HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dinanath Batra (also spelled Dina Nath Batra) is the former general secretary of
Vidya Bharati Vidya Bharati (short for Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan) is the educational wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It runs one of the largest private network of schools in India, operating 12,000 schools with over 3.2 Millio ...
, the school network run by the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...
(RSS). He has also founded the educational activist organisations ''Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti'' and '' Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas''.


Personal life

Dinanath Batra was born in 1932 in
Dera Gazi Khan Dera Ghazi Khan (), abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population. Lying west of the Indus River, it is the headquarters of Dera Ghazi Khan District and ...
in Punjab, in present-day
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
in a
Punjabi Hindu Punjabi Hindus are adherents of Hinduism who identify linguistically, culturally, and genealogically as Punjabis. While Punjabi Hindus are mostly found in the Indian state of Punjab today, many have ancestry from the greater Punjab region ...
family . He worked as the headmaster of the Dayananda Anglo-Vedic School at
Dera Bassi Dera Bassi is a satellite city of Chandigarh and a municipal council in Mohali district in the state of Punjab, India. Dera Bassi is located on the Chandigarh – Delhi National Highway, 8 km from Chandigarh. It is located within 20 km ...
in
Patiala district Patiala district is one of the twenty three districts in the state of Punjab in north-west India. Patiala district lies between 38 47’ and 39 41’ north latitude, 115 58’ and 116 54' east longitude, in the southeast part of the state. I ...
,
Indian Punjab Punjab (; ) is a state in northern India. Forming part of the larger Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, the state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the north and northeast, Haryana to the south and southeast, and R ...
. In 1966, he was appointed headmaster of the Geeta Senior School in
Kurukshetra Kurukshetra (, ) is a city and administrative headquarter of Kurukshetra district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is also known as Dharmakshetra ("Realm of duty ") and as the "Land of the Bhagavad Gita". Legends According to the Pura ...
, the first school set up by the RSS. He is an
RSS pracharak The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...
.


Activism


Vidya Bharati

He was appointed as the full-time general secretary of the RSS schools network
Vidya Bharati Vidya Bharati (short for Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan) is the educational wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It runs one of the largest private network of schools in India, operating 12,000 schools with over 3.2 Millio ...
in 1990.


Notice to Sonia Gandhi

On 30 May 2001, Batra served a legal notice to
Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...
, president of the
Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
. Batra stated that a resolution passed by the
All India Congress Committee The All India Congress Committee (AICC) is the presidium or the central decision-making assembly of the Indian National Congress. It is composed of members elected from state-level Pradesh Congress Committees and can have as many as a thousan ...
at its plenary session included statements that were defamatory towards
Vidya Bharati Vidya Bharati (short for Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan) is the educational wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It runs one of the largest private network of schools in India, operating 12,000 schools with over 3.2 Millio ...
. According to Batra, the resolution had stated that textbooks used by Vidya Bharati promoted negative attitude and violence towards minorities, justified the caste system,
sati Sati or SATI may refer to: Entertainment * ''Sati'' (film), a 1989 Bengali film by Aparna Sen and starring Shabana Azmi * ''Sati'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Christopher Pike *Sati (singer) (born 1976), Lithuanian singer *Sati, a character in ''Th ...
and
child marriage Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child under a certain age – typically 18 years – and an adult or another child. * * * * The vast majority of child marriages are between a female child and a ma ...
as being a part of Indian culture, and contained superstitions and concocted facts inimical to
scientific temper The term scientific temper is broadly defined as "a modest open-minded temper—a temper ever ready to welcome new light, new knowledge, new experiments, even when their results are unfavourable to preconceived opinions and long-cherished theor ...
.


Litigation against NCERT

In 2006, Batra filed a
Public Interest Litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...
against the
National Council of Educational Research and Training The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India which was established in 1961 as a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Registration Act. Its head ...
(NCERT), in which he raised 70 objections about the contents of secondary school history and social science textbooks. Some objections were based on the argument that
Lala Lajpat Rai Lala Lajpat Rai (28 January 1865 - 17 November 1928) was an Indian author, freedom fighter, and politician. He played a vital role in the Indian Independence movement. He was popularly known as Punjab Kesari. He was one of the three members of ...
,
Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak (; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (pronunciation: eʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək; 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: ''Lokmānya''), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence a ...
,
Bipin Chandra Pal Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “L ...
,
Aurobindo Ghosh Sri Aurobindo (born Aurobindo Ghose; 15 August 1872 – 5 December 1950) was an Indian philosopher, yogi, maharishi, poet, and Indian nationalist. He was also a journalist, editing newspapers such as ''Vande Mataram''. He joined the ...
, and
Bhagat Singh Bhagat Singh (27 September 1907 – 23 March 1931) was a charismatic Indian revolutionary* * who participated in the mistaken murder of a junior British police officer * * in what was to be retaliation for the death of an Indian nationa ...
had been wrongly described as "militants". Another objection was to statements that
Indo Aryans Indo-Aryan peoples are a diverse collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples speaking Indo-Aryan languages in the Indian subcontinent. Historically, Aryan were the Indo-European languages , Indo-European Pastoralism, pastor ...
, including
Brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
s, had consumed beef as a part of their diet in ancient times. Batra stated that this was a falsehood, and that cows had been worshiped in India since
Vedic times The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (ca. 1300–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, betw ...
. The Delhi High Court directed NCERT to form a committee to study the objections. A three-member committee concluded that of the 70 pieces of content that had been objected to, 37 had already been replaced by that year, 29 were to remain unchanged, and 4 were to be modified. The committee declined to modify the statement about Indo-aryans eating beef, stating that it was factual. However, this statement was later removed from the textbooks, as a result of a decision taken by the NCERT under the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005. The process has been started by Jagmohan Singh Rajput, once an RSS member, in 2003 but it took longer than expected.


Opposition to sex education

On 15 May 2007, acting on the advice of Batra, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
Shivraj Singh Chouhan Shivraj Singh Chouhan (born 5 March 1959), is an Indian politician and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the 17th and current Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, having been elected to the same position 3 times in the past, and a Member ...
removed
sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual acti ...
from the state curriculum on the grounds that it offended Indian values. Batra suggested that
yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...
be added to the curriculum instead of sex education. This view was criticised by S. Anandhi, a scholar of gender issues, who wrote that sex-education was aimed at combating
child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...
, and controlling the spread of
HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
by encouraging safe sexual practices. She also stated that fundamentalist organisations were attempting to repress sexuality. Later that year, Batra wrote a letter on behalf of the ''Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti'', which stated that parents can possibly book instructors on the charge of "outraging the modesty of a woman or dishonouring a person."


Petition against Ramanujan's essay

In 2008, Batra petitioned the Delhi High Court on behalf of ''Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti'', seeking the removal of
A.K. Ramanujan Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan (16 March 1929 – 13 July 1993) was an Indian poet and scholar of Indian literature and Linguistics. Ramanujan was also a professor of Linguistics at University of Chicago. Ramanujan was a poet, scholar, Lingui ...
's essay, '' Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation'', from the Delhi University's history syllabus. The essay discusses the many texts and presentations of the
Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
that appear across the globe. In response to the petition, the university set up a committee of experts to study the essay. The committee found nothing controversial about the work, and this sentiment was echoed by outside scholars. However, the university's academic council decided to remove the essay from the syllabus, in a move that was widely criticised by scholars, but welcomed by a narrow section academics in Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti.


Legal notices to authors

On 3 March 2010, Batra sent a legal notice to
Wendy Doniger Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (born November 20, 1940) is an American Indologist whose professional career has spanned five decades. A scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions, her major works include, 'The Hindus: an alternative history'; ' ...
,
Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...
USA and the Penguin India subsidiary, raising several objections on the book '' The Hindus: An Alternative History'' by Doniger. In 2011, Batra filed suit against Doniger and Penguin Publishing under
Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code lays down the punishment for the deliberate and malicious acts, that are intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs. It is one of the Hate speech laws i ...
, which punishes acts intended to cause outrage or offend the sentiments of religious communities. In February 2014, pursuant to a settlement agreement, Penguin India withdrew all unsold copies of the book and pulped them, leading to sharp criticism. Later, that year he also sent a legal notice to
N. Ram Narasimhan Ram (born 4 May 1945) is an Indian journalist and a prominent member of the Kasturi family that controls The Hindu Group of publications. Ram was the managing-director of ''The Hindu'' since 1977 and its editor-in-chief since 27 Ju ...
, the editor of
Frontline magazine ''Frontline'' is a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications headquartered in Chennai, India. Vaishna Roy is the editor of the magazine. It is a news and views magazine that provides in-depth coverage o ...
, for printing a cover article titled ''Shortcut to Hindu Rashtra''. On 3 March 2014, Batra sent a legal notice to the Aleph Book Company demanding that another book by Wendy Doniger, ''On Hinduism'', be withdrawn. In May 2014, academic publisher Orient Blackswan halted the release of a book, ''Communalism and Sexual Violence: Ahmedabad since 1969'' by Megha Kumar, after it received a legal notice from Batra claiming the book is defamatory and derogatory to the RSS. The publisher in a letter to the author explained that it was assessing the book before the release. The publisher also put another book, ''From Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India'' by Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, under review after his notice.


Textbook authorship

On 30 June 2014, the
Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
government of
Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
issued a circular, declaring six text books written by Batra to be part of the state education curriculum as supplementary literature. Originally written in
Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
, the books were translated into
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
, and were released by
Bhupendrasinh Chudasama Bhupendrasinh was Cabinet Education Minister (Primary, Secondary and Adult), Higher and Technical Education, Law and Justice, Legislative and Parliamentary affairs, Salt Industry, Cow-Breeding and Civil Aviation in the Second Vijay Rupani ca ...
, the state education minister, who stated that they were compulsory. Batra has indicated that the initiative for using the books came from the
Narendra Modi government The premiership of Narendra Modi began on 26 May 2014 with his swearing-in as the prime minister of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. He became the 14th Prime Minister of India, succeeding Manmohan Singh of the Indian National Congress. Modi' ...
in Gujarat, and the books carry a foreword from Modi. The books among other things, asserted that cars were invented in ancient India and urged students to draw the geographic map of an ''Akhand Bharat'', that includes countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. They received severe criticism from historians as well as the popular press. Historian
Romila Thapar Romila Thapar (born 30 November 1931) is an Indian historian. Her principal area of study is ancient India, a field in which she is pre-eminent. Quotr: "The pre-eminent interpreter of ancient Indian history today. ... " Thapar is a Professor ...
stated that the books contained "not history, but fantasy."
Irfan Habib Irfan Habib (born August 10, 1931) is an Indian historian of ancient and medieval India, following the methodology of Marxist historiography in his contributions to economic history. He identifies as a Marxist and is well known for his strong ...
, another prominent historian, described them as "hilarious but scary". He said that the books were being introduced as part of a political program, and also stated that "The point here is whether the person has any semblance of scholarship, any track record." On 1 August, the local
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
division in
Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...
protested the books by burning their covers. The city's
BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...
unit criticized the act and called it an insult to the national leaders as the covers had pictures of some national leaders.


Appointment to Haryana education committee

On 12 November 2014, the newly elected BJP government of
Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
state announced that Batra would be appointed to a new committee of educationalists. The committee would consist of retired teachers and professors from the state.


NCERT Textbook objections

In July 2017, he submitted another list of objections against the NCERT textbooks on various subjects.


Publications

* ''The Enemies of Indianisation: The Children of Marx, Macaulay and Madarasa'', 2001 *


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Batra, Dinanath Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks Living people Indian schoolteachers Hindutva Sangh Parivar 1930 births People from Rajanpur District 20th-century Indian educational theorists