Keep party politics out of textbooks!

The Living Stream

In use since 2017, the existing set of school textbooks in Karnataka were certainly in need of revision: many of the chapters in sociology were outdated, the discussions in economics, political science, history and geography drab and listless, and typographical and grammatical errors were found in the hundreds in the social science books. But the protests over the textbooks slated to replace them show that the Karnataka Textbooks Review Committee (KTRC) had other aims to pursue.

The writings of Kannada writers A N Murthy Rao, P Lankesh, Sara Aboobacker were dropped from the 10th standard Kannada textbook (first language) to make way for writings by Bannanje Govindacharya, a scholar of Sanskrit and Kannada, K B Hedgewar, the founder of RSS, and Shathavadani Ganesh and Chakravarthy Sulibele. Whatever else their talents might be, the latter two right-wing ideologues are simply not the people to go to for essays on Indian values and for historical profiles of Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev. Since Hedgewar’s vision of establishing the primacy of Hinduism in India is incompatible with the Indian Constitution, which views the country as multi-religious, a debate is needed before including even his ostensibly non-political essay on how ideals matter more than individuals in a school textbook.

Also read: The spirit of Karnataka in jeopardy in textbooks

Angered at how major writers had been taken off the schoolbooks, Devanur Mahadeva, the distinguished Kannada writer, asked that his essay featured in the same book also be removed. The indifference of the Education Minister made a few other Kannada writers and poets also withhold permission for using their writings in the textbooks. This is truly a sad moment for Kannada culture.

Doubts about the credentials of Rohith Chakratirtha had indeed surfaced when he was made the chair of the KTRC committee last September. But his distasteful remarks, made in print and social media in the past that surfaced recently, revealed him as wholly unfit for the work of overseeing textbook revisions.

Making a forceful intervention, Sri Nirmalananda Swamiji, the head of the Adichunchunagiri Matha, conveyed to Chief Minister Bommai his displeasure at how someone who had disparaged Kuvempu, the great Kannada writer, and his poem which is Karnataka’s state song (nada-geethe), could ever become the chairperson of KTRC.

In another critical gesture, Sri Panditaradya Shivacharya Swami, the head of the Sanehalli Matha, alerted the Chief Minister to the distortions in the profile of Basavanna found in the revised 9th standard social science textbook. It was wrong to describe “the founder of Lingayat dharma,” he wrote, as “a reformer of Veerashaiva dharma.” He also objected to the omission of the details of Basavanna casting off his sacred thread in his pursuit of a new dharma and to how his use of simple Kannada made his movement people-oriented.

There are other problems, too, with the revisions.

In the revised 8th standard social science textbook, a chapter formerly titled, “Geographical Features and Prehistoric India,” and now retitled, “Bharathavarsha,” makes an outlandish claim: “India shares its boundaries with Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Earlier all these areas were together called as Bharathavarsha, Bharatha Khanda, Sindhudweepa, Akhandabharatha, and Greater India too.”

Among other untenable claims: India has descended from “Sindhu Saraswathi” civilisation, and not Harappan civilisation; the Vedas are “the world’s oldest available literature.” The revised 9th standard social science textbook retitles a chapter titled, “Christianity and Islam,” as “western religions.” Why the two religions which originated in Asia are being called western is bizarre.

In a display of political conservatism, a chapter in the revised 10th standard social science textbook formerly titled, “Social Movements,” and now retitled, “Collective Behaviour and Protests,” retains the sections on environmental and women’s movements but drops those on farmers’, workers’ and anti-untouchability movements.

Alas, reasons of space make it difficult to go over the numerous other difficulties with the textbook revisions.

Two days ago, Chief Minister Bommai offered to seriously examine the charges made by the Swamijis and also issued clarificatory remarks in defence of the controversial revisions. The spirit of the protests, though, was asking for something more: only the most responsible scholars and teachers must be in charge of education, and any kind of party politics must be kept out of the classroom.

The author, an ISEC Professor, looks for new ways of looking @Chandan_Gowda73