The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday approved the revision of Social Science and Kannada textbooks for classes six to ten in state schools. The revised textbooks no longer have chapters on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar.
Other omissions include chapters on right-wing ideologue Chakravarthy Sulibele, Sanskrit and Kannada scholar Bannanje Govindacharya.
The government also agreed to add chapters on Savitribai Phule, Nehru’s letters to Indira Gandhi and poetry on BR Ambedkar, and roll back the changes that were introduced by the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government.
The Congress had in its poll manifesto promised to reverse the changes made to school textbooks when the BJP was in power, and had also promised to do away with the National Education Policy (NEP).
“Regarding textbook revision, the Cabinet discussed the proposal brought by the department, the lessons to be removed and added, and the decisions to be taken, and has given its approval,” Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said after the cabinet meeting, as quoted by news agency PTI.
The state’s minister for primary and secondary education, Madhu Bangarappa, said that all changes brought in by the BJP government in 2022 were rolled back, adding that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has consistently given his guidance on this.
Bangarappa had said last week the Congress has always maintained that the text books were distorted to fuel certain agenda and influence young minds.