After violence over removal of Veer Savarkar's flexes in Shivamogga, Karnataka, and opposition to placing his picture next to Lord Ganesh's idols during Vinayaka Chaturthi, social media is discussing the exaggeration of Veer Savarkar in school textbooks. With this, the textbook revision row has yet again resurfaced in the state. The Education Department has replaced a lesson from the Kannada textbook for Class VIII, as stated in a report by IANS.
Veer Savarkar was a politician, activist and writer and also played a formidable role in the Hindu Mahasabha. He also developed the Hindutva political ideology.
The previous lesson "Blood Group" authored by Vijayamala has been replaced with "Kalavanu Geddavaru" (Those who won against time) by KK Gatti. The lesson is a first person account of the author's visit to the Andaman cellular jail where Veer Savarkar was kept.
The writer has also depicted the cell of Veer Savarkar and stated that though Savarkar's cell did not have any ventilation, BulBul birds managed to fly in and Savarkar sat on their wings and touched the earth of motherland every day. The social media campaign says the facts have been exaggerated, as per IANS.
Meanwhile, Tumakuru University in Karnataka is all set to establish the research centre on Veer Savarkar, which is likely to create fresh controversy. The syndicate meeting has approved the decision and preparations are on to submit a proposal in this regard to the government, sources explained, as per IANS.
The Textbook Revision Committee, headed by Rohit Chakrathirtha, had earlier revised Social Science textbooks of Classes VI-X and Kannada textbooks of Classes I-X. Among 534 titles, 83 were revised and approved. But after objections by several sections of society over a few chapters, the Education Department took up re-revision of textbooks and made eight corrections and approved them. These eight corrections are now printed in the booklet.
