NCERT Removes Paika Rebellion from Class VIII Textbook!
New Delhi: In a blow to Odia Asmita, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has excluded the Paika Rebellion of 1817 from the Class VIII textbook.
The decision to remove the historic rebellion from the NCERT’s newly updated Class VIII social science textbook, “Exploring Society: India and Beyond” has triggered political backlash and public criticism, particularly from Odisha.
The updated textbook replaces this section with chapters on four other early revolts – The Sannyasi-Fakir Rebellion (post-1770 Bengal famine), The Kol Uprising (1831–32, Chota Nagpur), The Santhal Rebellion (1855–56, Jharkhand, Bihar, Bengal) and The Indigo Revolt (1850–62, eastern Bengal), as per reports.
In 2017, then Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had urged the Centre to officially declare the Paika Rebellion as India’s first war of independence—a demand supported at the time by Dharmendra Pradhan, who was then the Petroleum Minister and is now the Education Minister.
That same year, the NCERT included a section on the Khurda uprising in school curricula, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi honored descendants of 16 Paika families, announcing ₹200 crore for commemorative projects. In 2019, then President Ram Nath Kovind laid the foundation for a memorial at Barunai near Khurda, further affirming the rebellion’s national significance.
In the earlier 2017 edition of Our Past–III, the Paika Rebellion was prominently featured and described as the first anti-British uprising in India.
Rabindra Nath Behera, Samajwadi Party’s Odisha president, slammed the move to exclude Paika Rebellion as a direct blow to “Odia Asmita” (Odia pride), accusing the NDA government of attempting to erase the state’s rich legacy of resistance.
Behera expressed dismay over the omission, calling it an “insult to the valor and sacrifice of the Paikas”.
He questioned how such a decision could be made under the watch of Dharmendra Pradhan, a leader from Odisha who once vocally championed the rebellion’s legacy.
The erasure is not just academic—it wounds the collective memory and pride of our people, he said.
The NCERT has not yet released an official explanation for the curriculum change.
Meanwhile, the debate raises broader concerns about who decides what history gets taught, and how regional narratives are treated in the shaping of national identity.
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