No ‘paani’ or ‘abba’ in Bengali textbooks: Govt panel plans syllabus revamp from 2027

In Bengali language textbooks for government schools across West Bengal, water will soon be ‘jol, never ‘paani’, and a father will be ‘baba’, not “abba”. The change is part of a sweeping syllabus overhaul recommended by a committee appointed by the Suvendu Adhikari government in July this year, which also decided to insert the life of Hindu nationalist icon Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and cut portions on Mughal rule and Marxist philosophy.

Kalyani University professor Debashis Chatterjee, who heads the syllabus and curriculum review committee, said words such as ‘paani’, ‘abba’ and ‘ammi’ would be dropped from Bengali-language school textbooks. “We usually don’t use these words while speaking in Bengali. Instead, words which we use every day, such as ‘jol’, ‘baba’ ‘ma’ will be used,” he told HT.

The first version of the new textbooks is targeted to be out in January 2027.

Chatterjee said the committee avoided major changes to the textbooks because they were working against a tight deadline.

“Time was very short. By January 2, the new books have to be delivered. More than 120 million books need to be published. So we didn’t make any major changes to the syllabus this time. Instead, we made some minimum amendments and corrections that were needed,” he added.

The textbooks will also include details about archaeological findings from Sinauli (UP) and Rakhigarhi, an Indus Valley civilisation site in Haryana, that have been cited to challenge theories on Aryan migration.

“We were taught that Aryans ‘brought civilisation with them’ to India and it was they who brought chariots and horses with them. But recent excavations at Sinauli in Uttar Pradesh and Rakhigarhi in Haryana have helped to challenge this theory. These latest facts will be included in history books,” Chatterjee said.

A senior committee official said portions on Mughal history, chapters on British colonial history in India and those on Marxism have been curtailed from the history books.

“While iconic poems and plays such as Rabindranath Tagore’s Shivaji Utsav and Dwijendralal Roy’s Mewar Patan (Fall of Mewar) have been included in the books, the play on Siraj-ud-Daulah has been dropped. Also, Tagore’s poem ‘Africa’ has been dropped,” the official said.

The previous Mamata Banerjee government had added chapters to history books on its anti-land acquisition movement in Singur and highlighted its Kanyashree project, which provides financial assistance to school girls. Both are being dropped.

West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said on October 25 that the state government was revamping the school education system and had yet to receive the syllabus-cum-curriculum committee’s final report.

Adhikari also said the government may prohibit use of mobile phones in schools, abolish the no-detention policy, and reintroduce the National Cadet Corps (NCC) scheme in schools.

“Personally, I am in favour of banning the use of mobile phones in schools and reintroducing the ‘pass-fail’ policy. National Cadet Corps, National Service Scheme and Bratachari should be brought back in schools as a part of co-curricular activities,” Adhikari told reporters.