The newly elected congress government in Karnataka has proceeded with a revision of textbooks to undo some changes that were made by the previous BJP government.
About 18 changes will be introduced from the current academic year, nine each in Kannada and Social Studies textbooks.
Some of these changes were to undo changes which a community of left ideologues and authors referred to as saffronising the textbooks by a committee headed by right ideologue writer Rohith Chakratirtha.
Last week, Karnataka’s minister for school education and literacy Madhu Bangarappa said that these changes in textbooks will be issued to schools as additional material and plans to print and distribute these were on.
Incidentally a revisit on the textbooks’ revision was among the primary agendas on the party’s manifestos prior to the elections.
Below are some changes the Congress government has proposed:
Class 8 Kannada: ‘Kalavannu Geddavaru’ authored by KT Gatti on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar to be replaced with ‘Blood Group’ by Vijayamala Ranganath
Class 10 Kannada: ‘Nijavada Adarsha Purusha Yaragabeku’ by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar replaced with ‘Sukumara Swamiya Kathe’ by Shivakotyacharya.
Class 10 Kannada: Lesson on titled ‘Taayi Bharatiya Amara Putraru’ authored by right-wing activist and author Chakravarti Sulibele has been eliminated.
Class 10 Kannada: Dr R Ganesh’s ‘Shreshta Bharatiya Chintanegalu’ replaced with Sara Aboobacker’s ‘Yuddha’ as before.
Class 8 Kannada: ‘Bhoo Kailasha’ by Parampalli Narasimha Aithal replaced with a translation of Jawaharlal Nehru’s letter to Indira Gandhi titled ‘Magalige Bareda Patra’.
Class 6 social studies: Chapters on vedic culture, rise of new religions, human rights, women freedom fighters among seven new introductions.
Class 10 social studies: Lessons introduced to address linguistic pride. Sentences changed from the chapter “Bharathakke iruva Savalugalu matthe Pariharagalu”
Class 7 social studies: The word ‘religion’ has been replaced by ‘dharma’.
Class 7 social studies: ‘Mysuru Mattu irata samsthegalu’ chapter to be more elaborate, include details about Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, commissioners, Sir M Vishweshwaraya, Mirza Ismail etc.