurring trope of nationalism because it is

visible in books in 1998 as well as in 1969. The beautiful village with its wholesome

lifestyle, its simple and good people has roots in pastoral Romanticism but this is

intermixed with signifiers of modernity. The series of mixed metaphors which ensue

suggest some of the tensions of post-colonial development.

UP textbooks for instance, devote 20% of all lessons on life in the villages. Rural life is

constantly constructed as a pastoral ideal: "The Farmer" (UP BERI: 1991:89) constructs a

contented and harmonious life for Roopa and Kiran who "have a small house in the

village. They have a pair of bullocks, a cow and a dog ... There are beautiful plants and

flowers in the garden."

In "Town and Country Life"(UP, BER III: 1990: 22) we are told "Life in the village is

quiet and peaceful and healthy. You can always get very good fresh vegetables and milk

and eggs there." Similarly Kerala textbooks idealise the contentment and natural beauty of

rural existence. The chapter entitled "A Village" (KER V: 1994:84) describes Neema's

house in a rural idyll of hills, a river, a church, fruit trees and cows. Ammu's comment:

"Neema! Your house is beautiful! The farm is beautiful too. The lime trees are lovely. The

cows are also lovely!" draws upon a traditionally Romantic construction of landscape and

natural beauty. The inclusion of poems such as Wordsworth's "Solitary Reaper" ( KER IX:

1994: 65) and"Daffodils" (KER, X: 1993:16) heighten the construction ofthe 19th century

Romantic model of rural beauty. Similarly over three decades earlier the village is

comparably constructed through imagery which is uncannily similar. In 'A Village'

(NCERT ER I: 1969:111) a pastoral cliche is employed:

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It was a beautiful village. It was at the bottom of a hill. There was a river near the village. There were forty houses in the village. There were three streets. There was a temple in the middle of the village.

Missing from these landscapes are commonplace realities such as dirt or poverty. Frozen

into a timeless icon of the picturesque, they teach urban students nothing about the lived

experience of rural India.

Like the landscape, rural people are also conventionally seen as ideals though this is far

more emphatic in contemporary textbooks. In "The King and the Farmer" (KER VI:

1994: I) even the king learns from the generous wisdom of the farmer who plants fruit trees

for the benefit of his children declaring "I won't be selfish. I shall work for others too."

The king ruminates that "We can learn a lesson from him. Our country needs many more

selfless workers like him." The farmer today has become a model of wisdom and virtue.

This celebration of the simple goodness of rural people was certainly visible in the earlier

textbooks as well, as a number of chapters within a single textbook show. 2 However

instead of the reverence with which contemporary rural characters are treated, there are in

the same book, a remarkable number of instances of foolishness in this world : (NCERT

LLE II: 1971), in chapters like 'Where are my Glasses?' (Pg 1), 'Kutchu's Shirt' (Pg 17),

'Shake Well' (Pg 86), or (NCERT III: 1972) 'Kutchu Looks for his Glasses Again' (Pg

37) and 'Kutchu's Dream' (Pg 40) we see characters who are unpractical, forgetful and

comic. This is normalising - to the extent that being rural does not make a person

automatically wise - but also condescending, in that such foolishness is restricted to rural

characters. Similarly, a young boy describing his holiday in the village confesses "You

2 For example, a single book (NCERT LLE II: 1971) has the following chapters containing descriptions of a happy rural existence: 'Kutchu and His Family', (Pg42)'Ravi Goes Shopping' (Pg 107), 'Hareli' (Pg 34).

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know, life in a village isn't very interesting; but I had a good rest and I read a few books."

(NCERT IV: 1969:2) The difference between the two sets of textbooks perhaps reflects

the difference in the power wielded by rural India in the two decades: at the end of the

sixties, it was possible, in the urban-centric vision of textbook writers, to see rural

characters as important but not powerful. By the end of the nineties however, the

empowerment ofthe rural elite 3 made it impossible to portray them as inept.

There is discernible however, a certain tension related to the uneven spread of

modernisation between urban and rural life. Consequently the textbooks consistently.

attempt to posit rural life as supedor to urban existence. "Rules of the Road" contrasts the

peace of rural life: "We don't have big crowds there", with Lucknow: "I see a lot of people

everywhere.There is always a big crowd on the roads and in the streets." (UP, BER

II: 1993:97) Similarly, nearly thirty years earlier, another textbook (NCERT LLE II: 1971:

29) has a story about two frogs visiting the town to see if it is a better world. However they

find that "It is a small place. It is just like our village." [my emphasis] and declare in

disappointment "Let's go back." The recurring theme of pastoral bliss, the suggestion that

there is no particular advantage in urban infrastructure and the obfuscation of floods,

droughts or bonded labour clearly betray the anxious need to believe that all is well in rural

India. The economic reality of a nation with a 70 percent rural population combines with a.

post-colonial imagination to cel~brate a non-western, non-urban identity located in the

Indian village.4

3 See Chapter 2 for a fuller discussion of this. 4 This is a telling contrast to the USA where despite its large agricultural and rural community, the modem nation is more emphatically inscribed in urban imagery and symbol.

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In fact, the essential joy of rural existence is asserted even when there is a partial

acknowledgement of hardship. 'Town and Country Life' (UP BER III: 1990:22) which

admits of a debate about the relative merits of each, is structured as a conversation between

those children who prefer rural life and those who prefer urban existence; however the

absence of the authorial voice which is present in the other chapters on the same subject,

offsets the critique of rural life which is tentatively offered. In the conversation the

dominant voice emerges in favour of rural existence. Thus the hard physical labour of

villagers is counterpoised by the declaration that it is "a healthy life and they like it."

There is in fact a careful assertion that villages too, share in the march of modernity: the

same lesson goes on to assert "But there are cinema houses in some villages now"; the

absence of shops is irrelevant because "they can get all their food in the villages." Even

water and power are not really problems any more: "there won't be any problem of water

in the future. There are many new tube-wells in the villages now. Electricity is coming to

the villages too."

Similarly in 'Ashok Replies' (NCERT ER IV: 1993:63) a boy writes to his pen-friend in

Japan about the rural progress of modern India, asserting that electricity is now available to

farmers for all-year cultivation and that ploughs have given way to tractors. He goes on to

assert "In fact the villages are becoming better with their electric lights and good

roads ... Some Indian villages today have all the advantages of a city without many of its

disadvantages."

There is simultaneously care taken to define the limits of modernity. "A Visit to a Factory"

(NCERT GS IV: 1969:28) constructs an economic order in which agriculture and

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technology are in perfect harmony. The factory makes farming equipment like ploughs,

harrows, tractors and seed-drills. However, it is pointed out that "machines cannot do

everything ... Farmers will always be very busy and very important people."

While the textbooks of the 60s chart a similar trajectory of progress there is a more overt

acknowledgement of the existence of problems . The chapter on 'Our Five Year Plans'

accepts that

Far more people live in the villages than in towns and cities in our country; but many of the villages are poor. They live in little mud houses; sometimes they have to keep their cows and sheep and hens inside their houses. There are not enough wells in many villages and people do not have good water to drink. Most of the villagers cannot read and write, and there are not enough schools for their children. (NCERT GS IV: I 969: 14)

As the chapter title suggests however, there IS an expectation of nation-building and

development.

In all textbooks therefore, there is a contradiction in the handling of the rural ideal: there is

both a pastoral idealisation as well as a celebration of the march of technological progress.

This contradiction serves to legitimise the partial modernisation of India: it suggests that

even though the utopia of modernisation is not yet attainable in the villages, theirs is not a

disadvantaged life; they have a lifestyle which is the envy of urban dwellers. Ironically

however, the anxiety to smooth over any possible perception of rural disadvantage, does

not interrogate the basic notion that shops, cinema halls and electricity are in themselves

signifiers of contentment. Progress and development is thus narrowly conceived of.

Restricted as it is to roads and lights, it offers no alternative pattern of rural development,

functioning instead from the implicit assumption that modernisation is, in fact, best.

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In fact the only example of a critique of rural existence occurs in a chapter which deals

with family planning: a realm where modernity has not adequately made its presence felt.

Ludicrously this is spelt out in detail, even in a textbook for Class 6, which deals with

'Family Relations' in two farmer families : "Mr Ramesh Gupta's family is small. All are

healthy and happy. Mr Dinesh Gupta's family is big. The children are weak. The parents

are weak too. Their family is big." (UP BER I: 1991 :3 7). While in itself it is obviously

important to promote family planning, the presence of this theme in a lesson for 1 0 year

olds clearly bespeaks a profound anxiety about the contribution of a rural population in

burgeoning population statistics. Following First World patterns of development, a large

family is seen solely as a problem which is created by irresponsibility and ignorance:. No

alternative model of development is ever hinted at: for instance one which shifts some of

the responsibility for under-development to first world patterns of consumption or to

inadequate health care.

For all their focus on rural India, therefore, the textbooks speak from an essentially

external position. The celebration of the pastoral idyll is by a sensibility which is firmly

rooted in urban modernity.5 Gellner (1983) spoke of the potentially disruptive force

unleashed by the uneven spread of modernity by arguing that it is a cause for the rise of

nationalism. Although Gellner writes on the growth of national movements under

colonialism, these textbooks seek to defuse potential resistance to the post-colonial state

caused by a similarly uneven economic distribution. In an attempt to do this, the rural

5 Ashis Nandy points to the decline of the village in the national imagination. Contrasting an urban sensibility which could nevertheless create a Malgudi or a Pather Panchali, his view is that "Today the Indian village exists increasingly as a demographical and statistical datum ... But our vision oflndia no longer involves the imagination of a village. The village for us now is primarily a place where strange people live" (Nandy: Times of India, 18th March 1996)

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world is posited as a manifestation of the uniqueness of India: one in which tradition and

modernity march hand in hand. It is in fact this simultaneity which seeks to define the

nation and the tension between the two worlds becomes a means of claiming a special

place in the world order.

NATIONALIST MODERNITY AND KNOWLEDGE

The predominant celebration is of India's place in the march of modern progress. This is

visible both in lessons which deal with development in modern India as well as with the

types of knowledge and information which it is considered valuable for the modern Indian

student to possess. Overwhelmingly the knowledge which is posited as 'valuable' is both

narrow and arbitrarily chosen. For example in a chapter assertively titled 'Things You

Should Know' (NCERT, RFP IV: 1993:48), there is an odd collection of facts: why

America is so called, why onions make you cry, who started short haircuts. Underlying the

choice of material is a concept of knowledge as a series of discrete facts abstracted from

any conceptual framework or any lived experience. The arbitrary selection constructs

knowledge as an external and objective entity, one which needs to be mastered by students

and is divorced from a focus on language acquisition. Its disregard for the fundamental

pedagogic question of what is worth knowing is translated into classroom activity and

teaching strategy, as I discuss in Chapter 6.

Much of the time, the factual information conveyed is directly linked to the promotion of

the nation as a modern, industrial and progressive entity. This is visible in the older books

as well as the new ones, though it is possible to see a difference in tone between the two

sets. The note of confidence and expectation that planning will resolve economic

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backwardness characterises the books of the sixties, making it easier to admit the problem

as we saw in the discussion of the Five Year plans, above. After an admission about the

urgent need for development, the chapter goes on to chart areas where progress is under

way, and is worth quoting in some detail to examine the form of the lesson as much as its

content.

Things were much worse before the Five Year Plans. Under the Plans a large number of villages have been improved greatly. New schools have been started in many villages and now the children in those villages do not have to walk a long way to school. More wells have been dug, and more villagers now get good drinking water. More and more villages now have radio sets, and the villagers listen to the news and other radio programmes. More roads have been laid, and now buses go to many villages.

The farmers are learning to raise better crops. They also raise crops of different kinds. They are now able to take their crops to big markets and get better prices for them. Small industries too have even started in some villages, and now more people are able to find work.

Electricity has been brought to many villages and village streets now have electric lamps. The Government gives money to the farmers to buy electric pumps. Many farmers now have pumps and they use them to irrigate their fields. (NCERT GS IV: 1969: 14-15)

The list is unexceptionable though as in many such chapters, the moralizing note of

propaganda ensures that the issue is not dialogic and hence uncontested. There is an

interesting comparison between the expectation for improvement here, and the assertion of

a development which has already occurred, in contemporary textbooks. The most stark

example of this is in a chapter which contrasts contemporary India with the India of 50

years ago. In "Ashok Replies" (to a Japanese pen-friend) there is a paean of praise to the

progress and modernity of the new India. Ashok tells his friend that while in his

grandfather's time there were no buses so that he needed to walk the 30 miles to school,

today there is a school in every village. Now education is free and "every parent, rich or

poor, is anxious to send his child to school." Economic planning too is brilliant:

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No visitor to our country leaves without seeing and admiring at least a few of the darns we have built. Thanks to the 5 year plans, there are big steel plants and factories for manufacturing railway carriages. (NCERT ER IV: 1993:63)

The problem with such a chapter is not that any of these assertions are wholly untrue but

that they flatten complexities. The chapter makes no mention of the enormous problems

with retaining children in schools. In suggesting that the march of urban modernity is an

unproblematic virtue such lessons promote an ideology which structures a particular form

of technological progress as the defining mark of a self-respecting nation. For instance the

devastating demographic shift towards urban migration is treated unproblematically and is

even celebrated as a mark of progress: "Many families are rapidly moving to cities and

towns in order to find jobs in factories and industries".

A similar single-minded enthusiasm is apparent when structuring the type of knowledge

made available to students. In consonance with the stated educational objective of

inculcating a scientific sense in students, a large number of chapters deal with areas of

knowledge which may be broadly described as scientific. In one book (NCERT ER II:

1993) for instance we have two chapters entitled "The Story of Science" one which

outlines the scientific temper ("Arguing is not the method of science" says a teacher

reprovingly in "Exercise and Growth") and one on "Excursion into Space". 25 percent of

all prose chapters in this book are on science. Similarly other books have chapters on

Edison and Einstein and on evolution. Each of these chapters glorifies science and

scientific progress. In the Kerala texts too, we see a similar weightage to knowledge which

is scientific and numerable. "The Dinosaur Domain" (KER IX: 1994: 45) takes pains to

explain fossils and discuss how we know about prehistoric life. The Class 10 (KER X:

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1993) reader has a chapter on Ramanujan the mathematical genius and one on "Animal

Architects", the builders and weavers ofthe natural world.

"The Story of Life" is unusual in that it occurs in both the old books and the new (NCERT

ER V :1998:107 and NCERT SS V:l969:132). It traces life from the single cell to

primitive man. The emphasis in both books is on a simple linear progress, with man as the

crowning achievement. The chapter in both books concludes by asking "What is the great

goal towards which life might be moving?" and declares

In the future, the pace of man's evolution may quicken further, because now man is in a position to understand the process and is conscious of the urge towards a higher life. To be increasingly conscious of this urge and to help the process onward is the part man has to play.

This combination of evolution and mysticism prompts an uncritical consideration of the

trajectory of modernity and progress.

That the construction of knowledge is socially shaped and valued is apparent from the fact

that in the 60s, textbooks are fascinated by air travel and the history of flight. In a number

of books there are lessons focussed on the wonder offlight ('The Conquest of Air I and II'

(NCERT GS 111:1969); 'Can You Fly?' (NCERT SS III:I969); 'The Story of the

Aeroplane' (NCERT GS IV:1969)) but it is interesting to speculate on why this theme is

not touched upon in contemporary books. In the 60s, flying as dealt with in these books,

possesses a magical aura, an iconic status of progress, of the conquest of the limitless

possibilities of inventiveness. It is not a commonplace mode of transport as it is in the 90s,

which must look for new symbols of modernity.

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The importance to a nation which defines itself by its modernity, through a knowledge of

the natural and applied sciences cannot be under-estimated. While this is clearly important

learning for children to possess, the problem is always one of balance. To prioritise one

form of knowledge over another has profound implications for how a society sees itself

and relates to its components. The kind of knowledge which is celebrated is of physics,

zoology, biology and mathematics hence valuing a particular type of contributor to society.

There is no similar emphasis on the knowledge possessed by a weaver, a potter or a painter

as Kancha Ilaiah points out in protest against certain forms of knowledge:

in our [Dalit] real life a knowledgeable person is one who has knowledge of social functions- one who knows about sheep-breeding, agriculture, rope making; one who can diagnose the nature of the diseases of animals and human beings. (IIaiah: 1996: 17)

Implicitly, such forms of knowledge do not define the nation in the same way. The issue

therefore, is not simply one of unimaginative or poorly written textbooks in any discipline,

but onewhich categorises certain groups of people and their knowledge as irrelevant for a

modern nation, erasing their experiences and needs.

WEALTH AND THE NATION

The question of who controls or has access to the economic resources in a nation is always

one which is fraught with tension. It is a tension which has traditionally characterised most

societies in transformation. It is for instance, a recurring theme in the literature of the

European Renaissance, an era of economic expansion in conflict with a feudal social order

and a traditional Christian ethic of other-worldly renunciation. In Ben Jonson's play

Volpone for instance, its hero/anti-hero arouses a mixture of admiration and moral outrage

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with his brilliant machinations to cheat others of their wealth. The overweening greed of

Marlowe's Faustus is similarly portrayed as both attractive and morally reprehensible.

Contemporary textbooks perfectly encapsulate the tension between conflicting value­

systems as they are played out in post-colonial India, treating the issue of wealth. its

acquisition and its importance with distinct unease. Through the various lessons is

discernible the conflictual response to a process of social and economic transformation: a

commitment to socialism, and equity on the one hand and the capitalist, aquisitve ethic of a

new middle class on the other. This is of course a contradiction which exists at the heart of

capitalism in India, till the mid-90s. It arises out of the contradiction between the amoral

nature of monetary pursuit and the necessity of attaching metaphysical goals to this pursuit

as a means of subjecting it to social regulation.

As we shall see much of this conflict is played out on the terrain of cultural nationalism

and of the morality of national identity. Repeatedly, there is an impetus to retain an

economic status quo and easy access to wealth is invariably seen as the path to ruin. On the

other hand these books are more careful about the issue of economic disparity than the

older books. They frown on the search for wealth by individuals, but are careful not to

point out that some people have more than others. Older textbooks however, are more

comfortable with reflecting a social reality in which there are rich and poor. Their

emphasis is on suggesting that people can be friends across economic class.

In the books of the 60s there is an easy but pointed reference to economic disparity. We

read for instance (NCERT GS 1: 1969: 88-89) about Mr Lal a postman who "has a red

bicycle. His son has a bicycle too." Mr Lal's children however visit their friend Kamala,

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Dr Kumar's daughter. "Dr Kumar has a big house near the railway station and he has a big

car." Kamala "showed her friends her room and her picture books. There were also nice

pictures on the walls. They went home in Dr Kumar's car."(NCERT GS 1: 1969:90)

Similarly while working out transport to a picnic, one boy tells another "His father is a rich

merchant. He lives in a large house and they have got a nice big car. .. They have got a

driver at home. He will drive." (NCERT GS II: 1969:65) Servants are mentioned casually

as we are told (NCERT GSII:l969: 45) that "Mrs Prasad has a servant. The servant comes

at 5.30 every morning. She sweeps the floor and cleans the room. She washes the vessels

and helps Mrs Prasad in the kitchen." None of the contemporary books set in the present,

refer to servants; it is only in historical stories that they are visible.

Similarly, it does not seem to be shameful in the textbooks ofthe 60s to desire what your

neighbour possesses. In 'A Visit' (NCERT GS II: 1969: 98) Mr and Mrs Das visit Mr and

Mrs George and admire their possessions: "This is a beautiful table cloth", "That is a very

nice picture." They are told by their hosts : "We bought it in the new shop in the bazaar

yesterday." A few lessons later, in 'Going to the Bazaar' (NCERT GS II: 1969: 101) Mr

and Mrs Das immediately decided to acquire these items, telling their children "Your

father and I went to John's house yesterday. We saw a beautiful picture and a pretty vase

there .... We will go to the bazaar tomorrow evening. We will buy a beautiful vase." Not to

be outdone, Mohan responds, "I have a knife but it isn't very good. I will buy a good knife.

I will buy a new pen also." (NCERT GS 11:1969:102)

This approach is sharply different to the books of the 90s which are much more emphatic

about the evils of desiring material goods. A straightforward warning against a hope for

easy wealth is found for instance, in the story of the miller Whang (NCERT WB 11:1993:

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27). Whang is consumed with envy of his neighbour who dreams about finding a pot of

gold on his land and digs to find it. Whang stops working at his mill and finally one night

does dream of gold under the walls of his mill. Inevitably he digs for it, does not find gold

but has the walls of his mill collapse abut his ears. Students are prompted to draw the

conclusion that it is foolish and destructive to hope for sudden accessions of wealth. A

miller's role in life is to produce flour not to search for wealth.

This work ethic which couples labour and wealth reinforces the ideology of a capitalist

culture in a society of limited resources. Hard work is a moral virtue and anyone who does

not subscribe to this has no place in society. This is reinforced in the exercise on "Mr·

Misfit." (NCERT, WB II: 1993:.11). Mr Misfit is so called because he is "weak. So he

cannot work hard." It is a definition which leaves no space for the physically infirm or the

unemployed. It also assumes an economic structure of potential full employment where an

absence of labour is wilfully induced and signifies a moral failure. The emphasis here is on

the importance of work and not on gaining wealth. Within a capitalist labour market with

an unequal distribution of wealth, it becomes important to simultaneously promote labour

as a moral virtue in itself and to devalue the monetary gain which is the traditional results

of labour.

The ideology of unease with wealth also draws strength from its location within India's

Hindu culture. The theme of renunciation is central to Indian culture. The chapter on Sri

Ramakrishna Paramhamsa (NCERT ER IV:l992: 26) describes him as "the great Indian

saint of our times." It emphasises his teaching that "everyone should live a pure life ,

without caring for wealth, power or fame." His aversion to money is emphasized by a

dramatic incident. Attempting to explore the extent of his revulsion, his disciple

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Vivekananda administers a test."So one day when Sri Ramakrishna was asleep, he touched

him with a coin. Suddenly Sri Ramakrishna's hand became bent and his body appeared to

be in great pain." (NCERT ER IV:1992:27) We have here the use of myth to sanctify an

ideology of spiritual other-worldliness.

In many chapters, the emphasis is on a relationship between economic wealth and social

disturbance, a desire for wealth being constructed as synonymous with greed. A single

reader (KER VI: 1994) includes the story of Midas, another entitled "Four Greedy Young

Men" who treacherously kill each other because each covets the buried pot of gold they

find and yet another entitled "The Finest Thing In The World" in which two brothers

achieve wealth and power but the third achieves contentment. The moral is iterated in one

brother's admission "In spite of my wealth I am tired and unhappy" and the other's

statement "He has after all found the finest thing in the world. He has found contentment."

Similarly "The Imp and the Peasant's Bread" (KSR: 1993) deals with attitudes to the

acquisition of wealth. It describes how the Devil's disciple can ruin a once-generous

peasant by ensuring that he has a surfeit of possessions. A similar loss is conveyed in 'The

Greedy Barbers' (UP BER II: 1993:28) a traditional morality on how greed causes the

barbers to lose the steady profits they could have made in their trips to heaven. Here the

mere articulation of how much money they hope to make (which they indicate by

expanding their arms in demonstration) causes them to fall down. Implicitly therefore,

everi to imagine making money, deservedly leads to grief. Conversely, "Kindness

Rewarded" (KSR VIII: 1993), tells of the great reward for two poor peasants who give what

little they can, to the visiting Gods.

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Taken together, the stories suggest the value of maintaining an economic status quo. A

sudden access of wealth leads to ruination as in the case of the four young men and the

imp's peasant. In a society of vast economic disparity, the assertion of such an ideology

becomes a means of retaining the hegemonic control ofthe dominant class. The positing of

such an ideology is not, ofcourse, unproblematic. The economic mobility of India's

growing middle class make this into a contested territory as reflected in a number of

stories. Occasionally this ideological confusion even creates tension within a single

chapter.

A good example of this is the story 'A Brahmin's Dream' (NCERT RFP IV:l993). It

narrates the familiar story of the foolish man who having got some flour to eat, dreams of

selling it and gradually acquiring great wealth. However he fantasizes with such vividness

that he forgets what he is doing and breaks the pot of flour which was to be the first step in

his acquisition of wealth. At its most obvious level the story once again warns against

dreaming about the easy acquisition of wealth. However two aspects invite further

reflection. The first is the identification of the protagonist as a Brahmin. It is significant

that the Brahmin hopes to make money not by hard work but by buying and selling ie. by

behaving like a bania. At one level this seems to emphasize the impropriety of dreams of

wealth, highlighting the sanctions against such aspirations. At another, the story also opens

with a description of the poverty of the Brahmin. We are told that he "had to beg for a

living. Sometimes he had to go without food for many days. Often he had barely a handful

to eat."(NCERT RFP IV:l993:26) From this perspective the Brahmin's desire for wealth

seems entirely valid and the destruction of the pot of flour a harsh fate for a man who

desires to improve his lot.

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Similarly in the adaptation of Dickens' Oliver Twist, "The Boy Who Asked For More"

(NCERT RFP 111:1993: 58), it is not merely the text but the questions at the end which

suggest the iniquity of poverty. Students are asked to consider whether Oliver was right in

asking for more, and whether he deserved punishment for doing so. Because of the

structure of the narrative, they are prompted to conclude that for the poor, to demand more

is justifiable. A similar subversion is spelt out more overtly in the lesson called 'Abou

Hasan' (UP, HS ER:1992:48), which celebrates the skill and intelligence with which an

ordinary man Abou Hasan manages to trick the great Caliph and the princess into paying

him 200 gold pieces.

The overlap between economic and social class is explored with rare sensitivity in "The

World Outside" ( NCERT RFP V:1994: 68). A young mother Margery, treasures the

inviolateness of her tasteful and elegant inherited house and rues the ways in which her

neighbourhood has changed from large gardened estates to working class tenements. But

her middle-class complacency is shaken first by the crass aggression of three local youths

and then by a poor, lonely boy who gate-crashes her son's birthday party. Margery then

recognises the structuring power of her class identity:

[She] felt for the first time guilty of her own wealth .... she did have this grace of life, this pride and sureness, that made her house what it was. And she had inherited them, just as certainly as one might inherit a fortune or a diamond necklace. If she had been born in Joe's house, or had been a sister of the boys in the garden, she would not have been Margery, but someone else. ( NCERT RFP V:l994: 70)

It is significant however that this complex point is not drawn out by any of the questions

which follow the story. In fact a question such as "Why did Margery feel that her house

was no longer a very safe fortress?" invites reflection on what she has lost rather than on

what she has learnt. In a context of limited teaching time in which the textbook is often the

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only resource for teachers and students it is such questions which frame the students'

response to a text, promoting one particular ideology and suppressing another.

SOCIAL ORDER

The "management" of themes to distance them from any critical evaluation is widespread

in the textbooks. This is especially evident in that most problematic of areas: social

conflict. There are few themes in India as potentially divisive and explosive as conflict and

both old and new textbooks handle it with enormous reluctance. Primarily, this 'handling'

of conflict serves to promote a legitimation of the current social order and obscure its

inequality. In an examination of textbooks in the US, Michael Apple finds that textbooks

marginalise and obfuscate conflict to paint a picture of natural social harmony.

It has been my contention that the schools systematically distort the functions of social conflict in collectivities. The social, intellectual and political manifestations of this distortion are manifold. They may contribute significantly to the ideological underpinnings that serve to fundamentally orient individuals towards an unequal society. Students in most schools and in urban centers in particular are presented with a view that serves to legitimate the existing social order since change, conflict and men and women as creators as well as receivers of values and institutions are systematically neglected. {Apple: 1979: l 02)

Apple's findings are entirely true of Indian textbooks as well though the way in which the

issue is handled, varies between the 60s and the 90s. Both sets of textbooks uphold social

order and the wisdom of the ruler and minimise the possibility of social conflict though

there is some difference in their approach. In the textbooks of the sixties potential conflict

is resolved through good humour, following rules and generosity of spirit and these aspects

are emphasised as important. In the 90s however, conflict is silenced through erasure.

In the textbooks of the 60s we see the importance of friendship and understanding in

conflict resolution. In 'The Two Mice' (NCERT, LLE II: 1971 :89) for instance, the brown

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mouse valiantly performs a series of tasks for the farmer, the grocer, the cat and the cow, to

be able to win freedom for his imprisoned friend. At the end of the story, every creature

honourably keeps to their agreement when the tasks are performed. Similarly in 'The

Hunter and the Parrots' (NCERT,LLE II: 1971 :95) a trapper sets the parrot free when its

mate greets him courteously, lighting a fire to warm him, and food to entertain him

hospitably. In another story (NCERT, ER I: 1969: 33) a potential quarrel between a group

of children playing hide and seek is easily averted. Ani! protests:

'No. David showed you my place. That wasn't right.'

Mary, Leela and Mohan now came there.

Mary: 'David, you showed John, Anil's place. That wasn't right. You must go and cover your eyes now.'

David: • All right. Go and hide.'

The problem is always solved if people behave in a reasonable and generous manner.

Contemporary textbooks are much more silent about social upheaval. Conspicuously

absent is any text which deals with the violence, trauma or conflict which is a part of

children's lives today. The chapter on Indira Gandhi ("The Iron Lady of India",) is a good

example. While the lesson deals at length with her childhood, political initiation and

political career, it is bafflingly vague about her death: "Unfortunately her life came to an

end on October 31,1984. She will live in the hearts ofthe Indian people forever." (UP,BER

II: 1993:83) Such obfuscation is not merely absurd, it is dangerous- no one can seriously

expect that a student will not wonder about how Indira Gandhi's life came to an end. 6 If

6 That this is a widespread approach is evident from the fact that Krishna Kumar (1996) discusses the refusal · of school administrations to allow a mention of social conflict in the classroom, even when children have had direct experience of it during the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi in 1984. Kumar points out the damaging impact of this on children who had actually had experience of violence over this time.

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the textbook does not deal squarely with the issues it has raised, students will get their

answers from other sources - it leaves the field open for the bigoted and sectarian versions

of events which these texts in fact intend to prevent.

It is not merely texts dealing directly with conflict in India, which are shaped by this

ideology of silence. A good example of this is seen in the retold version of one of

Gulliver's adventures. ("Gulliver in Liliput", NCERT ER V:l993: 47). The extract outlines

the conflict of the two political parties, the High Heels and the Low Heels. The

fundamental disagreement about which end of an egg should be cracked satirises simply

and accessibly, the trivial and tortuous contortions of politicians. Potentially, the lesson

invites the possibility of much discussion about the existence and causes of social conflict.

However the questions at the end of the chapter only test students' ability to reproduce the

text: "What were the two political parties in Lilliput? What was the difference between

them?"

Similarly in the retold version of Wells' disturbing story 'Country of the Blind' (NCERT,

ER V: 1993: 74) there is silence on the issues raised by the story itself. Unlike the Biblical

aphorism which says that in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, Wells'

story suggests the powerful pressure of public opinion which is basically conservative. In

this story the sighted man Nunez, who is trapped in a society of blind people is seen as

diseased: only normal if his eyes are removed. Once again however, the follow-up work

does not explore the issues raised. Textual questions like "Why did Nunez agree to the

operation?" abound, and the most discursive question "Can you suggest a moral for this

story?" does not adequately prepare a thirteen year old student to look at the story in any

significant manner by ensuring that he reflects on the issues implied.

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We see in the lessons discussed here, the curious mixture of reasoning which goes into the

choosing of extracts in the production of textbooks. It is in these extracts that there is a

potentially contested ideology. The intention is clearly to give students exposure to great

and canonical texts but if they suggest a less than perfect social order, there is a silencing

in the follow-up work, of some of the very aspects which make them into great texts. The

discomfort with the questions raised by these texts leads to an absurd dichotomy between

the classical text itself and the ways in which students are prompted to think about it.

Stories like Gulliver and "Country of the Blind" potentially subvert the dominant ideology

of the textbooks. They raise the possibility of a society which is neither benign nor

ordered.

However while they have the potential to present an alternative vision of social order, this ·

is most unlikely to be explored because of the limiting role of textbooks in the classroom.

The vast majority of teachers do not take the discussion of a text beyond the questions in

the textbooks and if this is limited to narrow comprehension questions it is all that students

will learn. This is especially true of texts which are subtle in their interrogation of a

dominant discourse so that students need guidance in exploring this.

In contrast, a large number of texts are structured around the dominant vision of social

order and a just society and because of the carefully spelt out centrality of this vision, the

comprehension questions at the end of these lessons only serve to reinforce it. A repeated

signifier of a benign social order is that of a stable society headed by a wise ruler. This is

usually conceived of as a king, a single figure in whom all social order and c:ontrol can be

vested. In "The Righteous King" for instance (NCERT; ER III:l993: 44) we are introduced

to a king whose problem was that he had no fault. Though he scoured his kingdom, even in

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disguise, he found nothing but praise for his virtue and wisdom. Similarly in "The King's

Choice" (NCERT, RFP IV :1993: 1) the wise king has an uncanny ability to know when

his courtiers are tricking him and unerringly depends on his loyal courtier alone. Most

assertively, in the oft-anthologised "The Story of Shibi Rana" (NCERT, RFP IV: 1993: 45)

we have the ultimate just ruler who is willing to sacrifice his own life to uphold justice and

mercy. The repetition of this trope across all textbooks is striking (see 'Solomon's Justice'

UP BER II: 1990:74, 'The King's Judgement',UP BER III: 1990: 111, 'The Kind Prince'

UP BER III: 1990:80, 'Unity Is Strength' UP BER II: 1990: 102, 'The Righteous King'

NCERT III: 1993:44). Only in the Kerala textbooks do we find a significant number of

lessons about foolish kings like Midas and Lear, cruel kings like Dionysius who is

reformed by the faithful friendship of Damon and Pythias (KER VI:1994:18) or ''The

Proud King' (KER VII: 1994:7) whose royal arrogance is humbled. Yet even in the Kerala

books inadequate kings are never dispossessed or deposed. Instead, foolish kings like

Midas learn wisdom, cruel kings learn gentleness and proud kings learn humility. Potential

conflict is never actualised.

It is striking that an overwhelming number of lessons which deal with the individual and

the state are set in the past and depict a successful pursuit of justice. There is a strong

suggestion through this that citizens function within a benign and humane state system

which responds sympathetically and efficiently to their needs. The recurring setting in the

past serves another purpose. As discussed by Michel Foucault, (1980) the locus of power

in the past resided clearly and visibly in the king. It is therefore, a simple matter to

demonstrate the disbursement of justice through the verdict of the king: certainly easier

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than to track it through the tortuous corridors of government departments, with which even

school children today have some familiarity.

There is however a suggestion that contemporary social order and hierarchy is natural. In

'The Monkeys and the Sadhu' for instance, (KER VIII: 1994:23) the author discovers that

even within a tribe of monkeys "there is a King and a Queen of the monkeys, a Prime

Minister and a Commander in Chief'.

This extends even to the modern bureaucratic Indian state, which is portrayed as

personalized and benign. The playlet "The Little Boy" (UP BER III: 1990:50) is a

fascinating example of the ways in which potential subversion is deflected. A little

runaway boy on a train confides to an understanding adult about the hardships of his life.

His mother is ill and his father, a forest officer, is away. Complaining about his father's

boss he says bitterly: "His Officer is a brute. He doesn't allow father any leave."

Ostensibly, the oppressors in life are government officials. At one point the boy rages

"You are a bully. You are either a cruel Government officer or an unkind Head Master."

However at the end it emerges that the understanding and good-humoured adult on the

train is, in fact, the father's maligned boss. The boy suddenly realises "You have saved my

father, and my mother too" and declares somewhat disjointedly "When I grow up, I shall

join the Air Force". The lesson ends with him going back to school, "His face is lit up with

some noble decision." Just as in ancient India the ruler today, even when he is a

government officer, is just and compassionate. Implicitly, those of us who might be

sceptical, are like the little boy: Godlike, our new ruler the bureaucratic state, works in

mysterious ways which is beyond our understanding. Implicitly, the chapter counsels

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patience. We ought to clear up our misconceptions and then devote our energies to the

heroic service of our nation.

There is visible here, a fundamental ignorance of the workings of a child's mind. It

assumes that the child is a tabula rasa, an empty vessel passively waiting to be filled by the

all-knowing adult. It also operates from the Romantic assumption of childhood as a time of

innocence and purity; a phase which needs to be protected from the ugly reality of the adult

world. However this contradicts all the work done over this century on the child's own

authorship of his world. (Lurie: 1990, Sale: 1978). Taken from a child's perspective, it is a

much darker world than adult nostalgia would generally admit. The adult perception of an

idyllic and uncomplicated childhood is a manifestation of its own yearning for a golden

age, a yearning which ignores statistics of rising child abuse, divorce and exposure to

violence through the media. In the hypocritical attempt to protect children from the world

which they inhabit, these books create a culture of silence; one which actively harms the

process of children coming to terms with the world as it actually exists.

Yet as Krishna Kumar suggests children need adult help to make sense of the conflicts

which they can see in their world, because they lack the full knowledge to understand why

the conflict arose and how it is being shaped:

Children share with adults the urge to make sense of conflict; they want to 'resolve' it in their minds, in the sense that they want to identify the contradictions involved in the conflict by referring them to a framework of ideas and values. There is nothing unique about this kind of intellectual effort; only as adults we often mistakenly assume that children do not or cannot make it. (Kumar: 1996:23)

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As Kumar goes on to suggest, the silence of textbooks on the difficult issue of conflict

could leave the child open to a bigoted and pernicious oral culture which may be a part of

public common sense.

RELIGION AND IDENTITY

As we saw in the last chapter, there is in the textbooks of the nineties a self-conscious

determination to assert a secular national identity as a symbol of unity in diversity. Taking

the form of making visible the different religious communities ofthe nation, this is distinct

from the textbooks of the 60s where different religious communities are not dwelt upon.

Earlier textbooks are shaped by the logic of a post national- movement phase, one in which

a homogenizing, postcolonial nationalism is scarred by the trauma of partition. The hope

and fervent belief of secular nationalists was that religious differences were ephemeral,

premised upon false foundations and would disappear if they were not deliberately

nurtured: to recognize them then, was to legitimize them. 7 Today the faith in a unitarian

nationalism has shifted today with the articulated and politically assertive claims to

separate identity made by different religious communities.

In the 90s therefore, the importance of acknowledging the distinct identity of different

religions has become a constituent of secular nationalism. Where the textbooks of the 60s

deliberately ignored religious difference, today we see a panorama. It is however important

to consider exactly how this is conceived of and the extent to which a truly secular vision

permeates the books.

7 For an examination of the reasons for the defensive suppression of memory over partition see Kaul (2001 ), Butalia ( 1998)

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A cursory glance at all textbooks makes evident that in contemporary textbooks the

religious minorities of Muslims, Sikhs and Christians find mandatory inclusion. In the

Kerala textbook for instance we see people with names like Jameela Begum, Paul Joseph,

Abdul Rehman and Maria Paul who constitute productive members of society (KER

V: 1994: 25-27). Similarly Onam is described as "secular in nature. Hindus Muslims,

Christians and others celebrate it. It is a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of the people

ofKerala." (KER V:l994:27)

Perhaps predictably, given distribution of Christians in Kerala, the Kerala books do use

Christian myth and religious culture. We read stories from the Bible like "The Prodigal

Son" (KER VII: 1994: 14), others which feature characters like the Devil and concepts like

blasphemy (KER VIII:I994: 4) or stories like "A Christmas Morning"(KER X:1993: 30)

which feature Christmas trees, the Star of Bethlehem and the Wise Men.

This is not however, representative of other minority groups. If we move away from the

lessons specifically designed to address the secular issue, we see a different picture

emerge. The visible, normative face of Indian identity in the books is overwhelmingly

Hindu and the dominant assumptions are starkly evident in the handling of religious

groups. 8 It is significant that not only are the central characters in a vast majority of stories

Hindu, but that stories which deal with broadly secular themes are securely based in a

Hindu society. Thus "An Excursion into Space" (NCERT, ER II: 1993:61) which deals

with a fantasy voyage into space, occurs specifically on Diwali day. Similarly the "The

Story of Shibi Rana" (NCERT, ER V:l993 and KER Vl:1994) which is ostensibly about

8 See Amita Chandra ( 1993) for a similar finding on the history textbooks of four states. Chandra finds that though secularism may be an ideal, the textual content of the books speaks otherwise.

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kingly virtue and mercy is securely set in Hindu myth with the presence of Indra king of

Gods and Agni, God of fire. Another exposure to Hindu mythology is found in "Kusa and

Lava" (NCERT, ER 11:1993: and KER VII:I994). The reading of such a chapter would

inevitably entail some classroom reference to the events found in the Ramayana. Similarly

there are stories from the Mahabharata like 'The Gift of Eklavya' (KER VII:l994), and

'The Passing ofBhishma' (KER X:I993). An even more obvious focus on the centrality

of Hinduism is found in the chapter on Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa (NCERT,

IV: 1993 :26). Here he is referred to as "The great Indian saint of our times." (emphasis

added). In not referring to him as Hindu but as an Indian saint the chapter overlaps the

categories of Hindu and Indian. In contrast, not a single story or myth of a Muslim sage is

found in any of the books.

That Hindu is implicitly synonymous with India is seen in the opening lines of a story

entitled "Sivaji's Escape." ( NCERT, IV: 1993:56)The chapter begins with "Every Indian

child knows about Sivaji the great Mahratta chief." However a few lines later we are told

"The Moghul emperor in Delhi was Aurangzeb." The suggestion that Indian children know

about Sivaji and not necessarily about Aurangzeb, suggests that Sivaji was Indian and

Aurangzeb was not. This is not an account of two warring kings attempting to

outmaneouvre each other; instead Sivaji being Hindu and the enemy of the Muslim ruler,

was Indian and deserves to be remembered by every Indian child. On the other hand,

Aurangzeb despite being part of a well-established ruling dynasty remains the Muslim

outsider in the memory being shaped in our textbooks today.

The construction of the Muslim is deeply problematic in various stories, making it

apparent that forging a truly secular imagination is a lot more complex than including a

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series of denominational names in a token chapter. Invariably Muslim rulers and the

Muslim characters are constructed as the Other of the normative Hindu. In the play "Long

Live Shah Jehan" ( NCERT, RFP III: 1993:8) the action revolves around the aftermath of a

rebellion against Shah Jehan by his brother and nephews. Ostensibly Shah Jehan is

appalled that his ally, the Raja ofBandar has put the rebels to death. However his seeming

humaneness is quite offset by his own decision to have the Raja shot. The dramatic impact

of this is stronger than the Raja's action because the audience sees the Raja being led away

and then hears the shot and the Raja's scream. In the absence of any contextualisation of

crime and punishment in medieval India, the implication is that even good-hearted

Mughals are savage. The construction of the Mughals as alien is highlighted in various

ways. Mahabat Khan is introduced as "a nephew of Rana Pratap but had embraced Islam

and gone over to the Mughals." (my emphasis). The obvious suggestion of betrayal

suggests that Mughal dominance was only made possible because of the help of

treacherous Hindus.

Elsewhere, Shah Jehan spells this out:

Rana Saheb, how shall I pay off my debts to you? When I was pursued ... you gave me shelter and fought for me with all the armies ofMewar .... You built me this palace and this mosque and you had this throne made for me .... Biessed is this large-heartedness of the Rajputs! I'm a Muslim, but I'm proud that three-fourths of the blood in my veins is the blood of the Raj put race. (NCERT, RFP III:l993: 1 0)

The moral dominance of the Hindu here makes the political dominance of the Mughal ruler

into an ephemeral and unimportant feature. Against this backdrop one can only see as

facile the articulated moral with which the play ends: "From today you and I are brothers;

and the Hindus and the Muslims will always be brothers in my eyes." Instead of an

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assertion of communal amity, the reader is left with the thought that the Muslims are

fmiunate to be accepted as brothers by their Hindu benefactors.

A similar inversion of a laudable intention is seen in the story "Sultan Saladin and the

Jewish Merchant". The Sultan wanting some money from the Jew, decides to ask him a

trick question, viz. "Which of the three religions is the true one, Judaism, Islam or

Christianity?" The (Muslim) Sultan thinks "If the Jew praises the Jewish religion and puts

it above the religion of the Muslims, I will throw him into prison." ( NCERT, ER

III:l993:14). However the Jew parries with a story showing the impossibility of choosing

any one religion over the others and the Sultan acknowledges his defeat. Thus a story

which is ostensibly about the equality of all three religions is weighted against the 'crafty'

Muslim ruler, who is finally defeated. In a social context in which the majority of the

readers of such stories are Hindu children, such stereotypes of Muslims as devious or

savage, reinforces conceptions of difference and strangeness.

SILENCES AND OMISSIONS: ABSENT IDENTITIES

Finally, we must consider the issues and identities which are absent in our textbooks. What

is not taught and therefore not recognised is as revealing of the project of nation-building

as what is: the omissions suggest a misrecognition and eveh a deliberate silencing of

aspects which do not conform to a specific self-image. The silencing therefore reinforces

• the dominance of what is asserted, presenting a flat and unproblematic conception, free

from the contradictions experienced outside the classroom. These silences go beyond the

'managing' of reality which we have already seen in the exclusion of conflict or the

denigration of a commercial ethos. Overwhelmingly they promote a nation free from

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difference and at peace with itself, economically, culturally, on Issues of caste or of

religion. 9

Absent from the idyll of rural India for instance is any suggestion of its hardship. There are

no floods or famine, no landlords and bonded labour, no failed crops or dispossession.

Instead as we have seen, the countryside is beautiful and the best aspects of modernity are

within the reach of peasants. There is moreover no suggestion that the generic 'farmer' is

differentiated by wealth, tribe, region or caste. Such a picture reiterates the schism between

the (urban, middle-class) readers of the textbook and those whose life it seeks to portray. In

both idealising the symbolic value of the farmer as the synecdoche of national progress and

signalling that all is well in his world, it serves a socially reproductive function in blunting

any critical thought of social inequality.

Reinforcing this is the handling of the issue of labour. Overwhelmingly, the working world

consists of bourgeois, urban professions such as doctors, engineers and teachers. An

extract from a Kerala book for instance has a chapter entitled "Who Is Who" (KER

V: 1994: 25). It begins with "This is Mr Anil Kumar. He is a driver. This is Mrs Laila

Pillai. She is a lawyer. This is Mrs Jameela Begum. She is an engineer. This is Mr Paul

Joseph. He is a typist." The chapter goes on to introduce two doctors, an artist, two

farmers, two teachers, an engineer, a lecturer and a district collector. Entirely missing from

the list are weavers, potters, sweepers and a whole gamut of workers who are outside the

urban middle-class.

9 Although one obviously problematic area is gender, I deal with the silences on this issue, in the next chapter and have not included it here.

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The world of work and the distribution of wealth reinforce one of the oldest capitalist

myths - that hard work always brings rewards, that labour is a virtue for its own sake.

There is no suggestion that people may be poor yet have worked hard all their lives: that

others may have lost work because factories have closed down; that the rich are often rich

because the poor are disempowered. Inevitably textbooks never elaborate on successful

revolutions (the National Movement being the only exception, for obvious reasons), and do

not celebrate the victories of the oppressed who have overthrown their masters. Textbook

anthologies may contain stories of Sindbad, de Ruyters or Tom Sawyer, but they efface

Basvanna, Eklavya, Che Guavera or other heroes of resistance and social transformation.

The textbooks are entirely silent too, on the question of caste in India. Far from

problematising one of the most contentious CO!JCerns in contemporary India, books do not

even hint at any social division based on it. This alienation is expounded on Kancha

Ilaiahi's Why I Am Not a Hindu (1996) to suggest that post-colonial India's upper-caste

hegemonic forms of knowledge are as oppressive and alienating for Dalits as imperial

education was. The world of the Dalit which finds no mention in the knowledge available

to students is obscured from his awareness, reproducing the image of a nation which is

homogenous and egalitarian. Ilaiah bitterly considers the impact of this on the

consciousness of Dalit identity :

What was arrested and what was stifled was that consciousness. The consciousness of 'us' and of 'our' culture was never allowed to exercise our minds .... the school teacher was against us, the textbook language was against us. Our homes have one culture and the schools have another culture. If our culture was Dalitbahujan, the culture of the school was Hindu.(IIaiah: 1996: 14-15)

Conceivably an intermediate or upper caste student could emerge from schooling without

any understanding or empathy for the oppressions of being Dalit or the power of being

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upper-caste. It also makes strange to the Dalit student herself the reality of her lived

experience, alienating her from a knowledge system which seems an irrelevant imposition.

Despite the fact that secularism is an emphatic ideal the handling of the issue suggests the

difficulty in translating this into a meaningful vision in post-colonial India. Clearly the

issue of this must go beyond a simple mention of different religious groups: as we have

seen, there is some reference to Christians, and to Muslims but most chapters are pervaded

by a suggestion that the normative Indian is Hindu. If Muslim characters find mention

there is a sense in which this is so precisely because they are constructed as the Other of

this normative Indian. For instance, there is no significant representation of or even

reference to Sikhs, Buddhists or Jains because they do not fall into this category. This

silence cuts at the very heart ofthe secular ideal: for ifthe idea of a multi faith India is not

represented, it has quite different implications for the visibility of the minorities it does

include.

Similarly the space and cultures which are delineated are curiously uniform. Despite the

fact that these books are from two opposite ends of the country (UP and Kerala), states

which possess distinctly different regional cultures, there are scarcely any differences in

theme and little which arises from the local. In the need to emphasize the national, there is

a refusal to recognise the specificity of local myth, culture, people or knowledge.

Finally, the representation of the national movement and its great leaders silences not only

local history but also the contribution of a vast majority of subaltern groups. Ranajit

Guha's attack on elitist ideology in History, could be extended to the historical common

sense which English textbooks also structure:

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the poverty of this historiography is demonstrated beyond doubt by its failure to understand and assess the mass articulation of this nationalism except, negatively, as a law and order problem, and positively, if at all, either as a response to the charisma of certain elite leaders or in the currently more fashionable terms of vertical mobilisation by the manipulation of factions. (Guha : 1982 :3)

Such an interpretation is visible in the various chapters on Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, Gokhle,

or Indira Gandhi. Its silencing of the role of the subaltern classes gives nationalism an elite

explanation which hegemonises a top-down distribution of power and activism.

In conclusion, what are we to make of the reality so carefully constructed through these

textbooks? Whose is the nation and what national culture does it embody? Both the

differences and the similarities in the answer in different decades, is a signpost to the

contours of the national imaginary in postcolonial India. Textbooks of the 60s and early

70s admit more easily to economic disparity, are less sensitive to cultural and religious

difference and more optimistic about the imminence of change and development. On the

other hand contemporary nationalism as seen in the newer textbooks seeks to assure

different communities or social groups of their significance in the project of nation-

building. The care with which rural life, religious minorities or economic planning and

disparity are dealt with, point towards the political empowerment of certain groups but

also to an increased fear of the impact of uneven development and unfulfilled expectations.

If the world they mirror is shaped by the tensions and conflicting demands of different

groups in postcolonial India, it is also apparent that many of these are silenced and

marginalized. Others are appropriated in truncated or altered form to reflect back a nation

created in a specific image. The narrow vision of postcolonial nationalism which emerges

in the textbook-dominated pedagogic structure, discourages the possibility of social

development or transformation through education.

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