Who Controls the Past? NCERT, Politics, and the Changing Face of Indian Education

Coming to classrooms, students of India in 2025, bring along new educational books which give an account of the history of their country that is quite different from those which were studied by their elder siblings just a few years ago. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has reworked its Class 7 Social Science textbook for the year 2025-26, and in this revised version, the council has taken out the chapters on the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughals. 

In lieu of the above-mentioned history, young learners will be learning about the Indian dynasties of the past. The latest step is no longer just a matter of the curriculum changing, but it also represents the rethinking of the way the youth of India will get to know the history of their civilisation

The NCERT Pattern: Education as a Political Tool

The 2025 changes are not isolated incidents but the latest chapter in a decades-long pattern of governments using education as a tool for ideological propagation. Each regime that comes to power in India invariably views school curricula as prime real estate for cementing its worldview in young minds. What NCERT euphemistically calls “rationalisation” today mirrors similar exercises undertaken by previous governments across the political spectrum.

This is the disturbing normalcy of Indian education policy: every government treats textbooks as political manifestos waiting to be rewritten. The Congress-led governments of the past focused on secular nationalism and Nehruvian ideals, and often ignored indigenous knowledge systems. The current government has gone to the other extreme; they have only recognised ancient Hindu civilisation, and at the same time, they have tried to erase the Islamic contributions to Indian culture.

National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has introduced several changes, one of which is the deletion of some chapters, and the other is the inclusion of new topics and simplifying the content to avoid repetition. However, the selective nature of these “redundancies” is quite revealing of an ideological agenda that is trying to push certain narratives while suppressing others.

It is definitely not educationally justified to remove all the dynasties from the history of the subcontinent that ruled there for centuries. When we eliminate the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal periods from our textbooks, we are not simply reducing syllabus burden; we are actively distorting our students’ understanding of how modern India came to be.

The Historical Precedent of Educational Manipulation

The current changes are the extension of the long tradition of educational manipulation that has again and again changed the color of the political spectrum. During the Emergency (1975-77), Indira Gandhi’s government altered textbooks to justify authoritarian measures. The Janata Party that followed rewrote curricula to emphasise democratic values while demonising the Congress. When Rajiv Gandhi returned to power, textbooks were again revised to rehabilitate the Nehru-Gandhi legacy.

The BJP’s first stint in power (1998-2004) saw similar ideological interventions. When the UPA returned in 2004, they predictably reversed these changes, only to have them reinstated and amplified after 2014.

This Continuing cycle of rewriting the contents of books reveals one problem that goes beyond parties in the Indian political class, that they indeed see education only for the purpose of influencing, and not for developing their critical abilities. The pattern is clear—anything that complicates the ruling party’s preferred narrative faces the editorial axe, whether it’s medieval Islamic rulers under the current government or indigenous resistance movements under previous ones.

Deletion of chapters is normal in almost all subjects. Exercises are reduced in mathematics. The number of questions is limited, particularly in junior classes. While reducing academic burden sounds reasonable, the selective nature of these deletions reveals deeper motivations.

Such an approach to history depicts it as a political manifesto rather than an academic subject. In fact, by instructing children that certain times in Indian history should be erased from memory, we are definitely not arming them with the skills needed to become responsible citizens of a multicultural society. Instead, we are brainwashing them with one particular perspective.

NCERT and the Long History of Political Interference

One of the worst aspects of educational manipulation in India is how it has happened quietly, with governments taking control of organisations meant to be independent, like NCERT. When NCERT was established in 1961, it was meant to be an autonomous body creating a curriculum based on sound teaching principles. But now, it has become a space for people with different ideologies who act under the direction of their political leaders.

Appointments for the director and council members have always followed political timing rather than academic qualifications. New leaders occupy the top positions in major educational institutions in our country as soon as a new government takes power. This institutional capture ensures that educational policy becomes an extension of political strategy rather than professional expertise.

The fact that new textbooks for various classes are released just months apart shows this is a very planned exercise. Real educational change means a long time of thinking, trying, and getting people’s views in. On the other hand, political indoctrination fits in with election cycles and the need for quick messaging.

The Victims of Political Pedagogy

India’s students are the casualties of this cyclical educational manipulation, who have become unconscious agitators of a grand ideological conditioning experiment. A student who had their schooling during the UPA era would have heard the Indian history from a completely different perspective than one who starts now under the ruling BJP government. This is not educational evolution – it is systematic confusion.

Teachers are also caught in this ideological battle. Most of the educators report their disappointment with the constant curriculum changes, which really are not about pedagogical improvements but are rather political messages. They no longer allow teachers to continue using their tried and tested lesson plans every time the political direction changes. This creates new uncertainties in classrooms all over the country.

Parents grow more and more sceptical about the textbooks their children use because they believe those classes reflect the influence of the power holders in Delhi rather than the best practices in education. This loss of confidence in educational organisations is very profound, and the effects of it reach far into the social cohesion and democratic discourse.

Students deserve better than being used as ideological pawns in battles they never chose to fight. They have a right to get textbooks that would enable them to be critical thinkers and democratic citizens, rather than sanitised narratives that would only serve the ones in power.

One cannot help but wonder, when students carry new books with new stories inside, which version of India are they being taught to believe in? When every new government redraws the past to suit its present, what kind of future are we preparing them for? At what point does education stop being about truth and start being about control, and are we okay with that?