Prominent educationist Dinanath Batra, a staunch proponent of value-based and India-centric education, passed away in Delhi on Thursday. He was 94.
Batra was the national convener of Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti and the founder-president of Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas. His organisation, which was also associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), was at the forefront of the campaign to promote Indianness in curriculum, particularly history.
He also played a crucial role in the shaping of the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020, focused on promoting India-centric educational values and curriculum.
Born on March 5, 1930, in Rajanpur district, Dera Ghazi Khan (now in Pakistan), in undivided India, Batra started his teaching career in 1955 at DAV School, Derabassi, Punjab, and went on to set up several educational institutions. He often found himself in the crosshairs of educationists and historians for his views, which included pushing for recitation of Hindu prayers and chants in schools as well as the concept of redrawing the map as Akhand Bharat (undivided India).
Batra was honoured with the President’s Award and received several other accolades for his tireless work on education.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao called the news of Batra’s demise “extremely sad”.
“The news of the demise of Shri Dinanath Batra ji, former General Secretary of Vidya Bharati and National Convener of Shiksha Bachao Andolan is extremely sad. His support and active cooperation during the work in Swadeshi Jagran Manch will always be remembered…” Rao wrote in a post in Hindi on X.
{{/usCountry}}“The news of the demise of Shri Dinanath Batra ji, former General Secretary of Vidya Bharati and National Convener of Shiksha Bachao Andolan is extremely sad. His support and active cooperation during the work in Swadeshi Jagran Manch will always be remembered…” Rao wrote in a post in Hindi on X.
{{/usCountry}}In 2015, Batra was taken on board as consultant by the then Haryana government, and he pitched books that would serve as “stimulants” to steer students towards “patriotism” and “values”. His books were also prescribed by the Gujarat government.
In 2017, he wrote to the ministry of education to consider dropping English, Urdu and Arabic words from books published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
Sudhir Gupta, BJP MP from Mandsaur in Madya Pradesh, in a post in Hindi on X said: “…Dinanath ji had an unforgettable contribution in the field of education, his demise is an irreparable loss for the world of education.”