Expert picks holes in textbook revision

Ahna Prakash | NT
Bengaluru

The revision of school textbooks, under the supervision of the state government constituted Textbook Revision Committee headed by Rohith Chakrathirtha, has sparked controversy with the opposition terming it as an attempt to ‘saffronise’ the syllabus, while the government has defended it as a “corrective” measure.

On Monday, Karnataka’s education department made eight corrections to school textbooks following objections by writers, academics and Opposition parties. G Ramakrishna, whose work on Tipu Sultan and Bhagat Singh was removed from the textbooks, says it is an attempt to distort history.

“They say it is Sarshwati civilization, not Indus valley civilization; this is playing with historical facts and rejecting history. They have removed chapters on Nehru and the non-alignment movement. Political prejudices against people should not be reflected in textbooks. The BJP doesn’t want the students to know the real history,” says Ramkrishna.

The panel was criticized for dropping works of social reformers such as Sree Narayana Guru and writers like P Lankesh. One of the examples includes the Karnataka government’s school textbook review committee recommending removal of the introductory part of a chapter, ‘ Rise of New Religions’, in the class 8 social sciences textbook and replacing it with information on Sanatan Dharma. This has sparked controversy, with the authors and educationalists saying that there is political interference in textbooks.

The Rohith Chakrathirtha committee also came under severe criticism from Lingayats, who claim that information related to Basavanna was distorted. There is also anger regarding the dropping of a chapter on B R Ambedkar, father of Indian Constitution, from the Class 9 social science textbook.

Authors say this decision is not driven by logic and rationality but by political vendetta. Many academicians also fear that this will impact students’ education. “Just because of political gains, the government should not deny students the basics of knowledge. Young students must know the correct facts about history. My problem with this decision is that they have violated every parameter of what a textbook should be. It has manipulated facts and removed important chapters that young boys and girls must know,” Ramakrishna added.

The socio-political movements that have been removed from school textbooks directly challenge social structures of caste, patriarchy, religion and they can help students in learning about our society. Ramkrishana also points out that the review committee had no female members and there was inadequate caste representation in the committee.