RSS Chapters Added to Delhi Government School Curriculum Under ‘Rashtra Niti’ Program

New Delhi: In a significant update to school education, the Delhi government has introduced new chapters on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other nationalist figures in its government school curriculum under the “Rashtra Niti” program. The move comes amid wider efforts by the BJP-led central government to highlight the centenary of the RSS and integrate its legacy into public life and education.

Delhi’s Education Minister Ashish Sood announced on Tuesday that lessons on figures such as Veer Savarkar, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel will be part of the new syllabus. He said the aim is to build civic responsibility and instill a sense of national identity among students from grades 1 to 12.

According to Sood, the curriculum will focus on key themes such as the importance of national duties, civic consciousness, and historical contributions of various individuals and organisations. The chapters on the RSS will cover its founding in 1925 by Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur, its ideological framework, and its involvement in social work and disaster relief efforts.

The syllabus will highlight the RSS’s role in activities such as blood donation drives, food distribution during natural calamities like the Kedarnath and Bihar floods, and relief work during the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also present the RSS’s perspective on its participation in India’s freedom struggle, with the stated objective of “correcting misconceptions” about the organisation.

A separate section in the curriculum will be dedicated to nationalist leaders like Subhash Chandra Bose and Veer Savarkar, offering students what officials describe as a “broader understanding of India’s independence movement beyond the conventional narratives.”

This development coincides with several symbolic recognitions of the RSS’s centenary year. On Independence Day this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the organisation during his Red Fort speech. More recently, on October 1, a commemorative coin was released to mark 100 years since the RSS’s founding — a first in terms of government-backed recognition for the group.

However, the move has sparked debate, with critics arguing that the curriculum changes are part of a broader effort to reshape historical narratives. Opponents have raised concerns that the revised content may downplay or omit controversial aspects of the RSS’s past, including its alleged links to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi — which, according to sources, will now be described in the curriculum as a “misunderstanding.”

While supporters see this as a long-overdue correction of historical bias, critics view it as ideological indoctrination in the guise of civic education.