NCERT Drops Chapter on Anti-Caste Struggle From Class 9 Syllabus

Spanning over 70 pages, 3 chapters from Class 9’s history textbooks have been deleted to reduce burden on students.

History textbook for Class 9 has dropped three chapters spanning over 70 pages.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

In a bid to reduce the burden on students, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has excluded three chapters from the Class 9 history textbook. One of these chapters is about the conflict between women of the oppressed Nadar caste of Travancore and the privileged castes, who forced the women to keep their upper bodies bare, reported The Indian Express.

Spanning over 70 pages, three chapters from Class 9’s history textbook – India and the Contemporary World - I, have been deleted. This was directed by Union Minister for Human and Resource Development Prakash Javadekar, the report said.

Chapter on Swadeshi Movement Deleted

Among the three alterations in this round, the first chapter that has been deleted is on clothing and the influence of social movements on people and how they dressed.

The chapter also included the importance of the Swadeshi movement and its impact on the politics of clothing as demonstrated by Mahatma Gandhi in his experiments to show a changing attitude to clothing during the freedom struggle.

The same chapter includes influence of the movement on how women of Nadar Community dressed. It states:

“In May 1822, women of the Shanar (later known as Nadar) caste were attacked by Nairs in public places in the southern princely state of Travancore, for wearing a cloth across their upper bodies. Over subsequent decades, a violent conflict over dress codes ensued.”

The second chapter that has been deleted from the syllabus talks about the history of cricket and how it is interlinked with politics of caste, region and community.

The third chapter that has been deleted is called ‘Peasants and Farmers’ and talks about the growth of capitalism and how colonialism shaped the lives of farmers and peasants.

Chapters deleted include Peasants and Farmers from section II, History and Sport: The Story of Cricket and Clothing: A Social History from Section III. (Photo: Screenshot / @NCERT)

The decision to drop the three chapters was first floated in 2016 when Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had asked its affiliated schools that the section ‘Caste Conflict and Dress Change’ “stands omitted from the curriculum and no questions from this section should be asked in 2017”. The changes are being accommodated from the upcoming academic session.

The revised history textbooks, accommodating the alterations, will be available from this month on, without any delay for the upcoming new academic session which begins from next month.

This is the second round of changes suggested by the current government in the NCERT curriculum. Previously in 2017, NCERT had made 1,334 changes, which included additions, correction and data update in 182 textbooks, The Indian Express reported.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)