Political narratives and the authorship of history textbooks-a case study from India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21345593 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Radhika Lakshminarayanan (0000-0003-4814-8189, Independent Researcher Kuwait, corresponding author), Dolly Thomas (0000-0003-3388-030X, Stella Maris College), Susan Paul (0000-0003-2791-8359, Stella Maris College) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 377-396 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-04 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Curriculum Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0272 • E-ISSN: 1366-5839 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00220272.2025.2486093 |
| OpenAlex | W4409435311 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 53 |
School history textbooks seek to provide a comprehensive understanding of the socio-cultural, political and economic forces that construct a nation’s history. However, their content is often influenced by the ruling government, with agenda-driven narratives. In India, recent efforts to rewrite the content of history textbooks using an ideological lens that aligns with the ruling government have been criticized for selective interpretation, omission and deletion of historical facts. Through a descriptive and critical analysis of current debates and history textbook amendments in India, this paper seeks to evaluate the prevalence of political interference in the historical content of textbooks and how such efforts might impact students through an online survey directed at students and history professionals from the state of Tamil Nadu. While the results indicate unanimous dissatisfaction with rising political interference, there exists considerable disagreement on who should constitute the ideal ‘authority’ responsible for textbook content. The authors conclude that history textbook content should strive for a balanced approach in presenting accurate historical facts through multiple perspectives that encourage critical thinking and objectivity rather than bigotry and xenophobic divisiveness, which could impact India’s growing image as an emergent global power
Art · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Gender Studies · History · Law · Religious Education and Schools
The intimate enemy
Revolt of the Upper Castes
Big enough? Sampling in qualitative inquiry
From decolonisation to authoritarianism
Constructing Modern Asian Citizenship
The stories we tell
Rise of the Political Right in India
The power of history
Manifestation of Women’s Rights in School Textbooks? Evidence from Social Science Textbooks in India
The Value of a Multicultural and Critical Pedagogy
Towards a Hindu Rashtra
The Political Role of the Historian
Inclusion of ‘generations of human rights’ in social science textbooks
The Curricular Indian Agent
Educate to hate
Narrative Constructions
Early Colonial India Beyond Empire
Does Journalism History Matter
The Construction of History and Nationalism in India
Rethinking Institutional Theories of Political Moderation
The Task of the Historian
Collective memory, politics, and the influence of the past
Toward an understanding of archives as a feature of collective memory
The making of memory
A Critical Theory of Subalternity
Teaching History in Schools
Stalin's Answer to the National Question
Textbook Controversies and the Demand for a Past
Introduction
Hard science, soft science
Collective Memory and Narrative Templates
The Historian, the Picture, and the Archive
Presenting History
The History Debate and School Textbooks in India
Historians and Their Duties
India's Struggle for Independence 1857-1947
Remembering and Forgetting
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |