Karnataka Govt drops chapter on RSS founder KB Hedgewar

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 15 : Karnataka Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa on Thursday announced to drop a chapter on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) founder KB Hedgewar from the school syllabus.

"Syllabus on KB Hedgewar has been dropped. Whatever changes they (previous govt) have done last year, we have changed it and reintroduced whatever was there last to last year," said Madhu Bangarappa, on the revised textbook syllabus.

"Hedgewar chapter has been taken out. Whatever was manipulated has been omitted and reintroduced whatever was there last to last year. All the details will be available very soon," the Education minister added.

Keeping the promises made in the manifesto before the polls, the Siddaramaiah government held a cabinet meeting here today to implement revisions in the syllabus of school textbooks.

Minister Bangarappa further added, "Today in the cabinet meeting as we had committed in our manifesto that in the interest of the children, we are going to take certain decisions and change certain chapters."

According to reports, the Congress-led Karnataka government scrapped the chapter from the Class X Kannada textbook. This chapter had been introduced in the state syllabus during the previous BJP government's tenure.

"There are certain issues and the five-member committee has been formed. A lot of people who were involved had pressurised our Chief Minister for a few changes. So in the interest of the children, we have done the least. Within a week, the notifications would reach the schools," said Bangarappa.

A series of decisions taken by different states has put the spotlight back on the debate around the establishment tailoring school texts to suit its political bent.

Both Congress and BJP allege each other of changing the textbooks as per their preferences when they are in power in a particular state.

While BJP alleges Congress for focusing too much on Mughal history in textbooks, Congress alleges the BJP of "whitewashing" and "distorting" history.

In Rajasthan, textbooks are said to change every five years as the two parties alternate in power, while the Gujarat government incorporated parts of the 'Bhagavad Gita' in Class 6-10 syllabi.

Political players defend their decisions to tweak textbooks as a response to rivals' attempts to manipulate the narrative.

But historians and academic experts urge caution. It is important to update texts as more information comes to light, they say, but add that no winners can come off turning textbooks into ideological battlegrounds.