Ethnic identity and curriculum construction: critical reflection on school curriculum in Tripura

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.