Siddaramaiah government to revisit textbooks revised by BJP

The controversy over revision of textbooks is back with the new Siddaramaiah government deciding to revisit the content revised by right-wing thinker Rohith Chakrateertha during the BJP government's tenure.

Confirming this to DH, School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa said the government will soon constitute a committee to revisit the changes effected by the saffron party in school textbooks. "This will be discussed with the chief minister soon," said the minister.

Bangarappa said, "We had even announced revising textbooks in the manifesto and are considering it."

Reacting to the proposed move, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said it would cause "a lot of trouble and undue tension for children".

Also Read | BJP not disturbed by probe into its projects: Basavaraj Bommai

Denying that the move will cause confusion among children, Bangarappa said, "Since schools are set to reopen and most of the books have reached schools, students, teachers and parents need not worry about the revision as there will be separate instructions to teachers in case any chapters are dropped."

Bangarappa's statement comes a day after a set of intellectuals and litterateurs met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday and submitted a memorandum demanding withdrawal of textbooks revised by the Chakrateertha-headed committee.

The BJP government, which came to power in 2019, had objected to textbooks revised by Baragur Ramachandrappa and announced revising them. In 2021, it constituted a committee headed by Chakrateertha to revise the textbooks framed by Ramachandrappa during the previous Congress government which accused the then BJP government and a committee headed by Prof Mudambadithaya of saffronisation of textbooks.

The Chakrateertha committee recommended the removal of some lessons including those by prominent litterateurs like P Lankesh and Kuvempu and included lessons by some right-leaning writers. It also removed lessons on glorification of Tipu Sultan.

The inclusion of a speech by RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in the Class 10 textbook created a controversy, following which several senior litterateurs, including Devanuru Mahadeva, announced withdrawal of permission to use their writings in the textbooks.

Meanwhile, the private schools association has objected to litterateurs and intellectuals pressuring the chief minister over revision of textbooks, calling it an unhealthy development in the field of education.

In a statement released to the media, D Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka said, "The chief minister and other ministers concerned must consider the opinions of parents, students, teachers and other stakeholders before deciding on revision of textbooks or on rejecting the National Education Policy."

The association said that the previous government had also created confusion over textbooks. "This government, instead of creating confusion, must call a meeting of stakeholders and take a decision," Kumar said.

Bommai said his government had made 'suitable' changes to school textbooks "keeping our country's rich culture, tradition and literature in mind". "Now, if they (Congress government) want to reconstitute a review committee, so be it. Society itself will give befitting reply to such moves," he said.

Bommai said generally, textbooks should not be reviewed in such a short span of time as it creates a lot of trouble and undue tension for children.

"Responsible governments should keep this in mind," he said, adding that scrapping the National Education policy (NEP) will also put students under huge stress as schools and colleges have already revised their syllabus and courses based on the NEP.