India’s post-independence traditions, liberal and secular, are coming under increasing threat, and education is the latest battleground. Astrology has been introduced as a science subject in universities and there are plans to make Sanskrit teaching compulsory in primary schools. And, in the words of opposition critics, ministers are trying to “Talibanise” the history books.
Behind the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the country’s coalition government, stands the hard-line Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or national association of volunteers. The RSS wants an inward-looking, Hindu-dominated India.
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