‘Karnataka government trying to saffronise school textbooks’

Swaraj Abhiyan Karnataka has accused the Karnataka government of attempting to ‘saffronis’ school textbooks by eliminating information pertaining to new religions, such as Jainism and Buddhism, from the class six social science textbooks.

This comes after the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) decided to withdraw two pages from a lesson, ‘Birth of new religions’, that was part of the class VI social studies textbook. The content talked about some of the practices during the later Vedic period, and included parts on Jainism and Buddhism.

The decision was taken on the basis of instructions by Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar. Earlier, a delegation from the Brahmin Development Board had petitioned Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa that certain contents in this chapter be omitted since it ‘hurts the sentiments’ of the community.

“The removal of information about the later Vedic period is nothing but an attempt to saffronise the syllabus by undermining the teachings of Buddhism and Jainism, which, however, are very relevant today,” reads the press release by Swaraj Abhiyan Karnataka. They demanded that the government immediately withdraw the notification to omit the two pages.

Last week, Mr. Kumar had ordered formation of a committee to look into these omission after a few groups had taken objection to the same.