new delhi after a long wait and a bitter ideological battle ncerts textbooks are now being camera readied and if the history textbook of class ix india and the contemporary worldi available with the times of india is anything to go by the content lives up to the promise of studying subjects ranging from the french and russian revolutions to the history of cricket and cloth in a different and exciting mannerwhile the french revolution is old hat competing with new topics like cricket and cloth the manner in which these have been dealt with would definitely create more socially aware cricket fans and take cloth beyond mere fashion statements and ramp showstake cricket from tracing the games historical evolution in england the book in a highly narrative style explains how cricket was the earliest modern game with its own set of laws drawn up in 1744 which changed subsequently a process still in vogue by relying on works of noted cricket writers like mike marqusee the book explains how the game despite changing so much over centuries has remained fundamentally true to its origin since it still relies on natural preindustrial materialtalking of the evolution of cricket in india the textbook is clear that it was organised on the principle of race and religion giving birth to parsi muslim and hindu clubs whoever was not part of this set played for the rest vijay hazare a christian being one of them while talking of greats the book does not miss out on palwankar baloo one of the earliest dalit cricketers resurrected in recent times by social historians lending a contemporary touch to cricket the textbook devotes a section on how commerce has changed the game in this regard it explains the kerry packer phenomenon of the 1980s coloured clothing night cricket satellite television and million dollar endorsementsstudents would be subjected to a similar enlightened history of clothing worldwide and in india especially the designing of the national costume by rabindranath tagore and others of his family there is a separate section on the role of clothing especially gandhi and the gandhi cap during the national movement what adds to the text is the relation shown between clothing and the notion of beauty and how women react to these norms in this context the text traverses john keats stereotypical description of his ideal woman like a milkwhite lamb that bleats for mans protection to the registrar generals 9th annual report of 1857 criticising the indian corset and c kesavans autobiography jeevita samaram of his motherinlaws first encounter with a blouse given to her in late 19th century a common thread throughout the textbook is the way primary sources have been introduced to students in the chapter on french revolution there are citations from letter by georges danton active in revolutionary politics to his friend in 1793 arthur youngs journey in france from 1787 to 1789 journalist jeanpaul marats comments on the french constitution as well as