If Allahabad can become Prayagraj and Mughal Sarai turn into Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Nagar, can other historical sites be immune?

Scholars around the world may continue to marvel at the Indus Valley civilisation but a generation of young Indian schoolchildren will now know it as the “Indus-Sarasvati” or “Sindhu-Sarasvati” civilisation.

Those are two of the labels that India’s apex textbook authority, the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), has chosen for the subcontinent’s oldest urban civilisation.

A historian suggested “political motivation” behind the change in name, alluding to the importance of the River Sarasvati to the RSS view of ancient Indian history. She said there is no consensus among scholars that such a river existed at all. The book claims the river dried up.

Exploring Society: India and Beyond, the first social science textbook released by the NCERT for Class VI students after Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, variously describes the Indus Valley civilisation as the “Indus”, “Harappan”, “Indus-Sarasvati” and “Sindhu-Sarasvati” civilisation.

Some ancient texts suggest that the Vedic civilisation grew and spread along the banks of the Sarasvati. Placing the Sarasvati at the heart of the Indus Valley civilisation can therefore buttress claims that the Vedic and Indus civilisations were identical and add ballast to the Indigenous Aryan theory favoured by India’s current ruling establishment.

The chapter, “The beginning of Indian civilisation”, in the textbook says the vast plains of the Punjab (now divided between India and Pakistan) and Sindh (now in Pakistan) are watered by the Indus and its tributaries. This made those plains fertile and, therefore, favourable for agriculture.

It adds that a little further east, a few millennia ago, another river, the Sarasvati, flowed down the Himalayan foothills through Haryana, Punjab, parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The Dancing Girl figurine excavated in Mohenjo Daro in 1926. Sourced by The Telegraph

“In this whole region, from about 3500 BCE, villages grew into towns, and with increasing trade and other exchanges, those towns further grew into cities. This transition happened around 2600 BCE,” the text says.

“Archaeologists gave this civilisation several names — ‘Indus’, ‘Harappan’, ‘Indus-Sarasvati’ or ‘Sindhu-Sarasvati’ civilisation. We will use all these terms. Its inhabitants are called ‘Harappans’. It is one of the oldest civilisations in the world.”

It adds: “You may have come across the term ‘Indus Valley civilisation’ and noticed that we have not used it. A look at the map (Fig. 6.3 on page 89) explains why the term ‘Valley’ is obsolete, as we now know that the civilisation extended much beyond the Indus region.”

It continues: “The Sarasvati River is first mentioned in the Rig Veda, an ancient collection of prayers which we will read about in Chapter 7. In this text, Sarasvati is worshipped both as a goddess and as a river flowing ‘from the mountain to the sea’. Later texts describe the river as drying up and eventually disappearing.”

The chapter on “India’s cultural roots” too speaks of an Indus, Harappan or Sindhu-Sarasvati civilisation. The NCERT has used the term “Indus Valley civilisation” for decades. The Class XII history textbook, Themes in Indian History, which is still taught, uses the expression “Indus valley civilisation” to refer to Harappan culture.

Maya John, a member of the faculty of history at Jesus & Mary College, Delhi, questioned the use of the label “Indus-Sarasvati civilisation”.

She said archaeologists and historians usually name an old civilisation after rivers or the first excavated site. Therefore the labels “Harappan civilisation” and “Indus civilisation” are all right, she said.

“But there is a debate around the existence and nature of the River Sarasvati. A large section of historians as well as palaeo-geologists strongly believe that it was a mythical river,” she said.

“The use of the term ‘Indus-Sarasvati civilisation’, hence, reflects political motivation. I think the NCERT should avoid introducing such terminology for children when there is no consensus on such a term.”