How NCERT’s new class IX textbook is reframing medieval Indian history

A new Class IX Social Science textbook from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has reopened an old but increasingly consequential question in Indian historiography: how should medieval India be taught to a new generation?

Titled Understanding Society: India and Beyond — Part 2, the textbook was released on September 29, 2026, around six months after the new academic session began. Its first part was introduced in June. The new volume contains a chapter titled “Resistance and Resilience (1000 CE–1700 CE)”, which places considerable emphasis on the resistance mounted by Indian rulers and communities against Arab, Turkic, Mughal and European forces.

The chapter has already attracted attention because of the way it describes invasions into the Indian subcontinent, the prominence it gives to resistance narratives, its account of Mughal-Sikh relations, and its references to traditional beliefs surrounding rulers receiving swords from Hindu goddesses.

From invasion to resistance

One of the most consequential formulations in the textbook appears at the beginning of its discussion of the period. It states that from the seventh century onwards, the Indian subcontinent witnessed successive invasions driven by territorial expansion and religious motives. It also identifies the agricultural surplus generated by fertile river-fed plains as one of the reasons that made the region attractive to invaders.

The chapter subsequently describes Arab attacks from the middle of the seventh century and the resistance offered by rulers across the Deccan, Malwa, Kashmir and Rajasthan. It refers to Mahmud of Ghazni's first invasion in 1001 and discusses resistance to Turkic expansion in northern and western India. Peninsular India, it notes, remained outside Turkic control during this period.

The textbook's organising principle is significant. Rather than presenting medieval history primarily through successive dynasties and imperial formations, it gives substantial space to the idea of resistance—the defence of sovereignty, alliances, regional political formations and the preservation of cultural traditions.

This emphasis is also visible in NCERT's published syllabus for the chapter, which identifies “safeguarding sovereignty: resistance, alliances and confederacies” as a central theme. The syllabus also asks students to examine the cultural, political and military contributions of regional kingdoms and the ways diverse communities shaped India's history between 1000 and 1700 CE.

Jats, Sikhs, Ahoms and Rajputs

The chapter gives considerable attention to resistance movements involving communities and regional powers.

In its account of the Jats, the textbook describes the community living in the Ganga-Yamuna Doab as facing heavy taxation and exploitation under Mughal rule. It records the 1669 revolt led by Gokula Jat and states that Mughal forces struggled for months to suppress it. It also discusses a later uprising in 1686.

The treatment of Sikh history is similarly prominent. The textbook discusses the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev under Jahangir and Guru Tegh Bahadur under Aurangzeb, as well as the establishment of the Akal Takht by Guru Hargobind and the development of the concept of miri-piri. The text presents the sacrifices of the Sikh Gurus as important to the subsequent development of Sikh resistance and resilience.

The Ahom resistance in Assam receives attention through the Battle of Saraighat in 1671, while the Battle of Dewair in 1582 is presented in the context of Maharana Pratap's resistance to Mughal expansion in Mewar. The chapter also discusses resistance by rulers and communities including the Hindu Shahis, Chandellas, Solankis, Chauhans and regional powers of southern India.

Importantly, the textbook also expands the historical canvas beyond the better-known male rulers. It includes figures such as Queen Naiki Devi of the Chaulukya kingdom and Rani Abbakka Chowta of Ullal, whose resistance to Muhammad Ghuri and Portuguese naval forces respectively is highlighted.

When mythology enters the history classroom

Perhaps the most debated section concerns the role of religious traditions in warfare.

The textbook discusses the longstanding worship of goddesses including Kali, Durga and Bhavani and describes traditional beliefs surrounding rulers who were believed to have received swords from divine figures.

It states that Annamaraja of Bastar was believed to have received his sword from Manikyadevi, identified with Danteshvari; that Vijayanagara ruler Kumara Kampana was traditionally believed to have used a goddess-given sword against Sultanate forces at Madurai; and that Shivaji is traditionally believed to have received a sword from Tulja Bhavani.

The wording matters. These are presented as beliefs and traditions, rather than as straightforwardly verifiable historical events. Yet their inclusion in a national school textbook raises a larger pedagogical question: how should history textbooks distinguish between documentary evidence, historical memory, religious tradition and mythology?

That question becomes particularly important when such narratives appear alongside descriptions of military campaigns and political events.

A different way of seeing medieval India

The broader shift is not simply about adding a few battles or rulers. The textbook appears to be reorganising the narrative framework through which students encounter medieval India.

The Indian Express, in its examination of the new text, noted that the revised narrative gives greater prominence to resistance and less emphasis to themes such as cooperation and the development of a composite culture that had occupied a significant place in earlier historiography.

At the same time, the textbook itself does not describe the period exclusively in terms of conflict. The NCERT syllabus includes art and architecture, languages and literature, the Bhakti tradition, forts and fortifications, and economic development alongside resistance and political sovereignty.

The question, therefore, is not whether resistance existed. It clearly did. The historical question is what proportion of the larger story should resistance occupy, and how should it be situated alongside political negotiation, economic exchange, cultural interaction, religious movements and social change?

The intellectual backdrop

The new textbook has also been discussed alongside a broader strand of contemporary Indian historiography associated with writers such as J. Sai Deepak and Meenakshi Jain.

In India, That Is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution, Sai Deepak develops the concept of “coloniality” and argues that India's encounter with European colonialism should be understood within a longer history of civilisational and cultural domination. His argument extends beyond military conquest to questions of law, religion, political thought and constitutional identity.

This framework is part of a larger intellectual argument about decolonisation—the attempt to reconsider Indian history, institutions and categories through perspectives that its proponents regard as less dependent on European intellectual frameworks.

Meenakshi Jain, meanwhile, has written extensively on temples, religious traditions and episodes of temple destruction in medieval India. In Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples, she documents instances of temple destruction and reconstruction and examines the movement of religious images in periods of political conflict.

These works belong to a wider historiographical debate over how medieval Indian history should be interpreted. Their arguments should therefore be distinguished from the NCERT textbook itself: the fact that certain themes overlap does not, by itself, establish that the textbook was directly derived from either author's work.

The question of religious motive

The most politically sensitive element of the new textbook is its explicit identification of religious motives alongside territorial expansion as drivers of invasions.

There is no single explanation for the political and military movements of the medieval period. Historians have examined a combination of factors, including territorial ambition, state formation, control over resources, taxation, political rivalry, trade routes, strategic geography and religious ideology.

The NCERT text places particular emphasis on the latter two dimensions of territorial expansion and religious motivation. Critics of the new approach have questioned whether such framing risks reducing complex historical processes to a binary of external invader and indigenous defender.

The textbook itself, however, also records alliances, regional political formations, cultural developments and other forms of interaction. That creates an important distinction between the presence of conflict in the historical record and the interpretive framework used to organise that record.

From Ghazni to the new textbook

The changes are not limited to Class IX.

Earlier revisions to the Class VII Social Science curriculum had expanded the treatment of the Ghaznavid invasions, including a substantially longer discussion of Mahmud of Ghazni and his campaigns. The issue has subsequently become part of a wider political debate over how medieval history is represented in school textbooks.

The debate is not simply about whether Mahmud of Ghazni, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals or resistance movements should be taught. It is about what students are encouraged to see as the central story.

Is medieval Indian history principally a history of conquest and resistance? Is it a history of interaction between different political and cultural formations? Is it a history of both conflict and cooperation? Or can these apparently competing approaches coexist within a single account?

History as memory—and history as evidence

The inclusion of traditional stories about divine swords makes this question particularly visible.

Religious traditions are themselves historical evidence: they reveal how communities understood rulers, power, warfare and legitimacy. But treating a tradition as evidence of a community's historical memory is different from treating the event described by that tradition as an empirically established fact.

For school students, that distinction is fundamental to historical thinking.

A textbook can tell students that Shivaji is traditionally believed to have received a sword from Tulja Bhavani. It can then ask why such a tradition developed, what it tells us about the relationship between kingship and religious authority, and how historians assess such accounts. Such an approach could turn the story into an exercise in critical historical reasoning rather than simply a statement to be memorised.

That distinction may ultimately be more important than the individual examples themselves.

What kind of history will students inherit?

NCERT's new textbook reflects a discernible shift in emphasis: medieval India is being presented substantially through the themes of invasion, resistance, resilience, sovereignty and civilisational continuity. The book also brings regional rulers, women leaders and lesser-known resistance movements into the classroom.

The significance of the change lies not only in what has been added but also in how the additions are connected.

History textbooks do more than communicate information. They determine which events appear central, which communities become historical actors, what counts as resistance, and how students understand the relationship between past and present.

The new NCERT textbook therefore raises a question that extends beyond medieval history: should a national history textbook provide students with a single coherent interpretation of the past, or equip them to encounter competing interpretations and assess the evidence behind them?

The answer will shape more than examination syllabi. It will influence how another generation understands invasion, resistance, religion, political power, cultural interaction and the making of India itself.

The controversy surrounding Understanding Society: India and Beyond — Part 2 is consequently not merely a dispute over a textbook. It is a debate over the historical imagination that India's schools will pass on to their students.

Bibliography

The New Indian Express — “NCERT book says Indian subcontinent’s colonisation since seventh century, driven by territorial, religious motives”, 29 September 2026.

The Hindu — “New NCERT social science text replaces European revolutions with resistance movements in medieval India”, 29 September 2026.

ETV Bharat — “Indian subcontinent’s invasions driven by territorial expansion, religious motives since seventh century: NCERT book”, 29 September 2026.

Deccan Herald — “Indian subcontinent’s invasions driven by territorial expansion, religious motives since seventh century: NCERT book”, 29 September 2026.

The Tribune India — “New NCERT Class Nine book highlights Arab, Turkish, Mughal, European invasions of India”, 29 September 2026.

Times of India — “New NCERT book says Indian kings invoked religious goddesses to resist religion-driven invasions”, 29 September 2026.

Asianet Newsable — “RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha defends NCERT’s Ghazni chapter, slams new scholars”, 7 December 2025.

The Print — “Shivaji, Bastar king, Vijayanagar prince fought conflicts using swords received from goddesses: NCERT book”, 29 September 2026.

Dinamalar — “New NCERT social science textbook documents lesser-known accounts of women rulers in India”, 29 September 2026.

J. Sai Deepak — India, That Is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution, Bloomsbury India, 2021.

Meenakshi Jain — Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History, Aryan Books International, 2019.

Meenakshi Jain — The Hindus of Hindustan: A Civilisational Journey, Aryan Books International, 2023.