June 24, 2009 11:51:02 pm
Suspecting mischief in the distortion of Malayalam version of Urdu poet Allama Iqbal’s poem Sare Jahan Se Achcha in a handbook for teachers,the Kerala Government on Tuesday informed the Assembly that the Education Department would inquire into the matter.
It appeared that someone might have played mischief for deliberately distorting the poem to give it an entirely different meaning. It was difficult to believe such a thing would have happened inadvertently, Education Minister M A Baby said.
The Education Department would inquire into the matter in co-operation with the Home Department,he said in reply to a submission by M Ummer of the IUML. He said the Department had taken prompt action against the teachers responsible for the mistakes in the poem reproduced in Malayalam in the handbook for teachers of Class IV.
After a teacher reported the error,the Department withdrew the book and suspended six teachers. The teacher who found out the mistake was given a reward,he said.
The mistake was found in the lines in the poem Mazhab nahin sikhata apas mein bair rakhna (faith does not teach us to harbour grudges between us). In the version printed in Malayalam,the name of Prophet Muhammad figures in place of the words Mazhab nahin.
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