New Delhi, 31st July 2025: The topic of Odisha’s Paika Rebellion has been removed from NCERT textbooks by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Education.
In 2017, the Paika Rebellion of 1817—an early armed uprising against British rule—was included in the Class 8 Social Science (History) textbook, portraying it as India’s first freedom struggle. However, in the newly revised NCERT textbook, only four early uprisings against British rule are included, with no reference to any public movement or rebellion from Odisha.
The chapter titled “The Colonial Era in India” now features:
The Sanyasi-Fakir Rebellion (after the 1770 Bengal famine),
The Kol Rebellion in Chotanagpur (1831–32),
The Santhal Rebellion in Odisha, Bihar, and Bengal (1855–56),
The Indigo Revolt in northeastern Bengal (1850–62).
Notably, no mention of the Paika Rebellion is made in the new edition.
In December 2021, then Union Culture Minister G. Kishan Reddy informed Parliament that the Paika Rebellion, which took place in March 1817, had been recognized by the Central Government as India’s first war of independence. This followed an appeal by the then Odisha Chief Minister, who had formally written to the Centre requesting such recognition.
However, an expert review panel including the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) had earlier stated that the Paika Rebellion could not be officially termed the first war of independence based on historical evidence. Instead, the rebellion was suggested as a “case study” of early resistance in the 2017 textbook.
Though the rebellion—led by Odisha’s Paikas (armed militia)—lasted from 1817 to May 1825, it served as a source of inspiration for future uprisings against British rule. On December 8, 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind had laid the foundation stone for a ‘Paika Rebellion Memorial’ at Barunei Hills in Khordha district of Odisha.
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