By rewriting textbooks, India is weakening spirit of enquiry mandated by the Constitution

The new social science textbook for Class 9 students released by the National Council of Educational Research and Training has removed chapters on European revolutions to prioritise medieval Indian history through the lens of “Resistance and Resilience” against successive foreign invasions.

The textbook. titled Understanding Society: India and Beyond (Part 2), argues that the Indian subcontinent faced successive phases of invasions driven by territorial expansion and religious motives. It details the brutality of the Mughal state against Sikh gurus, alongside regional uprisings such as the Jat Uprising of 1669 against heavy agrarian taxation and religious policies.

While these historical conflicts and state oppressions are matters of historical record that deserve rigorous study, framing the entire medieval past through a monolithic, black-and-white binary of Muslim invasion versus Hindu resistance flattens the complex, messy realities of history. It replaces nuanced historical analysis with a political narrative of perpetual civilisational grievance.

By reducing history to an unceasing clash of religious forces, such textbooks commit a grave erase the profound cultural osmosis that occurred simultaneously at the grassroots level. History is rarely just a process of state-on-state violence or imperial conquest. Just as political conflicts unfolded, the everyday medieval landscape witnessed deep-seated synthesis – the evolution of Sufi and Bhakti philosophies, shared...

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