Dinanath Batra who fought in courts - and outside - for 'value-based nationalist' education

New Delhi, Nov 8 (PTI) From a schoolteacher in Punjab to becoming the chief of the RSS-run school network Vidya Bharati, which today has 12,000 schools and 32 lakh students, educationist Dinanath Batra will be remembered for his advocacy of value-based and "nationalist" education.
    Batra, who breathed last on Thursday at the age of 94, made news for filing lawsuits against books that he deemed offensive, including Wendy Doniger's -- Hindus: An Alternative History -- in 2011. He called the book "un-Indian" and objected to its interpretation of Hinduism from a sexual lens.
    The reputed publisher not only withdrew the controversial book from the Indian markets in 2014 but also consented to stop publishing, distributing and selling Doniger's work in the country besides agreeing to destroy existing stock.
    A K Ramanujan's essay "Three Hundred Ramayanas" was also dropped from Delhi University's history syllabus in 2011 after Batra moved the Delhi High Court against it.
    He had also taken the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to the court with a PIL which raised 70 objections to content of secondary school history and social science syllabus.
    Atul Kothari, the chief of the Shiksha Sanskriti Uthan Nyas, another RSS-linked educational organisation founded by Batra, said the new National Education Policy (NEP) is a culmination of his lifelong efforts in the field.
    "Batra had dedicated his life to the cause of imbibing education with Indian values and Indianness. The National Education Policy of 2020 is a culmination of his lifelong efforts in the field," Kothari said.
    Batra's body was also kept at the office of the Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas, before being cremated on Friday.
     Born in Rajanpur in Dera Ghazi Khan, now in Pakistan, Batra began his career as a teacher at DAV school in Dera Bassi, Punjab. He also became the headmaster of Geeta Senior School, Kurukshetra, the first-ever school RSS set up in India under its education wing Vidya Bharati. He later steered Vidya Bharati as its chief.
    In 2014, the BJP-led government in Gujarat issued a circular declaring six textbooks authored by Batra to be a part of the state education curriculum as supplementary literature. Same year, Haryana roped in the RSS ideologue to advise revamp of education in the state.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)