New NCERT text makes significant revisions in early-Indian history

New Delhi: The NCERT has made significant revisions in the history syllabus for Class 12, asserting that recent archaeological studies have ruled out the Aryan migration theory to explain the decline of Harappan civilisation. 

These changes are part of the revision of textbooks that the NCERT has undertaken for the academic year 2024-25. The changes were communicated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) recently. 

The education body, in a revised chapter on the origins and fall of the Harappan civilisation, says that the recent findings based on the ancient DNA samples collected from the Indus Valley site at Rakhigarhi in Haryana have ruled out Aryan migration. The revised text asserts that the Harappans were "indigenous people" of the region. It also says the similarity between Harappans and the Vedic people needs to be further researched.

These changes are found in a chapter titled 'Bricks, Beads and Bones – The Harappan Civilisation' in the Class 12 History textbook called ‘Themes in India History Part-I.’ To be sure, this is not the only change suggested. 

In the history textbook for Class 6, the NCERT has dropped the word 'Hindu' from a chapter on Birsa Munda. The chapter had earlier stated that Birsa Munda was opposed to "missionaries and Hindu landlords". The phrase was in a chapter called ‘Tribals, Dikus and the Vision of a Golden Age’.

In the sociology textbook for class 12, the NCERT has removed references to poverty, powerlessness and social stigma from a sentence which reads, "Like the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes are social groups recognised by the Indian Constitution as specially marked by poverty, powerlessness and social stigma.”

The deletion is from a chapter titled ‘Patterns of Social Inequality and Exclusion’. 

New books get ready

The NCERT on Thursday said that textbooks for Class 3 will be available by the last week of April, and for Class 6 by mid-May. Additionally, a bridge course for teachers to prepare for Class 6 will be put up on the portal. “... 1.21-crore copies of 2023-2024 editions for various classes are out, with more coming regularly. Buffer stock for Classes 4, 5, 9, and 11 is ready. Digital copies of all NCERT textbooks are freely available on the NCERT portal, DIKSHA, and ePathshala portal and app,” the NCERT said in a post on X.