Why in news?
The University Grants Commission (UGC) document on Learning Outcomes-based Curriculum Framework (LOCF), 2021 for undergraduate education in history begins" with the declaration: “History, as we all know, is a vital source to obtain knowledge about a nation’s soul.
About the document
- The document seeks to create a student body that will compete globally and be aware of its glorious past — one that will create a student body that will compete globally and be aware of its glorious past one that will reclaim its history as it takes its rightful place in the new global order.
- It argues that a “new narrative” about the nation needs to emerge through a dialogue between the past and the present.
- The document is a policy directive to mould undergraduate history education to these ends.
The idea of Bharat
- The LOCF makes an argument for inculcating “national pride”.
- The first paper of the course is titled the ‘Idea of Bharat’ and seeks to study the “primitive life and cultural status of the people of ancient India”.
- The five units of the course cover the concept of Bharatvarsha; Indian knowledge traditions, art and culture; dharma, philosophy and ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’; science, environment and medical sciences; and Indian economic traditions.
- The course sits separate from the paper on ancient India (from the earliest time to 550 CE) while exploring ancient philosophical, cultural and material traditions under the umbrella of the term Bharat.
- The course presents Bharatvarsha as an “eternal” concept, as an originary moment of the nation that lies in its ancient past.
- Bharat is an exclusionary concept with little space for land and people south of the Vindhyas, or from the east and the northeast.
Source: The Hindu
