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ABSTRACT
The paper aims to understand the role of school textbooks and curriculum in shaping the majority and minority identity in Tripura. Though Tripura is a tribal majority state, the partition of the country led to the influx of Bengali Hindus. Based on the sociological analysis of history and language textbooks in Tripura schools, the paper argues that the state is systematically projecting the Bengali Hindu identity as ideal and marginalising the identity of diverse tribal groups. Dominant language, religion and cultural practices of the Bengalis were celebrated whereas the linguistic diversity and spiritual pathways of the subaltern communities are either ignored or mentioned peripherally. Since the inception of formal education in Tripura, the state failed to develop the tribal languages and script which led to the ideological submission of ethnic groups to the dominant identity. Thus, Tripura witnessed an ideological shift from the multiple identities to monolithic identity works on the principle of Banglanization of the state and civil society.
Acknowledgments
This paper is an outcome of the MPhil Dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, Telangana state, India. We are indebted to the Department of Sociology, the University of Hyderabad for academic support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1. There are 19 major tribal communities in Tripura, which include Tripuri Reang Jamatia, Chakma, Halam, Mog, Munda, Noatia, Garo, Oraon, Kuki, Bhil, Santal, Uchoi, Chaimal, Khasi, Lepcha and Bhutia, see Tribal Research and Cultural Institute, “Different Tribes of Tripura.”
2. Kumar, What is Worth Teaching?
3. Durkheim, Education and Sociology.
4. Rao, “India’s Language Debates,” 63–9.
5. Sociological analysis was used within the framework of the politics of mention in textbook writing. It aims to show the contesting claims between the politics of text and social context Sociological dimension enables to unearth the implications of an authentic identities by ignoring the social diversity from the textbooks of Tripura, see Kumar, Prejudice and Pride.
6. Nystrom, “Globalization, Identities, and Diversified School Education.”
7. Maunder, “Mediational Tools in Story Construction,” 294–308.
8. Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital.”
9. Apple, Ideology and Curriculum.
10. Apple, Pedagogy and Curriculum.
11. Syal and Jindal, An Introduction to Linguistics.
12. Rao, “Language Politics in India,” 203–221.
13. Cha, “Effects of the Global System,” 19–32.
14. Tormey, “The Construction of National Identity,” 311–24.
15. Adamson and Lai, “ Curriculum in Hong Kong,” 233–46.
16. See note 4 above.
17. Kumar, Social Character of Learning.
18. Naseem and Stober, “Textbooks, Identity Politics, and Lines,” 1–9.
19. Young, Knowledge and Control.
20. Chaudhuri and Bhattacharya, Social Science.
21. Ibid.
22. The Rajmala refers to a chronicle of the Kings of Tripura.
23. Koloma implies a script which was used for the Kokborok language.
24. Ahonen, “Politics of Identity Through History Curriculum,” 179–94.
25. Philips et al., “Four Histories, One Nation?” 153–69.
26. Alvesson et al., “Identity Matters,” 5–28.
27. Cerulo, “Identity Construction,” 385–409.
28. Tripura, Chayanika for Class VIII.
29. Durkheim, Elementary Forms of Religious Life.
30. Weber, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
31. Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.
32. Sundar, N. “Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme.” Economic and Political Weekly, 39, no. 16 (2004): 1605-1612.
33. As per the 2011 census report, about 23.97 % speak Kokborok language in Tripura, see kokborokoml.tripura.gov.in.
34. Chakma National Council of India and Tripura Chakma Association, Bishnupriya Manipuri Development Samiti, Tripura Manipuri Students Existing Youth Committee and Tripura Manipuri Development Committee are the organisations who march to institutionalise the minority languages in Tripura, see Tripura Infoway, “Committees Demands to Regularize the Minority Languages.”
35. Abercrombie and Turner, The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology.
36. Gisbert, Fundamentals of Sociology.
37. See note 12 above.
38. Bimal Sashankar of Basti, Sunil Rai of Kainjalay, and Mahesh Gurung of Reilling are the three activists who died during the conflict between the civilian and the state police force.
39. The seed for the separation of Darjeeling or the demand to create Gorkhaland took shape in 1907 with the help of numerous protest. The main social actors during the movement were the Gorkhas, the Nepali-speaking population. The movement was largely associated with the identity politics, such as the linguistic-cultural issues as well as the politico-developmental project in the Himalayan foothills. See The Northeast Today and Bhattacharya and Roy, “Darjeeling on Boil,” also refer to Wenner, “Understanding Gorkhaland”; and Sarkar, Gorkhaland Movement.
40. Bhattacharya and Roy, “Darjeeling on Boil.”
41. Deepak, “The Language Problem among the Tribes of Tripura,” 1–8.
42. Krishnan, Language in a Package.
43. See note 4 above.
44. Haralambos and Holborn, Themes and Perspectives.
45. The tribal students feel their language is inferior to Bengali language, see Tripura, Educational Experiences of the Indigenous Peoples.
46. See note 4 above.
47. Benedikter, Minority Languages in India.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Fancy Jamatia
Fancy Jamatia is a Ph.D scholar. UGC-Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India.
Nagaraju Gundimeda
Prof. Nagaraju Gundimeda holds Ph.D from the University of Hyderabad (2004) India. His areas of teaching and research interest covers Sociology of India, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Youth, Sociology of Marginal Groups and Information Technology and Society. He is also a Senior Research Associate Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg- South Africa. He is author of Education and Hegemony: Social Construction of Knowledge in India in the Era of Globalization. London: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.