Politics is the gateway to omniscience ? at least in India. Academics and specialists in children?s education are quite superfluous in the country. Here it is for the politicians to decide that nursery rhymes written by ?foreigners? should be replaced by stories of rulers who built temples and by Gond folklore. So in government schools in Madhya Pradesh, black sheep and twinkling stars that have delighted children and their parents alike for generations have been firmly put out the door and Ahilya Bai Holker brought in instead. The Bharatiya Janata Party is famed for its vocal brand of patriotism, and it is no wonder that the BJP government should feel worried about Madhya Pradesh?s children, who have become involuntarily acquainted with the fate of such irrelevant personages as the hill-climbing Jack and Jill or the ever-falling Humpty Dumpty.

Patriotism is a fine sentiment, and an especial favourite of politicians. The nobility associated with it forbids criticism of any action that is linked to it with verve. The statement of Mr Narottam Mishra, the education minister of Madhya Pradesh, that the government wishes to ?Indianize? the school curriculum, meets these requirements perfectly. In addition, it has all the marks of dunderheaded ignorance that make a success of political interference. Learning cannot be fruitful until it is made totally joyless, and children cannot be taught to feel for their country unless ?Indianization? is rammed down their gullets with a bludgeon. These ideas are simple enough; ignorance and narrow-mindedness cannot manage complicated reasoning. Having lost the chance to indoctrinate the youth of India, perhaps the BJP has decided to go one state at a time ? although eliminating nursery rhymes from the syllabus is poor revenge. Politicians still have not understood the resilience of joyful literature.