Portions of a textbook prescribed by the Bangalore University II year undergraduate syllabus are drawing the ire of a right wing students' organisation, even as the controversy over H. Nagaveni's Kannada novel, Gandhi Banda , in Mangalore University is yet to die down.
In response to the demand by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to withdraw the lessons in the third semester Kannada textbook — some of which are seen by the organisation as “offensive” on religious grounds and others on the ground they have explicit sexual content — a group of prominent intellectuals has petitioned the Vice-Chancellor not to heed the demand.
Under the banner of the Karnataka Lekhakiyara Sangha (women writers' forum), they have said that ABVP's objections to Sabiha Bhoomigowda's essay, “Komuvada mattu Mahile” (Women and communalism) and Shashikala Veeraiahswamy's poem “Nanna Avatara” is an “intellectual attack on women writers”.
Gujarat riots
ABVP's Prem argued that the lessons were “unnecessary” and hurt people's sentiments. “There is a description of the abuse of women during the Gujarat riots. How is this helping students? Even teachers have told that these parts are difficult to teach and they usually skip them,” he said.
Interestingly, objections are being raised now even though the textbook was introduced in last year and one batch of students has already studied it.
‘Stifling views'
Critic and writer K. Marulasiddappa, one of the signatories of the petition to the Vice-Chancellor, said the demand for withdrawal was an effort to “stifle” different points of view. “We are seeing an increasing tendency towards such undemocratic demands,” he said.
Vasundhara Bhoopati, president of Lekhakiyara Sangha, said the lessons and the poem “broaden a student's visions and are written from a humanitarian perspective.” “Buckling to the demand for withdrawal will set a bad precedent,” she said.
Set procedure
Responding to the controversy, Ms. Bhoomigowda said: “A text is included in the syllabus after it goes through a set procedure. It can neither be put there nor be removed at will because of any kind of pressures.”
She said that the article, which was presented at a seminar conducted by the Kannada Sahitya Academy in 2005-06 and published subsequently. “My intention is to talk about how communalism of all kinds affects women, without targeting any community in particular,” she said. “It is up to the Board of Studies to take a decision.”
B. Rajshekhar Murthy, State president of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) pointed out that these writers were being targeted because such groups cannot take on the big names. “These lessons are informative. As for the supposed sexual content, students would have come across similar content in biology classes in middle school itself,” he said.
Matter before the board
Vice-Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev passed the buck to the Board of Studies (Kannada), before whom the matter is now. The board is likely to bring the issue up for discussion soon in its yearly meeting, and all opinions will be taken into consideration before a decision is arrived at.
Signatories to the petition include Vimala K.S. of Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane, editor of Hosatu G. Ramakrishna, writers Boluwaru Mohammed Kunhi, H. Nagaveni, K. Shareefa, Banjagere Jayaprakash, Nagalakshmi Bai and Vijayamma among others.
