The State government issued a notification making eight corrections in the Class I to Class X Kannada and Social Science textbooks. This comes following objections raised by members of the public, people’s representatives, and seers of various communities to the changes made in the textbooks by the Textbook Revision Committee, headed by Rohith Chakrathirtha.
However, the Opposition, writers, educationists, and seers have said the corrections made were “too inadequate” and demanded the withdrawal of the revised textbooks entirely. There have been hundreds of objections raised to the revised textbooks. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said while some changes had been brought in, the government had also decided to not change many things in the revised textbooks.
Some of the major changes accepted by the government include adding the prefix “Samvidhana Shilpi” to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in the Class IX textbook, which was there in the previous textbook but was dropped by the Rohit Chakrathirtha Committee. The government has also agreed to reinsert lines of the contributions of prominent Siddaganga Math and Adichunchanagiri Math and achievements of Surapura Naikas, that were dropped, assuaging the “hurt feelings” of Lingayat, Vokkaliga, and Naika communities. A lesson on Bhakti and Sufi saints, including passages on Purandaradasa and Kanakadasa will be re-added in Class VII Social Science textbook, the notification said.
However, there is no clarity on how the passage on 12th century reformer Basaveshwara will be edited. There had been objections raised by Lingayat seers on dropping lines that informed of the revolt of Basaveshwara against Brahminism. The Chief Minister had said the lesson would be suitably edited so as to not hurt any feelings. The notification issued on Monday, says an edited version on Basaveshwara will be included, but offers no clarity on its contents.
The changes to the revised textbooks would be brought out in the form of the booklet and distributed across schools, as revised textbooks have already been printed and distributed in schools.
