September 13, 2002	Friday	Rajab 5, 1423

NEW DELHI, Sept 12: India’s supreme court opened the way on Thursday for a new school curriculum that critics say could inject a religious bias into education and undermine the country’s secular character foundation.

A three-judge bench rejected a public interest petition opposing the new syllabus, saying the study of religions did not contravene India’s secular constitution.

Critics have accused the Hindu nationalist-led coalition government of trying to insert its ideology into school textbooks and rewrite history in a way labelled the “saffronisation” of education.

Saffron is the colour traditionally associated with Hinduism.

But the court led by Justice M.B. Saha said the constitution did not ban religious study in schools. “Students should know about their own religion and religions of others,” it said.

Critics of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which sprang from obscurity in the 1980s on the back of a Hindu revivalist campaign have long accused the party of a deep-seated bias against India’s minority Muslims.

The BJP has faced a storm of criticism at home and abroad for its handling of India’s worst sectarian violence in a decade in which at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the western state of Gujarat.

The petition filed by social activists said the curriculum written by a government-appointed body “is skewed and has been carried out with an intent to present a very lopsided view of India’s history and culture”.

Critics say the syllabus extols Hindu civilisation and achievements and downplays the accomplishments of the country’s Muslim conquerors.

The new syllabus includes references to ancient Hindu scriptures such as the Vedas and Vedic mathematics and recommends compulsory teaching in schools of Sanskrit, described as the mother of all Indian languages.

The court, while upholding the new curriculum, cautioned against any “personal prejudice, religious dogmas and superstitions” creeping into the curriculum.

States have the freedom to fashion their own curriculum under India’s federal structure, but the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) — which wrote the controversial syllabus — acts as a guide for the states.

“We are happy the allegations of bias against us have been been proved baseless,” said NCERT director J.S.Rajput. “What we’re advocating is education about religions and not religious education,” he said.—Reuters