The Madras High Court on Wednesday asked the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to consider a plea to remove a portion of a lesson for Class 9 students in their Social Science textbook, as it was degrading the Nadar community, The New Indian Express reported.

The plea was made by a Nadar forum. The judge also mentioned a communication dated October 6, in which the Regional Director of CBSE had said that the NCERT had formed a committee to review the text books but had not informed the CBSE about the decision.

The bench said that the NCERT should first examine the matter and communicate the decision to the CBSE within three months.

The first bench was headed by Chief Justice SK Kaul and Justice R Mahadevan.

The petitioner had said that the NCERT had published the text book in which they gave some wrong information about the history of the Nadar community. 

In one of the chapter, “Transformation and Colonial India”, with the sub-heading ‘caste conflict and dress change’ on page 168 of the text book, it was incorrectly written that, during the British regime, South Travancore was known as Kumari district and the natives of the district were known as Naickers and the Nadar community had come and settled there to eke out their livelihood. The petitioner alleged that this was contrary to historical facts, The New Indian Express reported.

The petitioner had then filed a notice to the authorities to rectify this mistake in the book.