After the Textbook Revision Committee included his speech in a text book, Kannada medium students in class 10 will study about Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar as part of the curriculum for this academic year (2022-23).
The decision has garnered criticism, with All-India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) and All-India Save Education Committee (AISEC) has slammed the move.
In the lesson titled ‘Nijavada Adarsha Purusha Yaraagabeku’ (Who is a good male role model) added in their textbook, class 10 students, who have opted for Kannada as their first language, will have Hedgewar’s speech.
At the same time, ‘Mruga Mattu Sundari’ a piece by journalist P. Lankesh and ‘Bhagat Singh’ by leftist thinker G Ramakrishna, ‘Yuddha’ by Kasargod’s Sara Aboobacker, ‘Vyaghra Kathe’ by A.N. Murthy Rao and ‘Sukumara Swamy Kathe’ by Shivakotyacharya have been removed from the syllabus.
All-India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO), reacting to the move, said: “In the Kannada textbook, a lesson on a great revolutionary who sacrificed his life at the age of 23, Bhagat Singh, has been omitted, while a speech made by the founder of the RSS, which does not unite people but spreads communal hatred, has been added. This makes it clear that the ruling BJP and the Sangh Parivar have no regard for the great revolutionaries of the country’s independence movement, including Bhagat Singh. A lesson which condemns racial hatred, ‘Mruga Mattu Sundari’ by P. Lankesh, and Sara Aboobacker’s ‘Yuddha’ and A.N. Murthi Rao’s ‘Vyaghrageethe’ has been removed.”
However, Karnataka’s education minister BC Nagesh insisted that there was “nothing objectionable” in the inclusions and exclusions done in the textbooks.
Rohit Chakrathirtha, chairman of the textbook revision committee, told The Hindu: “There was no pressure from any political party or organisation. This does not amount to imposing any organisation’s ideology on students. We have chosen Hedgewar as a writer and not on the basis of his ideology or organisation.”
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