Isaac Newton now shares the chapter on gravity with Bhaskaracharya II. Meteorologist Anna Mani, the “Weather Woman of India”, makes her first appearance. And foreign invasion no longer figures among the reasons the Harappan civilisation declined.

These are among the changes in Maharashtra’s new Class 6 history, geography and science textbooks, introduced by Balbharati, the state’s textbook bureau, this academic year under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

A comparison of the old and new textbooks by The Indian Express shows the changes run along three lines.

Ancient Indian science, scripture and scholars have been written into all three subjects, often placed alongside, or ahead of, modern science or standardised concepts. Contemporary Indian achievements and role models have been added. And in history alone, content on caste, priestly privilege and foreign invasion has been cut.

The direction closely tracks NCERT’s own NEP-aligned textbooks, which have drawn criticism since 2024.…