The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been in power in Delhi state since 2015 and against all expectations, has bested the BJP juggernaut in two legislative assembly elections (2015 and 2019) with K-12 education upgradation serving as a major electoral plank, has introduced a Deshbhakti (patriotism) curriculum which will be taught in its 1,028 government schools statewide. On September 28, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal launched this curriculum to mark the 114th birth anniversary of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, the nationally revered revolutionary freedom fighter.

Delhi government school: new oral tradition subject

The objective of the new curriculum is to achieve eight learning outcomes — self-awareness, self-confidence, problem-solving, practising constitutional values, pluralism and diversity, environmental sustainability, ethical social behaviour, and collaboration and social/civic responsibility. “Our effort is to make children self-aware and transform their patriotism into a flame. Our aim is to make students good citizens, good professionals, nation builders, respectful to women and against crime,” said Kejriwal, speaking on the occasion.

The curriculum is approved by SCERT (State Council of Educational Research & Training) and will be introduced in all classes of 1,028 state government schools, when they re-open after the pandemic lockdown. It will comprise histories of freedom fighters and include other patriotic literature and song lyrics. There will be one Deshbhakti period of 40 minutes daily for nursery-VIII students, and two periods per week for students in classes IX-XII. Significantly, no textbooks nor exams are prescribed. Deshbhakti classes will be of the oral and group learning tradition with students encouraged to develop respect for flag and country.

Adhitya Iyer, a well-known Mumbai-based motivational speaker and author of The Great Indian Obsession: The Untold Story of India’s Engineers (2015) believes this initiative of the AAP government is worthy of emulation by other states. “Globally the sense of nationship is reducing, not only in India. Therefore, the timing and intent of the initiative is brilliant. It will motivate children and create a sense of nationality and pride in them,” he says.

However, activist lawyer and president of the All India Parents’ Association, Ashok Agarwal is less than impressed and warns that the oral tradition Deshbhakti curriculum can be selectively taught by ruling parties in the state to brainwash impressionable young children. “With most children having lost almost a year of learning due to the pandemic lockdown of education institutions, the focus of the state government should be remedial education in core subjects — language, science, maths and humanities — rather than waste time on exotic subjects such as happiness and patriotism. Patriotism can be misused by future governments to confuse and brainwash children,” warns Agarwal. However, academics in the national capital don’t accord much importance to this new initiative of the AAP government. According to them, the informal pedagogy recommended for teaching the new subject is a clear sign that it’s a political gambit rather than a serious academic programme. “With the ruling Congress party in disarray in Punjab following the ouster of chief minister Amarinder Singh, AAP has emerged as a formidable force in the Punjab legislative assembly election scheduled to be held in February-March 2022. The AAP leadership’s newly discovered love of patriotism is to counter BJP which never missed a chance to trumpet its patriotic credentials. It’s a political gambit,” says a Delhi University professor, who preferred to remain anonymous.

Nevertheless, Agarwal’s warning of political parties using this curriculum to serve their own needs is apposite. The BJP version of a Deshbhakti curriculum is certain to be very different from other political parties. It’s useful to bear in mind British philosopher and litterateur Samuel Johnson (1709- 84) who famously said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Also read: Delhi to have its own school education board: CM Kejriwal