Class 5 Environmental Studies Chapter 5: Our Vibrant Country

Early to school

It is 26 January. The children reach school long before the usual bell. Everybody stands in lines around the flagpole. Flowers have been spread on the ground. High above, the folded flag is tied and waiting. Nobody talks. A drum begins to sound somewhere near the gate.

Up goes the tricolour

The head teacher pulls the rope. The folded flag opens at the top of the pole. Petals fall out of it. Drums beat and everybody claps. Then all the voices join in the National Anthem. Even the smallest children try to sing every word.

Three bands of colour

Our flag has three bands. The top band is saffron. It stands for strength and courage. The middle band is white. It stands for peace and truth. The bottom band is green. It stands for growth and prosperity.

The wheel in the middle

In the centre of the white band there is a blue wheel. It is called the Ashoka Chakra. It stands for duty, which is also called dharma. A wheel keeps turning, and duty too has to be done again every day.

The parade in Delhi

In the evening the class watches the Republic Day parade on television. Fighter jets fly above. The Army, the Navy and the Air Force march past, with the paramilitary and other forces. State tableaux roll by, each one a moving picture of its state. There are songs and dances too.

Priya's question

Back in class, Priya asks a question. "Why is Republic Day on 26 January? We became free on 15 August." The teacher smiles. It is a good question, and the answer needs two stories, not one.

Free in 1947

On 15 August 1947 India became independent. Until then day, Indians were not free to take their own decisions. Many brave people struggled hard for that freedom. We remember them every year on Independence Day.

What if there were no rules?

Then Priya asks another question. Does freedom mean everybody can do whatever they like? The teacher asks the class to imagine a school with no rules at all. No queue at the tap. No turn on the swing. Everybody would be free, and nobody would be safe.

A country needs rules

A country is only a very large group of people. It also needs rules, so that it runs smoothly and everybody is safe and treated fairly. So, after freedom came, a plan and a set of rules were written for India.

Our book of rules

That book of rules is called the Constitution. On 26 January 1950 India decided to follow it. That is why 26 January is our Republic Day. One day gave us freedom. The other gave us the rules that keep the freedom fair.

Rules closer to home

The class then lists five rules of their own school. Come on time. Keep the campus clean. Take your turn. Speak politely. Help anyone who is hurt. Rules, they notice, are mostly promises that people make to each other.

Scenario:

A class prepares for Republic Day on 26 January. Each child is asked what the three colours of the flag stand for. The answers differ. Their teacher writes all of them up and the class checks them against the school's own copy of the rules. Saffron stands for strength and courage, white for peace and truth, green for growth and prosperity. Nita asks why the meanings have to be written down at all. The class works it out. If each person remembered a different meaning, the flag would mean something different to everybody, and then it would not be shared.

Analysis:

The class produced several versions from memory. Written meanings are what keep one flag meaning one thing to everybody who stands under it.

Activity:

Draw the flag with its correct colours. Beside each colour write what it stands for in your own words.

Title:

Our family rule board

What You Notice:

Almost every rule turns out to protect somebody. The rules people argue about most are usually the ones that are unfair to one person. Writing them down makes them easier to keep.

India is the world's largest democracy.

No other country has a written constitution as long as India's.

The colours of the flag, from top to bottom — Strong, Peaceful, Growing — Saffron is STRONG and brave, white is PEACEFUL and true, green is GROWING and rich.

Two national days — Free in forty-seven, rules in fifty — 1947 brought freedom on 15 August. 1950 brought the Constitution on 26 January.

A note on the table

The teacher holds out a ten-rupee note. "We want to learn more about India," she says. "Let us begin here." The class laughs. A note is for buying things, not for studying. Then she asks one question. How many different things can you find on it?

The note fills a page

The children start listing. The value, printed in numbers and in words. The colour. A row of tiny words down one side, which turns out to be a panel of languages. A picture of a building. Small symbols in the corners. Their list grows longer than they expected.

Many languages, one note

The language panel surprises them most. The same value is written there in language after language. People in different parts of India read different scripts, and the note speaks to all of them. One small strip of paper, and so many voices on it.

Two pictures, one face

"Whose picture is this?" the teacher asks. "Mahatma Gandhi!" everybody answers at once. Then she says there are two pictures of him on every note. Lift it towards the light, she tells them. A second, smaller face appears where the paper looked blank.

The little round spectacles

Somebody notices a pair of round spectacles printed on the note. They are the symbol of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the Clean India Mission. The design comes from Gandhi ji's own spectacles. He was very particular that people should keep their surroundings clean.

A monument on the back

The back of a note carries a monument. The ten-rupee note shows the Sun temple at Konark, in Odisha. Different notes carry different monuments from different states. Turning over a handful of notes is a little like turning the pages of an atlas.

Notes you can feel

A note has to work for everybody. Some notes carry raised printing and shapes that can be felt with a fingertip. There is also an app called MANI. It tells a person which note they are holding, by sound and by vibration.

The three lions

Next the teacher shows the National Emblem. Three lions stand on a round platform. They look in different directions. Below them is the Ashoka Chakra. The lions stand for strength, courage and confidence.

Where the emblem appears

Once you have seen the emblem, you begin to see it everywhere. It is printed on government papers. It is there on an Aadhaar card. It marks that something belongs to the country as a whole, and not to one person.

Two riddles

The teacher reads out two riddles. One creature wears orange with bold black stripes and walks in deep old forests. The other dances in the rain with green and blue feathers and a crown on its head. The class answers together: the tiger and the peacock.

The lions of Gir

The lions in the emblem lead to a real story. Long ago, lions roamed over huge parts of India. Today they live only in Gir, a forest in Gujarat. Their number had fallen to a few dozen. Careful work has brought it back to several hundred.

Symbols of your own state

States have symbols too: a state animal, a state bird, a state tree and a state flower. Find out what yours are. Then look around your school. Which tree, bird or flower would you choose as its symbol, and why?

Scenario:

Ira empties her grandmother's purse on the table. There are three ten-rupee notes, two twenty-rupee notes and one hundred-rupee note. Dadi cannot see very well now. She says she knows her notes by feel. Ira watches her run a thumb along the raised marks and name each one correctly. Then Ira makes a chart. In one column she writes the value of each note. In the next she writes the monument she can find on its back. Dadi tells her which state each monument stands in. By the end of the afternoon the purse has turned into a little atlas of India.

Analysis:

Money carries language, art and geography, and it is designed so that people who cannot see can use it too.

Activity:

With an adult, look at two different notes. Write down the value, the monument and the languages you can find.

Title:

Reading a note like a detective

Safety:

Handle the note carefully and give it straight back. Never fold, tear or write on money.

What You Notice:

The note holds far more than a number. Most people have carried one for years without seeing the second face or the little spectacles. Looking closely is a skill, and it can be practised on anything.

Some notes carry raised prints and shapes. The MANI app helps people with low vision know a note by sound and by feeling its vibrations.

The National Emblem is printed on many government papers. You can also find it on an Aadhaar card.

What to look for on a note — Value, Voices, View, Vision — The VALUE in numbers, the VOICES in the language panel, the VIEW of a monument, and the VISION marks you can feel.

Two national symbols — Stripes on land, feathers in the rain — The striped tiger is the national animal. The peacock, who dances in the rain, is the national bird.

One word, many names

The class plays a game. Each child says the word for mango in a language they know at home. The answers come thick and fast, and no two sound alike. Then somebody asks the obvious question. How many languages do people speak in our country?

More than a thousand

The answer surprises them. Over a thousand languages are alive in India. Each one carries its own songs, stories and sayings. A language is not only a way of talking. It is a way of remembering.

More than words

Language is only the beginning. People in different areas have their own food, their own clothes and their own songs and dances. Travel a few hundred kilometres and the plate, the dress and the music all change together.

A garden and a forest

The teacher asks the class to picture two places. First a garden. It has a few kinds of plants. Somebody waters them and weeds them every single day. Without that care, the garden would not last a season.

Now picture a forest

A forest is different. It holds many kinds of plants, trees, animals, birds and insects. Nobody waters it. The many living things help one another, and so the forest looks after itself. It even grows stronger and more beautiful over time.

What the forest teaches

That is the lesson the class takes away. Variety is not a problem to be tidied up. In a forest, variety is exactly what makes it strong. In the same way, being diverse leaves our country stronger and more self-sufficient.

Headgear tells a story

Look at what people wear on their heads. A bright saafa, also called a pagri, is tied in Rajasthan. In Himachal Pradesh many people wear a topi. Such headgear can say where somebody comes from, what they believe, or the work they do.

Headgear that protects

Some headgear is worn for safety. Soldiers wear helmets. So do people working on buildings, in mines and in tunnels. Riders on two-wheelers wear road safety helmets. These are compulsory, and they prevent serious head injuries.

The drums of India

Music changes from place to place too. Even a simple drum looks and sounds different in different parts of the country. The pakhawaj, the dhol, the khol, the thavil and the tabla are all drums. Each has its own rhythm, shaped by local materials and traditions.

Instruments and their music

Other instruments belong to certain kinds of music. The mridangam is heard in Carnatic music. The sitar and the shehnai are heard in Hindustani music. Dance forms too have grown up in different states, each with its own steps and dress.

Threads in one fabric

Each region of India tells its own story. Put the stories side by side and they are like threads. Woven together, they make one strong fabric, full of colour and energy. We live together, helping and supporting one another.

Old and new together

We have ayurveda, yoga and meditation from long ago. We also have an exciting future. Scientists launch rockets. Farmers use new tools. We travel on faster trains and pay with a tap. The new colours are added to the old ones, not painted over them.

Scenario:

A class is told India has over a thousand living languages. Ravi says that cannot be true, because he knows only three. His teacher asks the class to count the languages spoken by all their families together. The total comes to seven in one classroom. The children work it out from there. If one small class holds seven, a country of many states will hold far more. Ravi sees why his own count was low. He was counting what he hears, not what exists. The class then notes that each language brings its own songs and stories with it.

Analysis:

Ravi counted his own hearing and got three. One classroom held seven, which is what makes a thousand believable.

Activity:

Ask everybody in your class which languages their family speaks. Count the total and compare it with your own number.

Title:

The word collector

Safety:

Talk only to people your family knows, and ask politely before writing anything down.

What You Notice:

Some words sound alike in languages spoken far apart. Others are completely different. A single class can often fill a page, and that page is a small map of the country.

Our country carries over a thousand living languages.

UPI, our way of paying by phone, is the largest digital payment system anywhere.

Ways in which places differ — Food, Frock, Song, Step — FOOD on the plate, the FROCK or dress people wear, the SONG they sing and the STEP they dance.

Two kinds of music — Mridangam south, sitar north — The mridangam is heard in Carnatic music. The sitar and the shehnai are heard in Hindustani music.