NCERT Releases Revised Class 8 Social Science Textbook with Major Changes
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has released a revised edition of the Class 8 Social Science textbook, “Exploring Society: India and Beyond,” introducing several significant changes across history, civics, and the judiciary chapters.
The updated textbook removes the previously disputed content related to the judiciary, including references to judicial backlog and two major court verdicts. In its place, NCERT has added new topics such as Public Interest Litigation (PIL), tribunals, and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
Among the key revisions, the chapter on “Citizenship: Rights and Duties” now includes economic background as a ground for discrimination, alongside caste, religion, ethnicity, disability, race, gender, sexuality, and physical appearance.
The history chapter “India’s Long Road to Independence” has also been revised. The textbook now states that the 1947 Partition was widely opposed, including by the Indian National Congress, and notes that whether accepting Partition was the only option remains a matter of debate. It also adds references to V.D. Savarkar’s demand for Swaraj while removing references to Adolf Hitler and Nazi ideology from the section on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
NCERT said the revisions were made in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions, following controversy over the earlier edition. The revised textbooks are aligned with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023, and most new textbooks for Classes 1 to 9 are now available in both print and digital formats.
