A textbook case: What’s in, what’s out of Karnataka school books | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express

Among changes carried out by Rohith Chakrathirtha: Tipu cut to size, reference to Ambedkar as 'architect of Constitution' dropped

The revision of Kannada and social sciences textbooks for classes 1 to 10 in government schools in Karnataka by a textbook revision committee set up by the state BJP government and headed by a mathematics teacher has created a political storm on account of the alleged saffronisation of the textbooks.

Since the textbooks were made available in the public domain on May 23, writers, politicians, religious seers and academics have, while accusing the government of pushing a right-wing, conservative, pro-Hindutva ideology, asked for reverting to the previous version of the books.

The ruling BJP, its education minister, right-wing ideologues, and the textbook committee head, Rohith Chakrathirtha, have argued that the new textbooks have been sanitised of a previous bias towards “communist and anti-Brahmin ideology”.

The textbook controversy is over omissions and commissions in chapters relating to religious icons such as Basavanna, the founding saint of the Lingayat community who form nearly 17 per cent of the state population, and personalities such as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution of India. Even the BJP’s Dalit MLAs have raised objections while seers from several Lingayat mutts have given the government a 10-day deadline to revise the controversial chapter on Basavanna in a ninth standard social science textbook.

The textbook row in Karnataka is expected to have political ramifications as protests continue to be staged against the changes. The Karnataka government has not indicated whether it will revert to the old textbook or brazen it out with changes to the most politically sensitive subject. For now, the government has agreed to revise the controversial chapters.

https://indianexpress.com/article/political-pulse/karnataka-school-textbook-syllabus-7965761/

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