Karnataka: Congress Govt scraps chapters on RSS Founder; brings back Ambedkar, Nehru in textbooks

Digital Desk: On Thursday, the Karnataka Cabinet approved several changes to the social science and Kannada textbooks used in the state's public schools. The modifications would add chapters on Savitribai Phule, Chakravarti Sulibele, Jawaharlal Nehru's letters to Indira Gandhi, and poetry on BR Ambedkar while removing chapters on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.

In sum, the changes made by the former BJP government in Karnataka were being undone by the current Congress government.

Madhu Bangarappa, the minister of education for Karnataka, announced the decision by saying, "Whatever changes they [the previous BJP government] had made last year, we have simply reintroduced them, that's all." Kannada and social science textbooks for students in classes six through ten would be affected by the adjustments.

Since the textbooks for the academic year have already been distributed, the newly added chapters will be taught for the time being as supplemental materials. The education minister stated that the supplemental texts will be made available to the pupils within ten days and that the textbook revision will cost between Rs. 10 and Rs. 12 lakh.

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The textbook modification is consistent with the electoral platform of the Congress party for the just-concluded Karnataka election. The Congress had pledged to roll back the changes made to school textbooks while the BJP was in office in the run-up to the election.

Aside from the regular hymns sung in schools and universities, the state cabinet of Karnataka has decided to make it mandatory to read the Preamble of the Constitution, according to HK Patil, a lawyer for the state.

The opposition Congress and some authors demanded the resignation of Rohith Chakratirtha, the head of the textbook review committee at the time, for allegedly "saffronizing" school textbooks by omitting chapters on important individuals like freedom fighters and social reformers as well as on the writings of renowned literary figures.