Glorifying ancient scriptures can prove to be embarrassing. The National Council of Educational Research and Training has obviously decided to meet the challenge head-on. The chapter on Vedic society in the new social sciences textbook for Class IX claims that caste was initially not inherited by birth but was occupation-based. So Vedic texts do not indicate any fixed social status for different castes presumably because being occupation-based, castes were mobile, functional, rather than rigid. Apparently, caste was the result of a value system that placed knowledge above all else, then power and wealth. (What value was accorded to ‘functions’ below that?) Was the value system derived from the hymn in the Rig Veda which itemises the parts of Purusha from which the four castes originate? In it, Brahmins issue from the mouth and Shudras from the feet. Having glossed over India’s traditional hierarchical social structure, the text emphasises equality rather than inequality. It mentions the principle of samatva or sameness, invoking the Mahabharata, which has characters from all castes supposedly upholding this principle. This cosy interpretation for students of a layered past is misleading and unbefitting an agency tasked with overseeing education.

The same chapter mentions that Manusmriti, a much later text, honoured women as in Vedic times. Then they were respected, had scholarly learning, and participated in rituals alongside the men. The text admits that this status may have declined with social changes. The NCERT’s temerity is to be admired. Manusmriti, which B.R. Ambedkar burnt, is generally known for its codification of social and gender inequality. It sees society in terms of the four castes and defines ‘impure’ groups and outcastes. Upper castes have to undergo purification if they come in contact with the latter. The textbook quotes one verse from the Manusmriti to prove its point about it honouring women. But in it, the rights to education and resources are reserved for the upper castes and women are simply property. Ironically, a Class VI textbook says that Shudras were not allowed to perform rituals and neither were women. The NCERT is probably in a dilemma. It has to convince the young of the glories of India’s past by introducing them to the scriptures, which must be shown to match modern understandings. Perhaps it is aiming at a generation brought up on false history.