Rise of Hindutva Through NCERT’s Class 8 History Textbook Revisions
Adityakrishna Deora | 03 September 2025 | The Wire
In recent weeks, protests have erupted in Rajasthan against changes made to NCERT’s Class 8 history textbook. These demonstrations – led not only by university students and civic activists, but also by members of erstwhile royal families – reflect a deep unease about how India’s historical narrative is being reshaped in school curricula.
The protests were initially localised to Rajasthan, but their concerns are hardly parochial. The revisions have implications for how millions of students across the country – in states as varied as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir – encounter the histories of the regions in which they live. They also raise broader questions about whose histories are being amplified, whose are being truncated, and what political purposes, such editorial decisions, it may serve….