New Delhi, March 11 Texts by Indian authors such as Tamil poet Subramania Bharati, Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murty, Naga writer Temsula Ao, Rabindranath Tagore, and Assamese novelist Mitra Phukan have been included in the new English textbook for Class 9, published by the NCERT.
In the previous textbooks—used in schools from the 2006-07 to the 2025-26 academic sessions—15 out of the 29 texts were written by international authors.
According to officials, the number of textbooks for the subject has been reduced from two to one, and the number of texts from 29 to 16, with an equal number of texts written by Indian and international authors.
The new Class 9 English textbook, titled "Kaveri," begins with a story taken from Sudha Murty's 2004 book, "How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories."
The book, prepared according to the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023, will replace the earlier textbooks "Beehive" and "Moments."
The new Class 9 textbook, which includes "elements of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS)," contains 16 texts—eight by Indian authors, including Subramania Bharati, Sudha Murty, Temsula Ao, Mitra Phukan, and Rabindranath Tagore, and six by foreign writers such as David Roth, Charles Swain, Bryanna T. Perkins, Robert Langley, Maya Anthony, and Irene Chua.
Six texts are by foreign writers such as American poet David Roth, English poet Charles Swain, American children's writer Bryanna T. Perkins, poet Robert Langley, writer Maya Anthony, and Singapore-based author Irene Chua.
The book also includes an anonymous poem, "Gifts of Grace: Honouring Our Vocations," and an interview-based piece titled "The World of Limitless Possibilities," featuring an interview with Paralympic athlete Deepa Malik.