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India Matters
Cambridge IGCSE India Studies Newsletter 8
August 2010
Cambridge IGCSE India Studies Newsletter
In this issue
Page
Submission of 0447/03 Research Portfolios in 2011
3
Face-to-face training – workshops in India on 14 and 15 October
3
“Continuity and change: to what degree does change in India mask
4
fundamental continuities?”
April 2010 Video Conference DVD
5
Significant dates around which syllabus activities might be arranged
6
Basic facts & figures: Strategic Asia
7
Economic liberalisation – a summary of 1991-2002
7
Using ICT in the India Studies classroom: making the most of an
8
interactive whiteboard
Appendix: Resource bank – new states in the Union?
9
India Matters sets out to support subject teachers in pilot schools, aiming to keep
schools informed and seeking to encourage the spread of ideas and the exchange of
good practice. Please keep in touch with feedback.
India Matters is published every other month and emailed to every contact address we
have in each pilot school. All Cambridge IGCSE India Studies teachers in your school
should have a copy so please circulate it to everyone involved. There is no restriction
on photocopying.
Martin D W Jones
Product Manager
University of Cambridge International Examinations
1 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB1 2EU, UK
fax: +44 (0)1223 553558
phone: +44 (0)1223 553554
international@cie.org.uk
[The cover photograph shows Telangana Rashtra Samithi supporters in Hyderabad celebrating
the announcement that the Indian government would start the process to set up a separate
Telangana state, December 2009. You might consider how and why this picture might be used in
class when discussing Paper 1 Theme 1.]
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Submission of 0447/03 Research Portfolios in 2011
Completed Research Portfolios must be submitted to CIE for marking by 30 April 2011.
Whether candidates write or word process their Investigations, this must take place
under controlled conditions (i.e. under teacher supervision, as in an examination). This
Investigation controlled task is to last for one hour. Each school is free to hold the one
hour controlled task at any time that suits its own circumstances. Candidates may take
with them for the controlled task any books and notes that they wish, so each school will
need to provide each candidate with plenty of desk space.
Candidates should write their Report shortly before the Investigation and bring it with
them to the controlled task. At the end of the Investigation controlled task, candidates
should put their Investigation and their Report together in a soft folder to make up their
Portfolio and hand it in to their teacher. The Investigation, Report and folder must each
state clearly:
(a) The school’s name and CIE number and
(b) The candidate’s name and number.
Rather than wait for the 30 April deadline, schools are encourage to send their Portfolios
to CIE as soon as these have been completed. For further details, please see the
syllabus pp.17-18.
Face-to-face training – workshops in India on 14 and 15
October
Practical workshops for classroom teachers will be held on 14 and 15 October 2010 in
Bangalore and Mumbai. The programme for each day will be identical and will build on
the video conference training held in April this year. Led by two of the Cambridge
IGCSE India Studies Principal Examiners, each workshop will focus on core skills of the
syllabus (explanation, evaluation, problem solving) and their application in lessons. Full
details will be circulated soon. If you have any questions, please contact Vinayak
Sudhakar at sudhakar.v@cie.org.uk quoting reference CTIN312.
India Matters Newsletter 8 – August 2010
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“Continuity and change: to what degree does change in
India mask fundamental continuities?”
The Cambridge IGCSE India Studies syllabus points to “two important threads [that] run
through the syllabus and provide coherence”. One is: “Continuity and change: to what
degree does change in India mask fundamental continuities?” (p.10). The syllabus also
stresses the need for students “to understand different perspectives, to evaluate
information critically and to think independently” (p.9). Teachers need to provide their
students with appropriate evidence for discussion activities so that they may meet these
requirements, but balance is easier to find in some topics than others.
One broad area this may apply to is assessing the impact of globalisation on India. Is
India being changed too much by Western ideas? Is liberalisation damaging something
essential in India? The New York Times on 18 April 2010 carried an article that might be
of help here. In “Indian Who Built Yoga Empire Works on Politics”, the newspaper’s
correspondent for South Asia, based in New Delhi, discusses the thinking of “one of
India’s most popular and influential gurus”, Swami Ramdev.
“… Ramdev plans to do for the body politic what he has already done to the country’s
creaky physiques: whip it into shape. He announced last month that he would found a
political party that would field candidates for each of the 543 parliamentary seats in
India’s next general election in 2014 …
In some ways Swami Ramdev harks back to India’s earliest leaders with a message of
self-reliance, national pride and traditional Indian values. But with his vast yoga empire
and legions of followers on television and the Web, he is also a product and symbol of
the New India, a yogic fusion of Richard Simmons, Dr. Oz and Oprah Winfrey,
irrepressible and bursting with Vedic wisdom.
Swami Ramdev says India has relied too much on the system of government it inherited
from its British colonizers and lost the traditional systems of governing that held sway for
centuries … Multinational corporations have no place in India, he contends. India should
be steeped in its own culture. “Be Indian,” he exhorted his followers on a recent morning.
“Speak Indian languages. Wear Indian clothes. Drink Indian drinks.” All things foreign,
he argues, like Coca-Cola and hamburgers, pollute the Indian spirit and weaken it. The
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World Health Organisation is a favourite target: it is, he says, “a big conspiracy” cooked
up by American pharmaceutical companies …”
The full article may be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/world/asia/19swami.html?scp=23&sq=lydia%20polg
reen&st=cse
Meanwhile, the BBC news website carried an article on 1 May 2010 about the
Gossainbarie Tea Estate in Assam growing organic tea. This article could also be used
when considering the relationship between East and West. Are there areas in which
India should not follow the West? Are there areas where the West has something to
learn from India?
The estate is reported as “following the principles of India’s ancient plant medicine
Vriksh Ayurveda.” The owner explains how he has enlisted the help of Swami Valmiki
Iyengara who has “evolved a concept of organic farming that is both sustainable and
profitable … [which] they believe could clean up India's – and Assam's – rural
environment, which has been polluted by high use of insecticides, pest repellent and
highly toxic chemical fertilisers.” They also believe that going organic will “boost the
market price of Indian tea and open up new niche markets.”
The full article may be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8640016.stm
April 2010 Video Conference DVD
A DVD recording of the training conference held in April was sent in June to every
school that attended. If you were not able to be present but would like a copy, please
contact Martin Jones at international@cie.org.uk The conference explained the
examination requirements of each component and looked in detail at the specimen
examination papers and marking schemes.
India Matters Newsletter 8 – August 2010
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Cambridge IGCSE India Studies Newsletter
Significant dates around which syllabus activities might
be arranged
The last issue of India Matters highlighted the potential opportunities presented by
International days. Continuing the list to cover the coming year, the following global
events would be relevant:
September 2010
8 – International Literacy Day
20 – UN Summit on Millennium
Development Goals
October 2010
February 2011
4 – UNICEF Day for Change
21 – Fairtrade Fortnight begins
21 – International Mother Tongue
Language Day
4 – World Habitat Day
April 2011
4 – World Animal Day
7 – World Health Day
17 – One World Week begins
November 2010
20 – Universal Children’s Day
May 2011
21 – World Day for Cultural Diversity
22 – International Day for Biological
Diversity
June 2011
5 – World Environment Day
12 – World Day Against Child Labour
17 – World day to Combat Desertification
and Drought
July 2011
11 – World Population Day
August 2011
9 – International Day of the World’s
Indigenous People
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Basic facts & figures: Strategic Asia
Where do you turn when you need basic factual information on contemporary India?
One handy online reference point is Strategic Asia:
http://strategicasia.nbr.org/Data/Info/Coverage.aspx#11
Created by the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), Seattle, USA, this portal give
you free access to a database for Asia-Pacific countries (including India) covering 19902007. Areas covered are: Economy, Finance, Trade and Investment, Population, Energy
and Environment, Communications and Transportation, Armed Forces, Politics,
International Relations.
Users can either view data online or download data sets for individual use. For more
advanced work, “context-driven hyperlinks throughout the database integrate Strategic
Asia with other online resources for further research. The database allows users to
search either a single-level analysis based on a single country and indicator or a multilevel analysis for a composite picture. For those interested in tracking strategic trends in
Asia, NBR has created sample charts and graphs with detailed instructions on how to
create similar charts and graphs using the database."
Economic liberalisation – a summary of 1991-2002
Do you need a short summary to help you teach economic development for Paper 1
Theme 2? If so, you might be glad to look at a brief report written by Professor Arvind
Panagariya of the University of Maryland for the Asian Development Bank. At just six
pages long, India’s Economic Reforms: What has been accomplished? What remains to
be done? helpfully summarises the first ten years in sections headed ‘The Good News:
Achievements Thus Far’ and ‘The Bad News: Still a Long Way to Go’. A further
advantage is that you won’t be overwhelmed with facts and figures. This report can be
found at http://www.adb.org/Documents/EDRC/Policy_Briefs/PB002.pdf
India Matters Newsletter 8 – August 2010
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Cambridge IGCSE India Studies Newsletter
Using ICT in the India Studies classroom: Making the most
of an interactive whiteboard

It is interactive and not just a projector. Many students like being able to come up to
an interactive whiteboard and make use of different features, e.g. annotating
images or highlighting important details. Carefully selected activities can engage
students and provide alternative ways of communicating ideas. For a detailed
discussion of the Interactive uses of whiteboard technology, you might like to read
the report of a seminar of History teachers at
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=3625

An interactive whiteboard can be used as an ordinary part of your lessons. It is easy
to create tickertapes of key words for each topic that can be used in a number of
lessons. Templates for lesson aims and objectives are also easy to create and
share with your India Studies colleagues. Functions such as the timer are an easy
way of ensuring that there is pace to any activity you organise.

Graphic organisers can visualise and record ideas quickly and effectively. A number
of examples of good graphic organisers can be found in the following PowerPoint
presentation:
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/general_resources/graphic_organisers.ppt
Please keep in touch – with each other as well as CIE.
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Appendix: Resource bank – new states in the Union?
In this issue, we offer a series of visuals that might be of value for a class considering
Paper 1 Theme 1 Key Issues three & four and Theme 3 Key Issue three. For the first
time in India Matters, the cover photograph and the Resource bank focus on the same
topic.
Map showing ten of the seventeen areas where there are campaigns for new states.
India Matters Newsletter 8 – August 2010
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Cambridge IGCSE India Studies Newsletter
Anuj Chopra, Foreign Correspondent, 14 December 2009, Mumbai
India's new state spurs demand for more
The Indian government’s decision last week to divide the state of Andhra Pradesh to
create Telangana – the country’s newest and 29th state – has ignited a groundswell of
protest in other corners of India for the creation of additional states. Activists and
separatist politicians in at least seven other states are clamouring for the creation of new
states on ethnic and linguistic lines, arguing the need to cut away from their parent
states for an independent identity and the relative ease of governing a smaller state.
… The Indian government has made clear that the creation of more new states is “not
possible and feasible. The Telangana movement has been going on for 60 years,” said
Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister. “But it does not mean new states are going
to be created everywhere.”
… Since New Delhi’s decision was made public last week, other large states, most
notably Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s largest state, have expressed the desire to split their
region for better governance. If it were an independent country, UP, with more than 190
million people, would be the sixth largest in the world.
… The creation of a smaller state does not necessarily translate into good governance
and better development. In 2000, India split three existing states to carve three new
ones – Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand ... According to National Family
Health Survey findings, the creation of new states has improved infrastructure compared
to the respective parent states, but not social indicators such as infant mortality and
access to education.
… Ramachandra Guha, a historian and the author of India After Gandhi: The History of
the World’s Largest Democracy, said the demands for new Indian states must not be
dismissed without careful consideration. “India did not go the way of Pakistan and Sri
Lanka, which had to suffer bloody civil wars because of the unwillingness to grant
linguistic autonomy,” he said. “However, our nation-state is comparatively young, and
still evolving. It now faces a second generation of challenges, these pertaining to the
regional imbalances in social and economic development. A new States Reorganisation
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Commission should be constituted, which would look dispassionately into the demands
for new states.”
[For the full article, see
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091215/FOREIGN/712149847/1
002 ]
Blog by Samir, 30 June 2009
Small states are a good thing. First and foremost, the power in the hands of the state
ministers will get diluted. Since the revenue etc. will be less, so will the amount of money
flowing around for corruption. Next, the population of the states of India is greater than
population of 80% of countries, e.g. Gujarat with 55 million is as big as France … It is
the same like a student-teacher ratio or if you are working in a company the manageremployee ratio. The smaller the ratio, the more relatively better service you will receive.
Also since the needs of the various parts of the same states are different due to varied
geographical, climatic, economic conditions, it is difficult to focus on development, e.g.
poor farmers in Vidarbha were dying, but the political centre of Mumbai was busy with
creating SEZ and developing suburban Mumbai …
[For the full article, see
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Demand-for-creation-of-ten-newstates/482355/ ]
Soutik Biswas, Online correspondent for BBC News, India, 10 December 2009
Does India need more states?
… Though overwhelmingly successful, "linguistic states" have revealed inadequacies and more states have been carved out since for other reasons. For one, some states are
unwieldy because of their size or population or both - undivided Bihar was the size of the
Federal Republic of Germany; the present, truncated Uttar Pradesh has a population
equivalent to Brazil's and more than Pakistan's. So there has been talk about dividing
Uttar Pradesh further into four new states.
… There are other identities in India which are not founded in language - caste or more
importantly, a shared cultural identity, are some ... Some states in the north-east were
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Cambridge IGCSE India Studies Newsletter
carved out to assuage tribal anxieties at being swamped by more resourceful and
advantaged outsiders.
You have to visit the Telangana region to see how different it is from the rest of the state
although people share the same language. Also, many say, if you have nine "Hindispeaking" states, why can't you have two "Telugu speaking ones"?
Others say new states don't serve any purpose. They end up benefiting entrenched local
elites and the middle class, and leave the poor in the lurch. They point to Jharkhand
which was carved out of southern Bihar in 2000 - nine years on, many of its people have
turned to Maoists, and its politicians are embroiled in some of India's worst corruption.
A number of north-eastern states carved out of Assam are accused of becoming fiefs of
local elites or kleptocracies … Creating financially unstable states, critics say, can lead
to even more problems …
[For the full article, see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2009/12/does_india_need_more_s
tates.html ]
December 2009
Will Creation Of New States Weaken India?
The Telangana issue has stirred a hornet’s nest on the political horizon, with sundry
parties coming forward to demand new states – Gorkhaland, Bundelkhand, Vidarbha,
Purvanchal and Bodoland. On the other hand, it has led to a backlash in Coastal Andhra
and Rayalaseema regions, where people are not in favour of a separate Telangana.
There are pros and cons for the creation of new states. The advantage is that, people of
a particular region get benefits of development faster if they rule the state themselves
instead of being dominated by people from other regions. The disadvantages include
huge cost of setting separate secretariats, high court, separate administrative service
and the like. Even political scientists differ on the issue. Some say that ancient India had
more than 50 mahajanapadas, and so smaller states will not weaken India. They point
out that the USA has 52 states. But others say the makers of our Constitution were
conscious of the imminent dangers of too many states weakening the federal structure.
[For the full article, see
http://www.indiatvnews.com/politics/blogdetails.php?id=25&smod=politics ]
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Amar Singh to lead campaign for creation of six
new states
Deepak Gidwani, 15 June 2010
Former Samajwadi Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh will lead a new
movement for the creation of six new states in the country. In a definitive move, various
outfits crusading for the creation of separate states have come together to form the
National Federation for New States (NFNS). NFNS has been demanding the creation of
Bundelkhand, Purvanchal and Harit Pradesh (in UP) besides Gorkhaland, Telangana
and Vidarbha … Amar Singh said the demand for six new states arose due to
developmental imbalances, apart from socio-economic, cultural and linguistic
similarities. “Electricity produced in Purvanchal is used in Sefai and Badalpur ...
Vidarbha produces cotton, but its farmers are driven to suicide. Bundelkhand craves for
water. Isn’t this reason enough that these regions be granted statehood and allowed to
stand on their own? Look at Chhattisgarh. Today it’s more developed than Madhya
Pradesh.”
[For the full article, see
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_amar-singh-to-lead-campaign-for-creation-of-sixnew-states_1396454 ]
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