Textbook Spin on Caste and Gender Biases: NCERT Credits Manusmriti for Respecting Women
Basant Kumar Mohanty | 27 June 2026 | The Telegraph
A social science textbook released by the NCERT has attempted to negate the idea that social and gender inequality stem from Hindu scriptures and praised the Manusmriti for promoting the tradition of respecting women.
The chapter “State and Society up to 1000 CE” in the new Class IX textbook Understanding Society: India and Beyond states that the “early Vedic texts do not indicate any fixed social status strictly based on birth”, and that the concept of varna (caste) was based on a system of values in which knowledge was given the highest status….