The NCERT has reorganised the textbook development committee for Class 11 and 12 political science, directing it to incorporate cultural rootedness, Indian knowledge traditions, and inclusivity, with at least four members reportedly having direct or indirect associations with the RSS.
The 20 member team has been tasked with completing the Class 11 textbook by November and the Class 12 textbook by July of next year.
The textbook committee will be headed by academic and political analyst Sandeep Shastri, who serves as vice-president at Nitte, a deemed university located in Karnataka.
The textbook development team includes at least four scholars and education professionals who have documented direct or indirect associations with the RSS-linked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the BJP.
Yadunath Deshpande, currently a senior consultant with the Ministry of Education, has a long-standing organisational history with the ABVP. The organisation’s records list him as having previously held the position of joint state organising secretary for Maharashtra.
He later worked as an organising secretary within the ABVP’s Mumbai-Konkan unit. His LinkedIn profile further identifies him as a political consultant for the BJP.
Prashant Divekar has a long-standing association with Jnana Prabodhini, a Pune-based institution affiliated with the RSS.
The organisation was established in 1962 by Vinayak Vishwanath, who was an RSS member and pracharak.
In his profile on the National Mission for Mentoring portal of the National Council for Teacher Education, Mr. Divekar states that his educational approach is “rooted in Bhartiya educational philosophy” and notes that he has contributed to the National Curriculum Framework.
Vandana Mishra, a professor at the Centre for Political Studies at JNU, previously served as a national secretary of the ABVP.
Ravi Rameshchandra Shukla, an Associate Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, has served on the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Democratic Governance, a publication of the Indian Institute of Democratic Leadership–Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, an organization affiliated with the RSS.
In 2021, Devendra Fadnavis assumed the role of its president.
Prof. Shukla has conducted research focused on cultural and spiritual nationalism. He serves as the principal investigator for an ICSSR-funded project at JNU titled "The Role of Fests in Shaping Spiritual and Cultural Nationalism of Bharat: A Study of Kumbha and Magh Mela."
The team additionally includes Prakash Kandpal of JNU, Needhi Gupta of National Law University, Chetan Singhai of Chanakya University, Sukanshika Vatsa of Delhi University, Satish Kumar of IGNOU, Deevanshu Shrivastava of the National University of Study and Research in Law, Pranav Gupta of Jindal Global Law School, Nanda Kishor of Pondicherry University, and Swapna Prabhu of Utkal University.
The other members are NCERT representative Savita Sagar; M.N. Suresh Kumar from the Government First Grade College in Bengaluru; Diana Isabel from the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation School; and N. Bharani from SHVNM Government PU College for Girls.
Vanthangpui Khobung and Subhash Singh from NCERT will serve as member coordinator and co-coordinator, respectively.
According to an NCERT notification, the team will seek guidance from the curricular area group on social science, languages, Indian knowledge systems, environmental education, innovative pedagogy and teaching-learning material.
It will also consult other curricular area groups to ensure linkages with other grades, interdisciplinarity among subjects, and the integration of multilingual perspectives.
Each textbook will be reviewed to ensure the incorporation of cross-cutting themes, including cultural rootedness, Indian knowledge systems, inclusion, educational technology, assessment, and others, according to the notification issued by NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani.