The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has reconstituted its Textbook Development Team for Classes 11 and 12 political science textbooks, assigning it the responsibility of incorporating themes such as cultural rootedness, Indian knowledge systems and inclusion into the revised curriculum.
The panel has been given a deadline to complete the Class 11 political science textbook by November, while the Class 12 textbook is expected to be finalised by July next year. The team will be led by academic and political analyst Sandeep Shastri, vice president of Karnataka-based deemed university Nitte.
According to a PTI report, the newly formed team includes several academics and educationists with documented associations with organisations linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), including the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Among the members is Yadunath Deshpande, a senior consultant with the Ministry of Education. ABVP records identify him as having previously served as the organisation’s joint state organising secretary for Maharashtra and later as an organising secretary in the Mumbai-Konkan region. His LinkedIn profile also mentions his role as a political consultant for the BJP.
Prashant Divekar, another member of the panel, has been associated with Pune-based Jnana Prabodhini, an institution founded by Vinayak Vishwanath, an RSS member and pracharak. In his profile on the National Council for Teacher Education’s National Mission for Mentoring portal, Divekar describes his approach as being “rooted in Bhartiya educational philosophy’ and refers to his contribution to the National Curriculum Framework.
The panel also includes Vandana Mishra, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and former national secretary of the ABVP, along with Ravi Rameshchandra Shukla, an associate professor at JNU whose academic work includes research on cultural and spiritual nationalism.
Other members include academics from several institutions, including JNU, National Law University, Delhi University, IGNOU, Pondicherry University and Utkal University, besides NCERT officials and school educators.
The NCERT notification stated that the team would consult various curricular groups and review textbooks to ensure the integration of themes such as “cultural rootedness, Indian knowledge systems, inclusion, educational technology, assessment, etc,” while promoting interdisciplinary connections and multilingual perspectives.
