NCERT textbook withdrawal: It’s ultimately about securing the majesty of law
School textbooks rarely get recalled after their rollout, but it happened this week with a social science book withdrawn by India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), a government institution. Of the 38 copies sold on Monday at an NCERT counter in Delhi, 16 had been taken back by Wednesday, as reported, with UPI data trails being sought to retrieve a few proving hard to trace. This recall followed a swift order from the education ministry in response to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s objection to a part on “corruption in the judiciary.” A thin online sample suggests two kinds of reactions popped up on social media to the court’s intervention.
Some teenagers wondered why it’s such a big deal if AI chatbots could scroll out so much on that topic anyway. A cynical few joked about how a scandalous copy could turn into a collector’s item worthy of an auction someday. For all the banter that NCERT’s rollback may have inspired among students, this episode should prompt us to reflect on the majesty of law—a solemn matter in any republic.
Among the effects of the prevailing digital overload is a marked loss in the weight of the written word. Social media has relaxed the use of language to a level so casual that even printed text has been a casualty.Officially issued texts, however, must resist that tide and meet a far higher bar of formality and truth. School textbooks are in a special category.
This is not voluntary reading. These texts are prescribed as part of a syllabus on which students are tested for academic proficiency. Hence, in general, such study material must always take a minimalist approach.As a matter of prudence, foundational texts must not stray beyond what’s essential to the
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