Karnataka school syllabus: Hedgewar lesson, poem on Savarkar removed, Nehru letter back in textbooks

The previous BJP government in the state had added a lesson on Hedgewar when right wing ideologue Rohit Chakrathirtha was at the helm of the textbook revision committee. The Congress government reintroduced ‘Letter to my daughter’ by first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, translated by Siddanahalli Krishna Sharma, in the class 8 (Kannada language) textbook. The previous BJP government had dropped the lesson and introduced ‘Bhoo Kailasa’, by Parampalli Narasimha Aithal, which now has been axed.

Defending the dropping of Nehru’s lesson, the BJP had stated that it was more important to learn about how to be an ideal man in the society (referring to Hedgewar’s lesson) than learning what Nehru wrote to Indira Gandhi.

In addition, the Congress government has also dropped the works of other right wing ideologues such as  Chakaravarthy Sulibele and Shatavadhani Ganesh in class 10 Kannada language textbook. While Sulibele’s work ‘Heroes of Mother India’ finds no replacement,  Ganesh’s work has been replaced with that of writer Sara Aboobacker, who authored War.

The poem featuring Veer Savarkar authored by KT Gatti – introduced by the previous BJP government – has also been dropped from class 8 Kannada language textbook. It has been replaced with ‘Blood Group’ by Vijayamala Ranganath. The poem was ridiculed for mentioning how Savarkar “flew out of his jail cell on bulbuls and visited his motherland”.

In the social science textbook of class 6, the Congress government has introduced new chapters on ‘Vedic Culture’, ‘Rise of New Religions’, ‘Human Rights’, ‘Women Social Reformers’ and ‘Women Freedom Fighters’.

The government stated that these changes were made after reviewing the existing textbooks by “subject experts”.

The changes will be drafted in the form of clarification and will be distributed to all the schools following the state government curriculum.