The Union government has denied the State’s demand for a relook at a recent recommendation of an education panel to substitute India with Bharat in school textbooks saying the Constitution recognises both names.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan clarified the Union government’s stance in a reply to a letter from State Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty.
Mr. Pradhan said the Constitution recognised both ‘India’ and ‘Bharat’ as the country’s official names that could be used interchangeably. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education, acknowledged this spirit as enshrined in the Constitution and did not differentiate between the two.
