Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has expressed his dissatisfaction regarding the omission of the 1817 Paika Rebellion from the newly released Class 8 history textbook by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). He characterized the uprising as a “watershed moment in Odisha’s history,” asserting that its exclusion is an injustice to the legacy of the Paikas, who instigated an armed revolt against British rule nearly 40 years prior to the 1857 uprising, which is widely acknowledged as India’s First War of Independence.

Patnaik took to X (formerly Twitter) to state, “I have repeatedly urged the central government to recognize the Paika Rebellion as the first war of Independence. Its omission from NCERT’s new textbook is profoundly disrespectful to the bravery of the Paikas, particularly over two centuries after their sacrifice.”

He also called upon the current Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to take necessary actions to acknowledge the significance of the Paika Bidroha and to deliver justice to the people of Odisha.

In response to the backlash, NCERT provided a clarification, stating that the textbook in question, Exploring Society: India and Beyond, is the first part of a two-volume series for Class 8 Social Science. The second volume, which will address important regional resistance movements such as Odisha’s Paika Rebellion and Punjab’s Kuka Movement, is nearing completion and is anticipated to be published by September or October 2025.

In a press release dated July 16, 2025, NCERT mentioned that the new textbooks have been created in accordance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023. The revised content aims to offer students an interdisciplinary and accessible understanding of India’s historical, economic, political, and geographical development from the 13th century to the mid-19th century.

The NCERT highlighted that the newly developed textbooks aim to alleviate content overload while fostering critical thinking skills. They also pointed out that all the information presented in the book is derived from reliable primary and secondary academic sources. Additionally, a special section named History’s Darker Period has been incorporated on page 20 to provide a more profound historical context and assist learners in reflecting more critically on the events discussed.