Textbook row: Karnataka issues order rectifying errors

Hit by the controversy over the revision of school textbooks, the Karnataka government on Monday issued a correction order listing out at least eight errors that will be rectified through corrigendums sent to schools.

While rectifying the errors, the government has decided to retain some lessons and portions from textbooks that were designed by the previous Baraguru Ramachandrappa committee.

A majority of the errors rectified by the government are about objections and allegations raised by several people and organisations on Dr BR Ambedkar, Kuvempu, Basavanna and others.

On Basavanna, there is no clarity on whether the government will retaining old contents or add something new after consulting seers who had raised objections on the textbooks designed by the now-dissolved Rohith Chakratirtha committee.

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For Ambedkar, the government has included the term 'Architect of the Constitution' in the class 9 Social Science Part 1 textbook.

Addressing objections concerning saints, especially that contents on Kanakadasa and Purandaradasa were trimmed, the government said it has retained the lesson designed by the previous committee in class 7 Social Science part 1 textbook.

It was alleged that poet laureate Kuvempu had been "insulted". To address this, the government will add his photograph to the class 7 Social Science Part 2 textbook. Also, the sentence 'Kuvempu became a famous poet with the support from various people' will be removed. The insertion of this sentence by the Chakratirtha committee had led to protests by pro-Kannada and Vokkaliga groups.

In response to other objections, the government has added information on services rendered by the Adichunchunagiri Mutt and Siddaganga Mutt in the class 6 Social Science part 1 textbook.

Further, details on Surapura Nayaka have been included in the class 7 Social Science part 1 textbook.

"We have made several modifications. And, we've decided to continue some old contents," Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Former prime minister HD Deve Gowda had, last week, written to Bommai pointing out various mistakes in the new textbooks. The JD(S) supremo wanted the textbooks to be withdrawn.

"We will respond to (Gowda) along with a copy of the order that has been issued," Bommai said.