Abstract
The celebration of the nation and the state is a defining feature of school textbooks across the country. The present article aims to understand the textual means and pedagogic methods used in evolving a pan-Odia identity in the school textbooks of Odisha. The study has used Odia language and social science textbooks prescribed by the state as sources of sociological analysis. It aims to analyse patterns of regional representation, cultural and religious articulation and linguistic standardisation in constructing the ideal Odia identity. The study found that historical events, such as the Kalinga war, the Khandagiri site and the Paik rebellion have been used as memory posters. Though Odisha represents the highest form of linguistic diversity, there is an attempt to idealise Sanskritised Odia as authentic Odia which tends to delegitimise the region’s multiple dialects and tongues. The article has also noted that only the cultural and linguistic practices of the coastal region have been used as a means of defining the cultural identity of Odisha. Thus, we argue that textbooks work as an ideological state apparatus, organised on principles of recognition and de-recognition of text and traditions of languages, regions, religions and cultural pathways of caste and the adivasi community of Odisha.
Background
Over the last few years, there has been growing concern among educationalists and social scientists on how children acquire and are taught their sense of ethnic and national identities. The school plays a pivotal role in forming children’s identities and developing political and cultural socialisation of the youth (Banks & Roker, 1994). Hobsbawm (1990) highlights the role played by the school in the process of identity formation. Textbooks form a significant part of the curriculum. In fact, schools use textbooks to disseminate social and political values to cultivate political and cultural socialisation to bridge the past and the present.
States with different cultures and political agendas visualise citizenship in a ‘particularistic’ ideological framework. The school too plays an important role in mediating children’s sociocultural and ideological values. The Kothari Commission in a note to National Curriculum Framework (NCERT, 2005) suggested various guidelines to frame the school curriculum and school textbooks to cultivate a spirit of Indianness, whereby students could collectively feel proud of being Indian. The NCF (NCERT, 2005) also suggested that the state prepare a framework that gave equal importance to national and regional histories, emphasising local sensitivities. Nair (2010) in her work highlights citizenship construction in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. According to her, the primary objective of school textbooks in Pakistan is to inculcate Islamic culture and values to children thus shaping and reshaping their memory and beliefs system. The social studies textbooks in Bangladesh have used Bengali as a medium to celebrate the role of culture and civilisation of Bangladesh in the making of a new nation. Kumar (2002) has also argued that religion is used as a major tool to construct citizenship in Pakistan’s social studies textbooks.
Political parties in India are keen to use academic texts and educational institutions as key platforms of nation-building to propagate their ideology. The preparation, revision and deletion of school chapters and textbooks by successive governments are part of their larger educational and political vision on the idea of the Indian nation (Nawani, 2014). The issue of identity construction in the educational domain has been on various grounds such as culture, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, region and religion.
Though controversies on the content of textbooks have their origin in colonial times, they have received greater attention from the 1970s onwards. Interestingly, social science and history textbooks have been the main domains of such controversies mainly due to the nature of the political and sociocultural agenda of different governments (Kumar, 1992). According to Bhattacharya (2009), the right-wing government at the centre and in various states, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, has tried to promote and celebrate the idea of Hindu religion and Hindu religious philosophy by invoking the idea of a glorious ancient past in the school curriculum and school pedagogy. Bhattacharya (2009) claims that ‘temporalisation’ was not simply a question of periodisation. It has a deeper meaning and connotations. Sundar (2004) has also argued that the right idea of identity construction is done using school texts and various pedagogic activities in a school’s environment.
Recent studies by various scholars claim that left-ruled governments in different states like West Bengal and Kerala have also used textbooks as a means to introduce ideas of communism and lessons on the ideas of Karl Marx. Banerjee (2007) has argued that Sahaj Path, a Bengali reader for schools written by Rabindranath Tagore, was taken out from schools for not complying with a leftist orientation. There was also a controversy in the social studies textbook of Class VII in Kerala during the left government in 2008. A chapter entitled ‘Jeevan who has no religion’ was a problem for different religious groups, even though the topic being discussed was the issue of atheism (Devika, 2008). Jamatia and Gundemeda (2019) have argued that the ideological orientation of the authors of school textbooks reflects the politics of identity construction in the states composed of multiple religious, linguistic and social identities. They point out that it was an outcome of the intellectual community’s failure to recognise diversity that has promoted a monolithic dominant identity. Lalhruailiana’s (2013) study also claims that Biblical lessons dominating school language and social sciences textbooks in states like Nagaland and Mizoram have inculcated Christian moral and ethical values.
Studies reveal that social sciences textbooks in general and history textbooks in particular are sources of controversy across the world, not only in South Asia, but also in the various states of India and also at the national level. In the light of the contestation on the construction of textbooks, the current article attempts to examine the cultural and political agenda of textbook writings in Odisha.
Objectives of the Study
In the light of the debate on the construction of an Odia identity in school textbooks, the present article aims to analyse the defining features of an ideal Odia identity. The primary objectives of the article are to analyse the role of geography and historical events in shaping Odia nationalism and to map out the role of language, cultural and religious themes in constructing a pan-Odia identity.
Methodology
The study has used a content analysis technique to study social science and Odia language school textbooks from Class VI to Class X written in the state’s official language, Odia, to explore the manifest and latent functions of the curriculum. A quantitative and qualitative content analysis has been used to analyse spaces to understand the features and markers of Odia identity. Government and government-aided schools from Class VI to Class X in Odisha follow the same school textbooks prescribed by the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT, Odisha). Textbooks from Class I to Class VIII are prepared by the Directorate of Teacher Education and SCERT, Odisha and have undergone a process of evaluation from time to time in order to meet the needs and aspirations of society, fulfil the changing nature of markets and economy through an editorial committee and a committee on contents (Samikhyaka Mandala). The Board of Secondary Education (BSE) prepares the textbooks of Class IX and Class X in Odisha which has also undergone various changes in keeping with social–economic needs, the demands of the market and objectives of the state government. The present article focusses on textbooks prepared by the state government in 2012 and prescribed for school children. An attempt has been made to decode the overt and covert meanings of the poems, prose, stories and historical events used in these books.
Social science and Odia literature textbooks were identified as subjects that closely reflect society and sociocultural life, revealing the everyday lives and practices of school children and people and hence most appropriate for analysis. Chapters devoted to the history, society and culture of Odisha were chosen for analysis. The textbooks selected for the final analysis are Odia literature and social sciences textbooks used on Class VI to Class X, totalling a number of 10 textbooks. We looked at 92 chapters in Odia language textbooks and 48 chapters in social science textbooks in all.
To analyse the selected textbooks, the study has selected the main text of each chapter, glossary, instructions to pupils and teachers as textual data. The total number of pages analysed have been 1,389 spread across 189 chapters of 10 different textbooks. The textbooks claim that they are prepared according to the National Curriculum Framework (NCERT, 2005) and the State Curriculum Framework-2007 (SCF). The objectives of the SCF are as follows:
Linking knowledge with the outer environment Nurturing an overriding identity informed by caring concerns within the democratic policy of the country Not to confine learners only to a textbook, but aiming at the all-round development of the child
SCERT Odisha has considered the above policies while preparing school textbooks.
This study has employed Krishna Kumar’s politics-of-mention framework to understand the pedagogic inclusions of Odisha and Odia in school texts. A pedagogic mention is the defining feature of the politics-of-mention in the text on what, where, why and how one content or theme is valid and accepted as knowledge in the society.
The article is broadly divided into two sections. The first deals with the history of Odisha and the construction of Odia regional identity, whereas the second section presents critical debates on the use of language, spiritual and cultural identity as a means to project the ideal identity of Odisha.
History of Odisha
The question of identity formation is debatable and controversial in a multi-cultural and multi-religious society. It is very problematic to define and characterise various features of identity as they are always associated with multiple parameters and within the power structure of the society. In this context, an attempt has been made to understand the formation of the state of Odisha from a historical perspective.
Odisha is an Indian state situated in the eastern part of the country. According to the 2011 census, the state’s total population is more than four crore. Odisha is a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-linguistic state with a significant tribal population and primitive tribal groups. Odisha can be geographically divided into the coastal plain, western plateau and southern hills and mountains. Historically, these three regions were ruled by three different kingdoms and named differently. Cuttack, Khordha and Puri districts form coastal Odisha; Kalinga, that is, southern Odisha, comprises Utkala and western Odisha, Kosala (Mohanty, 2005). In the colonial period, coastal Odisha, western Odisha and southern Odisha were part of the Bengal, Central and the Madras provinces with Bengali, Telugu and Hindi being the official languages. The other interior parts of western, southern and northern Odisha were ruled by native rulers known as Gadjat.
In the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, there was a movement against the domination of the Bengali, Telugu and Hindi elite in the state’s machinery and some elements of discrimination against the use of Odia language in the state became visible. Language played an important role in the cultivation and the awakening of nationalism in Odisha for separate statehood and the amalgamation of Odia-speaking regions with propagating and recognising Odisha as the only language of the state. The Odia elite legitimised the rationale behind the demand for a separate state for Orissa by invoking the uniqueness of the history of Odisha. The Odia elite used Odia history, culture and language as the primary sources for the mobilisation of the elite and the masses during the colonial era. They used language as the primary force behind a separate Odia identity in the region. But a deep analysis of the changing of the state’s name from ancient Kalinga to modern Odisha signifies a complete paradigm shift in the state’s politics and policy.
Odisha was the first state formed on the basis of language on 1 April 1936. The British gave Orissa its name as the region’s people spoke the Oriya language. The name Orissa was changed to Odisha in 2011 under the 113th Constitutional amendment. Now, the state is officially called Odisha, and the language spoken is Odia. Odisha is the land of multiple languages and dialects. While Odia is the official state language, Kosli or Sambalpuri language is widely spoken in the ten districts of the western part of Odisha and Santhali, Koi, Munda and various adivasi languages predominate in south Odisha.
An attempt has been made to understand the making of ideal Odia identity through studying school textbooks. We have critically engaged with the texts that have aimed to create a sense of the idea of Odisha from a geographical, linguistic, religious and cultural perspective.
Odisha’s Geographical Identity
The background for a separate state demand dominates textbooks which aim to generate a sense of belongingness among children, the future citizens of the state and nation. The very selective inclusion of poems, proses and stories in the textbooks aim to cultivate the spirit of Odia-ness. In this article, an attempt has been made to provide an overview of the language and social sciences textbooks used and what Odisha’s religion, language, region and culture means for an Odia identity. Most social science and language school textbooks in India or any state board texts celebrate the unique pan-India identity by including various dimensions of culture, religion and so on of one nation (NCERT, 2005). At the same time, respective state governments celebrate their cultural, regional, linguistic uniqueness through school textbooks with the inclusions of regional cultures, languages and social life of people (NCERT, 2005).
The following pages critically evaluate the role of textbooks in the construction of the Odia regional identity. The poems, proses, stories, historical narratives and the geographical aspects of the textbooks have been taken as part of the analysis to understand the construction of the regional Odia identity.
Of the 130 lessons studied in the Odia language and social science textbooks, only eight chapters have been dedicated to Odisha as a unique and distinct regional and geographical identity in the country. One chapter on Odia language from Class VI, five chapters from the Odia and social science textbooks for Class VII, one chapter from Class VIII (social sciences) and one chapter from Class IX (Odia) mention Odia’s unique regional identity. The poem, Dekhinahi Kete Dinu Khandagiri [I have not seen Khandagiri for a long time] written by poet Gopabandhu Das 1 narrates the bravery, pride and ancient history of Kalinga through the site of Khandagiri. The poet tries to demonstrate the relation between the geographical region (Kalinga) and identity (Odia). The poet tries to construct the region’s knowledge by invoking the historical site to a child. So here the poet has used a historical narrative of the region to make an identity formation.
Dekhinahiketedinukhandagiri,
Iittihasajaa’raankeyankita,
Amara akshyarenirabagambhire,
Gaayejeyutkalagourabagatha.
[Rough translation: I have not visited Khandagiri caves for a long time; this site tells the glory and marker of ancient Odisha.]
In the above poem, the poet celebrates the historical site of Khandagiri known for the residing place for the Jain monks built by King Kharavel. 2 This site represents the glory, pride and bravery of the Kalinga people. The poet depicts Odisha as a powerful kingdom from the ancient period through the image of the Khandagiri site. The poet believes that the people of Odisha are historically known as a brave community in history due to their historic fight in the Kalinga war.
The poet also writes:
Mahakalanire bud budparaye, Jaiachhimissi Kalingabhuti,
Kalinga Santana bhulichhantiebe, Kalingaranamagourabasmruti
[Explanation: The poet is invoking the glory of Odisha by saying Odisha fought a decisive battle against the great king Ashoka. He appeals to the people of Odisha not to forget the glorious past of the land and feel proud of being Odia.]
The poem, Kahibi Kathati authored by Kuntala Kumara Sabat,
3
depicts the incredible history and glorious past of Odisha by invoking the valour of great kings, poets and the state’s architecture. Here, an Odia mother teaches her son to know the history of Odisha and become an ideal son of the soil. The poet writes:
Thile Badabiralekheyrajankara, Maudamanirajati, Purusottam, Bira Kharavela,
Anangabhimajajati
[Explanation: The poet highlights the mighty kings of the ancient and medieval period who have played a key role in developing the modern-day Odisha state. Here the poet has attempted to generate an Odia identity from royal leadership. The prominent rulers of this land are Kharavela, Purusottam Dev, Ananga Bhima and Jajati Kesari.]
The authors of the textbooks also use Odia literature as one of the key themes to generate Odia pride through Odia literary history. The poet invokes the significant contributions of great Odia poets responsible for developing Odia language and its literature. The literary contributions of the great poet Sarala Das, 4 the author of the Odia Mahabharata and Bilanka Ramayana, are also responsible for the emergence and the evolution of the Odia language.
The poem, Paika Badhura Uddhbodhan, authored by Krushna Chandra Tripathy
5
depicts the bravery and military skills of the Paik
6
community who were sepoys in the Khordha kingdom in medieval Odisha. The poet has highlighted the role of the Paik woman for encouraging her husband to go to war and coming back victorious. The poet has visualised Odia people as a powerful community through the image of the war-faring Paiks. The poet visualises Khordha within the Odisha frame. He conveys the geographical boundary when he mentions that Paiks were born to protect their motherland, Khordha. The poet writes:
Kemante se khandayatabadhu
Ranasinghabajaibajai
Birabese samara prangane
Aanila ta swamiresajai.
[Explanation: The poet remember the bravery and sacrifice of the Paik, a woman who prepares her husband for battle.]
The poet writes:
Tarunibakshyalagipriyatamjanmanuhaetaba
Janmabhumiramangalalagijevanadebakuheba.
[Explanation: The poet inspires the student by highlighting the courage of the Paik woman who asks her husband to sacrifice his life for the motherland.]
A chapter entitled ‘Odishare Surya Bansi Narapati Gana’ assesses the rule of the Surya dynasty (1435–1538) in Odisha and connects the decline of Odisha’s independence with the fall of the dynasty. History textbooks’ projection of the Ganga and the Surya dynasty pushes the idea that Odisha had geographically shared boundaries with other kingdoms, such as Andhra and the kingdom of Bengal. The chapter India’s Glory also has a section titled Odisha’s Glory, which highlights the independent and ancient culture of Odisha. The chapter claims that Kalinga was the most powerful state in the country circa 1000 BCE and was famous for its strong kingship and robust sea trade. It used to manage its state economy through this trade. It had distinct cultural and spiritual values which can be seen in regions like Indonesia, Sumatra and Bali.
The state government and various state agencies have attempted to construct a pan-Odia geographical identity through school textbooks. These textbooks have provided historical memories of the land and its unique geographical character. The authors of the textbooks have attempted to socialise children to learn about their region and mark a departure from the other in terms of geography. The poems, prose, short stories and historical narratives in Table 1 reflect how Odia language and social science textbooks have played a significant role in portraying Odisha as a distinct and independent region from the ancient era to the modern. It provides a historical journey of modern-day Odisha from a scattered region having small domains such as Kalinga, Kosala, Utkala to a fully integrated, large, modern state. Therefore, the state’s authors and policymakers have made a systematic attempt to depict distinct territorial markers of Odisha.
Representation of the Geographical Identity of Odisha in School Textbooks.
Source: OPEPA and the BSE, Odisha.
But the government of Odisha has only focussed on the partial history of Kalinga (coastal Odisha) and projected it as the history of Odisha by rejecting and ignoring the history and cultures of southern and western Odisha, thus in a way teaching an incomplete, partial, ignorant perspective about the past. The teachings of coastal Odisha, its historical events and personalities as Odisha history have more significant pedagogic implications to school children from both the regions. Coastal Odisha students failed to connect any historical links with western Odisha. Similarly, students from west Odisha have failed to connect with the history of coastal Odisha with their immediate history. The history of coastal Odisha history is projected as the ultimate history of the state which all students should learn and be proud of. However, it denies the existence of the Kosala region, its history and people. The systematic exclusion of historical places and the Kosala kingdom from pedagogic instruments has had a negative effect on children and the larger western Odisha society. Exclusions and alienation from school history text materials leads to disinterest, alienation, marginalisation and ultimately a feeling of inferiority about their own regional history. Except for the amalgamation of Sambalpur with coastal Odisha in 1905 and amalgamation of Gadjat regions such as Kalahandi, Balangir into Odisha, school history textbooks are conspicuously silent about western Odisha (Social Science, Class X, Chapter 10).
School textbooks have also maintained a pedagogic silence over the regions of Kosala and southern Odisha. The textbooks have maintained an epistemic silence on the role and presence of Kosala and southern regions in the ancient, medieval and modern history of Odisha. Many personalities and icons have celebrated their heroic deeds against British colonialism, among them Jayraj Guru, Bauxi Jagabadhu Vidyadhar Mahapatra and so on. Many poems and stories in Odia are dedicated to these heroes. However, Veer Surendra Sai, the revolutionary from Sambalpur and tribal leader and freedom fighter Laxman Nayak have only two poems dedicated to them. Nayak is presented as a stereotype in textbooks, simply as a hero of the adivasis, whereas other freedom fighters and great leaders are celebrated as state icons and regionally significant figures. People like Gopalbandhu Das, Madhusudan Das and Nilamani Raoutrai, active during the freedom struggle, are praised through numerous poems that form parts of school textbooks on history. But poetry and prose from western and southern regions are hardly given any place in the Odia language text. Bhima Bhoi, a saint poet from Odisha, is mentioned in the Odia nationalism section in the social science textbooks but only in the context of how his philosophical values have helped to create and cultivate the nationalist spirit in Odisha. So a great poet is not even given a page in the textbooks dealing with social sciences and Odia literature.
Framing Linguistic Identity in Schools
Language and identity have a symbiotic relationship in most societies. Language plays an important medium for identity expression. A key aspects of human life and interaction, it plays a key role in the schools’ functioning. But which language should be the official language and which language should be the medium of instruction in government and government-aided schools, used in textbooks and the supplementary materials written for the school children, depends on the government’s language policy. In a multi-linguistic country like India with diverse linguistic communities, everybody wants their language to be recognised and respected. Nevertheless, all the languages get privileged for recognition.
Languages in Odisha
Odia is the official language of the state, and it is predominately spoken across the state. But people in the western and the southern part of Odisha speak a different language from coastal Odisha. The Odia language (Kataki) is spoken in coastal Odisha, the dominant and standardised Odia recognised as the state’s official language. Sambalpuri or Kosli language is spoken in the western part of Odisha and used for day-to-day practices in the western part of Odisha. Though all Odias write and read the same Odia script, there are variations in spoken Odia language across the regions. The state of Odisha is also known for its multi-linguistic communities, each having multiple dialects and unknown and undiscovered scripts spoken across the length and breadth of the state. For centuries, Odisha’s tribal groups have had their own unique and distinct linguistic practices. Odisha is home to about one-fourth of the country’s adivasi population and each adivasi community has its language for communication. The prominent adivasi languages spoken in Odisha include Santali, Kondh, Koya, Kui and Kuvi.
Official Language Policy: Recognised versus De-Recognised Language
Odia is the official language of the state. The school textbooks and medium of instruction take place in this language across the state. However, the Sanskritised Odia spoken in the coastal part of Odisha is considered the official and standard language for all educational activities, starting from the publication of school texts to the teaching and learning process in school. It is pertinent to ask at this point that in a democratic nation like India and state like Odisha having a diversity of languages and identities, is it necessary that only the officially approved language is used in the educational process? Is it necessary to approve only the dominant language of the state and the nation? And why and how is the dominant language seen as authentic, simply because the approving agency is the state?
In this section, an attempt has been made to understand the representation of Odia’s linguistic identity in school textbooks and the historical reasons for the demand of the formation of Orissa in pre-Independent India.
Four chapters, two each from Class IX and Class X textbooks, discuss Odia as a linguistic community and the birth of the Odia language and the evolution to date. Class VI, Class VII, and Class VIII textbooks do not have chapters on the Odia language and Odia linguistic community. Textbooks writers have employed the literary history of Odisha in the above two classes. Oriya ektiswadhin Bhasanoen [Odia is not an independent language] was the centre of debate in 1870 between the Bengali and Odia elites. The Bengali elite used to propagate that Odia is a dialect of the Bengali language and opposed recognising it as a separate and independent language with its own standard of richness and historical journey. As a reaction, a mass movement started against the imposition of Bengali in the coastal part of Odisha. As highlighted earlier, language was a foreground for generating Odia solidarity.
When the British conquered Odisha in 1803, it fell under the Bengal Presidency and its cultural and indigenous practices were also subsumed by the colonial government. However, the southern and the western part of Odisha came under the Madras presidency and Central provinces of British India, respectively. Bengali, Telugu and Hindi were introduced as the three official languages in schools and offices in the respective regions, because of the dominance and the hegemony of neighbouring regions. Meanwhile, Odia language was denied in the policy and the provision of the state. Odia became just a lingua franca in the state. The outcome was that Odia was not allowed as a medium of instruction and was denied an official language status in the state’s administration. After the formation of Odisha state, the coastal Odia elite, by using the state machinery, established Kataki as the standard language across the state and ended up marginalising and negating the region’s multiple dialects and Kosli language. One domination was replaced by the other in the form of Kataki, showing a linguistic imperialism in the western part of Odisha and the tribal belt of southern Odisha.
The chapter Odia Sahitya Katha [The Story of Odia Language] in the Class IX Odia language textbook discusses the origin and the development of the Odia language and Odia script through history. It states that the origin of Odia dates back to the tenth and eleventh century CE in medieval India:
Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit o apbrnsa Kukibhitaru Odia
Bhasaraunmeshaghatedasama/ekadasasatabdhibelaku
Aeesamayarehin Odialipirahelaudhbaba
[Translation: Odia language is born from Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit and the Kuki language in the tenth and eleventh century CE. The script of the language was developed during this period.]
The chapter further highlights that Odia literature was not developed until the fifteenth century. Till then it was only limited to the oral traditions among the people of Odisha. The chapter also highlights the development and the emergence of the sophisticated Odia language from the fifteenth century onwards. The authors write:
Panchadasa Satabdi Belaku Gajapati Kapilendra Debanka
Rrajatwakalare Odishaekasamrudha Rajyareparinatahoijaichhi. A Samayaku Madhya Odiabhasakramasamarjitahoigalani.
Matiramahakabi Sarala das aye samayarerachana kale
Khanti Odia Bhasare Mahabharata, Chandi Purana, Bilanka Ramayana adigrantha.
[Translation: Odisha has developed as a prosperous state during the reign of king Kapilendra Deva when the Odia language was very sophisticated and fully developed. The ‘Shudra’ poet, Sarala Das has written extensively in Odia about the Mahabharata, Chandi Purana, Bilanka Ramayana and so on.]
One needs to understand the purpose behind including chapters on the evolution and the development of the Odia language in school textbooks. The purpose is to convey the richness and the antiquity of the language and at the same time convey a sense of value and pride to school children. The textbook conveys that the Odia language was developed as a full-fledged language by the fifteenth century.
An understanding of Table 2 shows that the language spoken in the coastal region of Odisha is considered as the authentic Odia language across the state. Recognised and celebrated as the official language of the state, it is promoted by officials in various aspect of society such as polity, literature, media and so on. There was an attempt by the Odia elite in the colonial period to promote Odia in order to invoke Odia nationalism and Odia pride through a policy of one-language, one-state to develop a homogeneous Odia identity. In the process though, the state and the policymakers failed to recognise the voices of multiple linguistic and adivasi groups in the state. Therefore, different social and cultural groups have felt a sense of alienation and otherness, making it difficult for the government to handle the situation due to the rise of sub-regional consciousness or identity in the western part of Odisha. It was a culmination of the feeling of state apathy to their language, cultures and historical events that has caused this resentment. The introduction of Odia in the official functions or in schools makes it difficult to understand the language properly. The process of homogenisation of the Odia language across the state was the part of the process of state-building but hardly reflected the ground reality and failed to recognise linguistic diversity and cultural autonomy.
Representation of Odia Linguistic Identity in School Textbooks.
Source: OPEPA and the BSE, Odisha.
Therefore, the state’s school curriculum and medium of instruction used has failed to educate school children in their native language. Students from western and southern Odisha sometimes fail to understand textbooks written in the standardised Odia language, especially as the medium of instruction is also in standardised Odia. The invisibility and exclusion of Kosli and the various poets and poems associated with this linguistic tradition shows the government’s inability to recognise multiple dialects still very much in evidence. Various personalities associated with the Kosli language are well recognised in society and by the central government. The state government of Odisha has even suggested including Kosli in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution but has ignored placing it in the school textbooks, preferring to use the dominant language and its role in the subjugation of Kosli language. Though Odia is the mother tongue of Odia students studying across the state, most students from western Odisha struggle to pass the matriculation examination because of this impediment and even fail to speak Odia accurately. Odia language is like a foreign language to them. Because of their inability to speak and write, their coastal teachers ridicule and stereotype them as ‘adivasi illiterates’. Kataki Odia used in communications and teaching and learning has become an issue of confrontation and contestation for the children in Odisha. They can write in Odia language but cannot comprehend or speak it effectively.
A close analysis of the chapters of the textbooks indicates that there has been a systematic exclusion of the multiple languages spoken by the people of western and southern Odisha. About one crore people speak the Kosli language of western Odisha, an area that constitutes ten districts of Odisha. However, instead of introducing the practices and speaking of Odia language in the Sambalpur region, one chapter mentions the Odia Sambalpur region only when it discusses the amalgamation of Sambalpur in Odisha and the role of Sambalpur Hetasayani, a newspaper published from the late 1880s. Odia language is like one of the other languages that needs to be learned and taught as students socialise in the Sambalpuri language in their home and school campuses.
Construction of Religious–Cultural Identity
Textbooks have played an important role in celebrating and promoting moral, cultural and ethical values of school children. Various national education policies in India or the national or the state curricular framework emphasise the value-based education of school children since Independence. Research studies on the role of education in shaping good citizens and ideal citizens have found that the Indian state has tried to promote ethical and moral values among school children through various textual and pedagogic means. The question of cultural or moral values has played an important role in shaping and reshaping the minds of school children to frame them in a particular direction.
Religions in Odisha
Odisha has been known as the land of ancient religions for centuries. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and the Mahima cult are the prominent religions followed and practiced during various historical periods in Odisha ( Table 3 ). Christianity and Islam came to Odisha with the arrival of colonial powers and Muslim rulers. At the same time, Odisha is known for being the land of ancient tribal religions, with animism and totemism across the length and breadth of Odia society.
At this juncture, an attempt has been made to understand the representation of moral or ethical values and the sources of the morality and the values in Odisha’s school textbooks.
Only ten chapters from Odia language and the social science textbooks have been devoted to the construction of Odia religious and cultural identity ( Table 4 ). Out of the 140 chapters studied, 92 chapters were in Odia language textbooks and 48 chapters were in social science textbooks. However, Odia language textbooks contain more lessons on Odia religious and cultural identity with five poems and three prose lessons. Two lessons from Class IX and Class X mention Odia religious and cultural communities. School children are taught various facets of Odia’s cultural and religious sphere. The state’s song, Bande-Utkala Janani, is sung every day in the prayer meeting in schools. Chapter 15 of the Class VI Odia literature textbook, Odishara Sanskruti [Odisha’s Culture], celebrates the uniqueness and greatness of Odia culture and how various historical events have shaped culture (p. 87). The chapter suggests that the value of celebrating the earth as one family has been an integral feature of Odisha society by writing, ‘worshiping and following Shaktism, Shaivism and Lord Jagannath (the primary deity of Odisha) Odisha has to maintain this tradition through the history’ (p. 87). The author celebrates the unique feature of Odisha’s textiles as the defining feature of Odisha society, where she observes that handmade cloth from Sambalpuri, Berhampur and Nuapatana brought fame to Odisha and international recognition (p. 88). We are further told that Odissi dance and other folk dances such as Sambalpuri, Chhou, Danda, Paika and Gotipua are performed by various people in the state (p. 88). The chapter reveals that the greatness of Odia culture and its archaeology and sculpture are found in the temple architecture of Rajarani (Bhubaneswar), Jagannath (Puri), Konark (Puri), Lingaraj (Bhubaneswar), and Kichakeswari (Mayurbhanj) in Odisha. It also reflects on Odisha’s handicrafts such as Pattachitra, and so on.
Religious Communities in Odisha.
Source: Census 2011.
Representation of Religious and Cultural Identity in Poems, Prose and Stories in Odia and Social Studies Textbooks.
Source: OPEPA and the BSE, Odisha.
The poem Kalamanikare, authored by Abhimanyu Samantasinhara and part of the Class VII language textbook, highlights the values of love and affection of a mother to her son through Yashoda and son Lord Krishna. The poem, Shiv Ratri by poet Gopabandhu Das, in the Class VIII textbook highlights the importance of Shivratri for the devotee and the values of selflessness and devotion to God. Another poem, Basishta o Biswamitra authored by poet Ananta Pattnaik, emphasises the value of love, forgiveness and goodness through the discussion and debates held between two sages in Hindu mythology. The poem Kaha Mukhaanayee Banchibi, authored by Bhakta Charan Das, in the Class IX textbook talks about the value of love and sorrow of Yashoda for her son when he is leaving for Mathura. Another poem, Managobindanka Mahanta, highlights the kindness, virtues and greatness of Duryodhan. The poem Raghavanka Lanka Jatranukula depicts the journey of Lord Rama to Lanka in order to get back his wife Sita. The prose lesson named as Ramayana Katha authored by Madhusudan Rao can be seen in the Class VII textbook. In Odia language, it narrates the story of Lord Rama from his childhood to the rest of his life. The prose Mrutubijayee Balaka authored by Shree Chintamani Behera in the Odia language for Class VII depicts the commitment and victory of the small boy Nachiketa over death.
Textbook writers have attempted to introduce a secular outlook to the curriculum by including various poems, proses, stories and the life histories of outstanding personalities in Odia language textbooks. The values of bravery, affection, love, humanity, truth, patience, patriotism, determination and good thinking can be found in the textbooks through various poems, proses and stories. Though textbook writers have attempted to provide a secular outlook to the curriculum on diverse fields of knowledge, when it comes to the moral and philosophical values, the textbooks promote the Hindu idea of identity among school children by using various narratives from Hindu religious scriptures as the only source of cultivating moral and ethical values among students. There is a systematic celebration of Hindu ideas of belief and the values system, undermining the pluralistic and diversified society in the state. It ignores or hardly reflects the essence of humanity and ethical principle and the moral values of other Indic and non-Indic religions such as Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity, Islam and the Mahima cult. A critical analysis of these textbooks shows that textbooks writers consider religion as the only source of moral and ethical values. It negates culture as the source of moral and ethical values. Buddhism, Jainism and the Mahima cult are very much integral to the Odia society from the period of Ashoka to Kharvala. Though Odisha is known for following syncretic traditions in religion, it deviates towards communalisation of knowledge. According to Kanungo (2014), the Odia education policy and the discourses promote only one type of religious values. School plays an important role in religious indoctrination in the minds of school children. In fact, they serve the interest of dominant upper caste/class Hindu groups in Odisha society. Though Odisha consists of one-third tribal population, the tribal religiona consisting of their own gods and goddesses were not a part of the official textbooks nor considered worthy of being learned or taught. But there was a systematic effort to celebrate the great traditions of the Hindu upper castes by negating the little traditions of adivasis and dalits. Although NCF (NCERT, 2005) has discussed the contents in textbooks that are local to school children, the systematic exclusion of other cultural and religious values denies the objectives framed in it.
Except Sambalpuri dance and Sambalpuri textile as a part of Odisha’s culture in Class VI textbooks, no other mention is made of western Odisha. Surprisingly, Lord Jagannath, the prime deity of Odisha, is also missing from the state’s curriculum and syllabus. A close content analysis of the textbooks has revealed that not a single poem or prose lesson is devoted to highlighting the story of Jagannath. At the same time, western Odisha which is known for worshipping various goddesses such as Sambaleswari, Manikeswai, and Lankeswari is missing from school textbooks and the states’ school curriculum. However, there is an attempt to undermine the celebration and promotion of the state deity Jagannath with other deities such as Lord Rama and Lord Krishna.
Even today, there are many other instances, such as the festivals or the music or the dance forms of western Odisha which are looked down by people from coastal Odisha. Nuakhia, an agricultural festival known for the identity and recognition of the people of western Odisha, was not even mentioned in any textbook. The state politics and policy have deliberately side-lined or derecognised the cultural and spiritual uniqueness of western Odisha in the fields of music, dance, or even during the celebration of Utkala Diwas.
Conclusion
The aim and objective of this analysis has been to evaluate the contents of selected school textbooks in the framing of an Odia identity. The study has found that the state has used textbooks as an ideological apparatus to present an ‘ideal and authentic’ Odia identity as part of the citizenship construction in the state. The analysis of different poems, prose, stories and historical narratives of the textbooks in Odisha’s schools aims to cultivate Odia pride and identity in the sphere of geography, culture, language and moral and ethical values. Textbook writers and policymakers have used historical events such as the Kalinga war, Khandagiri and the Paik rebellion of 1817 to portary the Odia as a brave and powerful community that fought to protect its motherland from other rulers. Based on the critical analysis of the poems and stories of the language textbooks, the study has found that only the moral and ethical values of the Hindu scriptures and mythologies are considered to be authentic sources to teach school children. At the same time, the state fails to consider the religious philosophy and the moral and ethical values of the other Indic religions such as Buddhism, Jainism and the Mahima cult. The content analysis of the textbooks found that not a single poem, prose or story was dedicated to Lord Jagannath, the primary deity of Odisha state. Surprisingly, the textbook contained poems on Lord Rama and Lord Krishna.
The study also found that the policy of one-state, one-language followed by the Odia elite in the colonial period for separate statehood led to delegitimising the autonomous identity of diverse linguistic and social groups such as adivasis and the people of western Odisha. Therefore, an anti-costal regional sentiment exists across the western part of Odisha reflected in the forms of regular protests and hartals. The contestations over a pan-Odia identity are visible on various platforms, including academic discourses.
The study found that though the state of Odisha and the policymakers claim to have followed the NCF (NCERT, 2005) which mandated child-centered, local knowledge, and a sociocultural inclusive secular content which reflects the regional history and society of Odisha, the state government has negated and silenced western Odisha and southern Odisha, their sociocultural practices, personalities, historical places and religious ethos from school textbooks. The present school textbooks have failed to bridge the gap between texts and society. The textbooks do not address the existing regional prejudices, stereotypes and practices. They do not register the existing biases and discrimination of people of western Odisha. The language, culture and people of western and southern Odisha are seen in a more inferior way as being less cultured and uncultured. The textbooks strengthen and reinforce existing exclusions, marginalisation and prejudices. There is a lack of conscious effort to make the curriculum inclusive, particularly from a regional, cultural and language perspective. The inclusion of chapters and stories on people are only symbolic as contents on coastal Odisha are overwhelmingly dominant and issues of western and southern Odisha have not found enough space in the textbooks.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
This article is the outcome of an MPhil dissertation submitted to the Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors are grateful to the University Grants Commission for the UGC-JRF fellowship given to the first author.