FAQ

Pedagogical Curricula and Educational Media: The Malignancy of Saffronised Otherisation in India

Publication date: 04.12.2020

Zoon Politikon, 2020, 11/2020, pp. 146 - 199

https://doi.org/10.4467/2543408XZOP.20.006.13008

Authors

Titas Biswas
Department of Sociology, Jadavpur University, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-4393 Orcid
All publications →

Titles

Pedagogical Curricula and Educational Media: The Malignancy of Saffronised Otherisation in India

Abstract

Saffronisation, a neologism that is derived from the saffron robes worn in particular by holy Hindu men, is used to denote the conflation of linguistic, semiotic and political actions taken by the far-right Hindu nationalist brotherhood in India to mechanically alter Indian history so that it resonates with the rest of the Hindu nationalist propaganda and policymaking. The process of Saffronisation, when coupled with westernised pedagogical curricula, has been inculcated within and beyond the periphery of educational institutions since the early twentieth century. While education in India has remained a concentrated resource in the hands of the communities that constitute the upper castes within the social hierarchy, the exclusivity of available academic resources and intellectual capital in the hands of a selected few has come off as the result of intersectional crises that collectively act as a bridge in connecting class and caste politics. This paper explores the impact of Saffronisation as a socio-political movement on educational institutions, the changes that have been made in textbooks in the recent times and in a holistic sense, attempts to analyse the effects of a neo-Fascist governance on schooling and how it affects students hailing from backgrounds that have been marginalised for generations. It is also an exploration of the role of the saffron propaganda in enabling otherisation of non-Hindu identities in higher education institutions.

References

Amnesty International. (2019, June 30). Halt the Hate. An interactive website that documents reports of alleged hate crimes in India. https://amnesty.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Halt-The-Hate-KeyFindings-Amnesty-International-India-1.pdf

Ambikar, R. (2008). Educating the Nation: The Right Way to Citizenship in India. UCVF Research Review, 2(1):, 114-128. http://journals.ufv.ca/rr/RR21/article-PDFs/ambikar.pdf

Ambikar, R. (2012). Embodying the Enemy: Muslim Students in Right Wing Hindu Schools. Anthropology News, 53(7), 52-53. https://www.academia.edu/1968525/Embodying_the_Enemy

Anderson, W. (1972). The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh: I: Early Concerns. Economic and Political Weekly, 7(11), 589+591-597. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4361126

Antidote to Self-Oblivion. (2012, October 22). Vision and Mission. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Retrieved, September 02, 2020, from https://www.rss.org//Encyc/2012/10/22/rss-vision-and-mission.html

Apparasu, S.R. (2017, March 27). JNU ‘suicide’: Dalit Scholar was Rohith Vemula’s Friend at Hyderabad University. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi/jnu-suicide-dalit-scholarwas-rohith-vemula-s-friend-at-hyderabad-university/story-Ba5TSwFTXgmIyQKnkWGWoL.html

As it happened: Masked goons strike terror in JNU, none arrested. (2020, January 05). The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/live-updates-jnu-students-attackedinside-campus-byabvp-activists/article30486246.ece

Awards and Honours received by Chancellor Amma. (Undated). Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Official Website. Retrieved, November 14, 2020, https://www.amrita.edu/amma/awards-honors

Bakaya, A. (2004). Lessons from Kurukshetra: RSS Project in Education. [In:] A. Vaugier-Chatterjee (Eds.), Education and Democracy in India (pp. 27-54). New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and French Research Institute in India.

Baker, D.E.U. (1979). Changing Political Leadership in an Indian province: the Central Provinces and Berar, 1919-1939. New York: Oxford University Press.

Bapu, P. (2012). Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial North India, 1915- 1930. London: Routledge.

Basu, D. (2019a). Dominance of Majoritarian Politics and Hate Crimes against Religious Minorities in India, 2009–2018. UMass Amherst  Economics Working Papers, 272, 1-83. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1274&context=econ_workingpaper

Basu, D. (2019b, October 17). UMass Economist Finds Hate Crimes Against Religious Minorities in India Increased 300% Following Rise of Hindu Nationalist Party BJP. News Archive, UMass Amherst. https://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/umass-economist-findshate-crimes-against

Basu, T., Datta, P., Sarkar, S., Sarkar, T., Sen, S. (1993). Khaki Shorts Saffron Flags: A Critique of the Hindu Right. New Delhi: Orient Longman.

Bates, C. (1995). Race, Caste and Tribe in Central India: The Early Origins of Indian Anthropometry. Edinburgh Papers in South Asian

Studies, 3, 2-35. http://www.csas.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/38426/BATES_RaceCaste_and_Tribe.pdf

Bhatia, A. (2015). The ‘saffronisation’ of India and Contemporary Political ideology. World Englishes, 39(4), 568-580. DOI: 10.1111/weng.12494

Bose, P. (2008). Hindutva Abroad: The California Textbook Controversy. The Global South, 2(1), 11-34. DOI: 10.2979/GSO.2008.2.1.11

Casolari, M. (2000). Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s: Archival Evidence. Economic and Political Weekly, 35(4), 218-228. DOI: 10.2307/4408848

Casolari, M. (2002). Role of Benares in Constructing Political Hindu Identity. Economic and Political Weekly, 37(15), 1413-1420. DOI:10.2307/4411986

Casolari, M. (2011). In the Shade of the Swastika: The Ambiguous Relationship between Indian Nationalism and Nazi-Fascism. Bologna: I Libri di Imil.

Chauhan, M. (2010). Gender Construction through Religious Narrative in Saraswati Śiśu Mandir School. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 71, 1189-1195.

Chauhan, M. (2013). Socialization in a Patriarchal Regime: An Analysis of Saraswati Shishu Mandir School Text-books. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 74, 988-992.

Chauhan, N. (2020, February 28). Delhi riots: Face-off between Bhim Army, CAA backers a trigger. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/delhi-riots-face-off-between-bhimarmy-caa-backers-a-trigger/story-iYMqbEZjVNcXY3kzjxw8OO.html

Committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education. (2005). Regulatory Mechanisms for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught In Schools outside the Government System. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/document-reports/textbooks.pdf

Cotteril, S., Sidanius, J., Bhardwa, A., Kumar, V. (2014). Ideological Support for the Indian Caste System: Social Dominance Orientation, Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Karma. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 98-115. DOI:10.5964/jspp.v2i1.171

Dahat, P. (2020, July 28). NIA Arrests DU Professor Hany Babu in Elgar Parishad Case. Huffington Post. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/nia-arrests-du-professor-hany-babu-in-elgar-parishad-case_in_5f202af6c5b69fd47311ed28

Dasgupta, P. (2018, June 13). After Bypoll Losses, BJP Is Training 2 Lakh 'Cyber Sena' For Its IT Cell In Uttar Pradesh. Huffington Post. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2018/06/13/after-bypoll-lossesbjp-is-training-2-lakh-cyber-sena-for-its-it-cell-in-uttar-pradesh_a_23457592/

Delaney, B. (2019, April 18). Hugging the hugging Saint: Amma made others cry but it was different for me. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/19/hugging-the-hugging-saint-amma-made-others-cry-but-it-was-different-for-me

Deshpande, R. (2002, September 30). Supreme Court ruling vindicates HRD Minister M.M. Joshi's stand on school curriculum. India Today.https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/nation/story/20020930-supreme-court-ruling-vindicates-hrd-minister-m.m.-joshi-standon-school-curriculum-796208-2002-09-30

Dirks, B.N. (2001). Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Dixit, N. (2013, 18 January). Holier Than Cow: Wisdom on women from a Rashtra Sevika Sangh camp. Outlook India. https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/holier-than-cow/283593

Figueira, D.M. (2012). Aryans and the Brahminization of Theory: Identity Politics East and West, Past and Present. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 32(3), 511-522. DOI:10.1215/1089201X-1891534

Forensic Analysis Finds Same Gun Used to Kill Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi (2017, September 14). The Wire. https://thewire.in/uncategorised/forensic-analysis-finds-gunused-kill-gauri-lankesh-m-m-kalburgi

Froerer, P. (2007a). ‘Disciplining the Saffron Way: Moral Education and the Hindu Rashtra’. Modern Asian Studies, 41(5), 1033-1071. DOI:10.1017/S0026749X06002587

Froerer, P. (2007b). Religious Division and Social Conflict: The Emergence of Hindu Nationalism in Rural India. London and New York: Routledge.

Golwalkar, M.S. (1939). We or Our Nationhood Defined. Nagpur: Bharat Publications Nagpur.

Goyal, D.R. (1979). Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Delhi: Radha Krishna Prakashan.

Gupta, S., Chattarji, S. (2019). Protests, repression, restructuring: contemplating Indian higher education in 2018. Postcolonial Studies, 22(1), 117-130. DOI: 10.1080/13688790.2019.1568175

Guru, G. (2000). Dalits from Margin to Margin. India International Centre Quarterly, 27(2), 111-116.

Hardiman, D. (2007). Purifying the nation: The Arya Samaj in Gujarat 1895–1930. The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 44(1), 41-65. DOI:10.1177/001946460604400103

Hussain, T. (2020, January 02). ‘How is it human?’: India’s largest detention centre almost ready. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/1/2/how-is-it-human-indias-largest-detention-centrealmost-ready

India unemployment rate highest in 45 years: Report. (2019, 31 January).

Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2019/01/31/indiaunemployment-rate-highest-in-45-years-report/

Iwanek, K. (2015). The Textbook of Chanakya's Pupils. Vidya Bharati and Its Gauravśālī Bharat Textbook in Uttarakhand. Archiv Orientální, 83(2), 255-280.

Jaffrelot, C. (1996). The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India. New York: Columbia University Press.

Jaffrelot, C. (2008a). Hindu Nationalism and the Social Welfare Strategy. Seva Bharati as an Education Agency. [In:] The Sangh Parivar: A Reader (pp. 211-224). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Jaffrelot, C. (2008b). Hindu Nationalism and the (Not So Easy) Art of Being Outraged: The Ram Setu Controversy. South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 2, 1-17. DOI:10.4000/samaj.1372

Jha, D.N. (2001). The Myth of the Holy Cow. New Delhi: Matrix Books. Lal, V. (2006). The History of History, Politics and Scholarship in Modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Manjrekar, N. (2011). Ideals of Hindu girlhood: Reading Vidya Bharati’s Balika Shikshan. Childhood, 18(3), 350-366.

Mathur, S. (2008). The Everyday Life of Hindu Nationalism. Gurgaon: Three Essays Collective.

Monier-Williams, M. (1872). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and philologically arranged with special reference to Cognate Indo-European languages. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

Meadowcroft, K. (2006). The All-India Hindu Mahasabha, untouchable politics, and ‘denationalising’ conversions: the Moonje–Ambedkar Pact. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 29(1), 9-41. DOI:10.1080/00856400600550781

M.N., P. (2016, March 01). Controversial student activists turn India’s universities into ideological battlegrounds. LA Times. https://www.latimes.com/world/asia/la-fg-india-student-activists- 20160301-story.html

Nambissan, G.B. (1996). Equity in Education? Schooling of Dalit Children in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 31(16/17), 1011-1024.

Nandini. (2020, July 09). CBSE syllabus: Secularism, Nationalism, GST, foreign relations among chapters dropped, full list here. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/cbse-syllabus-secularism-nationalism-gst-foreign-relations-among-chaptersdropped-full-list-here/story-QhATDgnKW00WHAa6jyTnyH.html

NCERT. (2005). India and the Contemporary World – I. Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2006). Indian Constitution at Work. Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2007). Themes in World History. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2011). Themes in Indian History Part – I, II and III. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2013a). Contemporary India – II. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2013b). Democratic Politics – II. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2013c). India and the Contemporary World – II. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and NCERT. (2006). Indian Constitution at Work. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2014a). Contemporary India – I. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2014b). Political Theory. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

NCERT. (2015). Democratic Politics – I. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

एनसीईआरटी. (2012). Kṣitij Bhag 2. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training

एनसीईआरटी. (2015). Kṣitij Bhag 1. New Delhi: National Council of Education Research and Training.

National Education Policy. (2020). Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf

Interview of NV62EX and NOB6E3 conducted by Titas Biswas. Oral  History Summaries used after obtaining special permission from The 1947 Partition Archive.

Pandey, G. (2020, May 12). India Coronavirus: Pregnant student Safoora Zargar at risk in jail. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52608589

Pansare murder Chargesheet: ‘Teen saw Sanatan member on crime spot’. (2015, December 15). The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/pansare-murder-chargesheet-arrested-sanatan-member-was-on-crime-spot-cops/

Patnaik, P. (2017). Caste, Community and Belonging: The Indian Case. Social Scientist, 45(1/2), 73-79.

Pradhan, B. (2020, February 26). Millions in India Could End Up in Modi’s New Detention Camps. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-modi-india-detention-camps/

Puniyani, R. (2003). Beef Eating: Strangulating History. Countercurrents. https://www.countercurrents.org/comm-puniyani150803.htm

Rajeshwari, B. (2007). Pedagogy and the Construction of Communal Identity in Children: The Case of Shishu Mandirs in Gujarat. Child Rights and You. https://www.cry.org/resources/pdf/NCRRF/B.Rajeshwari_2007_Report.pdf

Ramanathan, K. (2020, January 21). In India What We Are Seeing Are Symptoms of Fascism: Noam Chomsky. Countercurrents. https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/in-india-what-we-are-seeing-is-the-symptoms-of-fascism-noam-chomsky/

Roychowdhury, A. (2018, January 03). Battle of Koregaon: Why the Dalits hate Peshwas and celebrate this British ‘victory’. Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/research/battle-of-koregaon-dalits-mahar-maratha-peshwa-maharashtra-protests-5010172/

Rehman, S. (2017, February 14). Rohith is the 23rd Dalit student suicide in institutes like AIIMS and IITs. Catch News.http://www.catchnews.com/national-news/blood-on-books-rohith-vemula-s-is-the-23rd-dalit-student-suicide-in-under-a-decade-bandaru-dattatreya-abvp-bjp-rahul-gandhi-thorat-committeecaste-1453210563.html

Richey, J.A. (1923). Progress of Education in India: Eighth Quinquennial Review Vol I. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing India.

RSS: The Mission. (2012, October 22). Vision and Mission. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Retrieved September 01, 2020, https://www.rss.org//Encyc/2012/10/22/rss-vision-and-mission.html

Sarkar, T. (2005). Educating the Children of Hindu Rashtra. [In:] C. Jaffrelot (Eds.), The Sangh Parivar: A Reader (pp. 197-206). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Sarkar, S. (2020, November 21). Delhi riots: Student-activist Gulfisha Fatima granted bail. Hindustan Times. https://www.hindustantimes.com/delhi-news/delhi-riots-student-activist-gulfishafatima-granted-bail/story-UqsLO2n0xJfnovVTttSdwJ.html

Sen, S. (2015, September 22). No strong evidence against Sanatan Sanstha, says BJP leader RK Singh. News18. https://www.news18.com/news/politics/no-strong-evidence-against-sanatansanstha-says-bjp-leader-rk-singh-1108360.html

Shantha, S. (2019, September 27). Four Months After Payal Tadvi’s Death, Family Claims Her Belongings From Hospital. The Wire.https://thewire.in/caste/four-months-after-payal-tadvis-deathfamily-claims-her-belongings-from-hospital

Sharma, K. (2018, July 27). Nearly 57% of India’s teaching faculty belong to general category, STs Least represented. The Print. https://theprint.in/india/governance/57-of-indias-teaching-faculty-belong-to-general-category-sts-least-represented/89546

Sharma, K. (2019, February 13). Diversity deficit in IIMs, IITs — just 23 STs and 157 SCs in 9,640 Faculty Posts. The Print. https://theprint.in/india/education/diversity-deficit-in-iims-iits-just-23-stsand-157-scs-in-9640-faculty-posts/191246/

Shirer, W.L. (1961). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York, NY: Rosetta Books LLC.

Singh, Divyesh. (2015, October 06). Sanatan Sanstha proposes workshops for teachers to promote ‘good behaviour’. Mumbai Mirror. https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/other/sanatansanstha-proposes-workshops-for-teachers-to-promote-good-behaviour/articleshow/49237538.cms

Subramanian, A. (2019). The Caste of Merit: Engineering Education in India. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.

Sukumar, N. (2013). Quota’s Children: The Perils of Getting Educated. [in:] Beyond Inclusion: The Practice of Equal Access in Indian Higher Education. (Eds.) Deshpande, S., Zacharias, U. (pp. 205- 221). New Delhi: Routledge.

Sundar, N. (2004). Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme. Economic and Political Weekly, 39 (16), 1605-1612.  Sundar, N. (2005). Teaching to Hate: The Hindu Right’s Pedagogical Program. Revolution and Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary and Transnational Perspectives on Educational Foundations. [In:] E.T. Ewing (Eds.), Revolution and Pedagogy: Interdisciplinary and Transnational Perspectives on Educational Foundations (pp. 195-218). New York and Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Taskin, B. (2020, August 04). DU professor Apoorvanand questioned by police for 3 hrs over Delhi riots, his phone seized. The Print. https://theprint.in/india/du-professor-apoorvanand-questionedby-police-for-3-hrs-over-delhi-riots-his-phone-seized/474552/197

Tewary, A. (2018, February 12). RSS can prepare an Army within three days, says Mohan Bhagwat. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/rss-can-prepare-an-armywithin-3-days-mohan-bhagwat/article22727198.ece

Theatre blast convicts get 10 years in jail. (2011, August 31). The Hindu.https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/theatreblast-convicts-get-10-years-in-jail/article2412137.ece

Thomas, R. (2020, February 08). Brahmins as Scientists and Science as Brahmins’ Calling: Caste in an Indian Scientific Research Institute. Public Understanding of Science, 29(3), 306-318. DOI: 10.1177/0963662520903690

Thomas, S. (2019). Difference and Dissent in the Neoliberal University: Relational Geographies of Race, Caste, and Violence. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1-13. DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2019.1655636

UP BJP to set up 'cyber sena' of 200,000 social media experts to tap voters. (2019, November 19). Press Trust of India (PTI).  https://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/up-bjp-to-setup-cyber-sena-of-200-000-social-media-experts-to-tap-voters-118061200671_1.html

Vidya Bharati Selected as Vanguard Member by the International Development Innovation Alliance IDIA for its Million Lives Club. (2020, April 03). Press Trust of India (PTI). https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/business/2019/10/24/pwr6--vidya%20bharati.html

Visweswaran, K., Witzel, M., Manjrenkar, N., Bhog. D, and Chakravarti, U. (2009). The Hindutva View of History: Rewriting Textbooks in India and the United States. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 10(1), 101-112.

Weinberger-Thomas, C. (1999). Ashes of Immortality: Widow-burning in India. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Yadav, V.K. (2016, June 14). Sanatan Sanstha Wanted To Raise Army of 15,000 To Target 'Anti-Hindus'. Mid-Day. https://www.midday.com/articles/sanatan-sanstha-wanted-to-raise-army-of-15000-to-target-anti-hindus/17332199

Information

Information: Zoon Politikon, 2020, 11/2020, pp. 146 - 199

Article type: Original article

Titles:

Polish:

Pedagogical Curricula and Educational Media: The Malignancy of Saffronised Otherisation in India

English:

Pedagogical Curricula and Educational Media: The Malignancy of Saffronised Otherisation in India

Authors

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-4393

Titas Biswas
Department of Sociology, Jadavpur University, India
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0462-4393 Orcid
All publications →

Department of Sociology, Jadavpur University, India

Published at: 04.12.2020

Article status: Open

Licence: CC BY-SA  licence icon

Percentage share of authors:

Titas Biswas (Author) - 100%

Article corrections:

-

Publication languages:

English