Karnataka textbook revision committee disbanded, informs CM Basavaraj Bommai

After months of raging demands by various sections of people, including students, to boot out the Karnataka school textbook revision committee, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai declared that the committee had finally been disbanded, as the work it was designated to do has been completed. The Chief Minister further added that the government was open to further revision of the textbooks if any objectionable content is detected. The announcement came on Friday, June 3, through a press statement.

He also said that while there were only seven essays and poems of Kuvempu in the previous Kannada textbooks (revised by a textbook committee headed by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa during the Congress government), while there are ten works from the poet in the present revised books. He additionally informed that a chapter on Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda, the founder of Bengaluru, has been newly added to the textbooks, along with the replacement of essays on Islam and Christianity with essays on Hinduism.

Bommai also stated that the government has decided to make appropriate revisions to the chapter on 12th century social reformer Basavanna, regarding which objections have been raised by several prominent personalities and seers, as reported by PTI. It has been alleged that there are factual errors in the textbooks. Accusations of disrespecting 'Raashtra Kavi' (national poet) Kuvempu and distorting the state anthem penned by him in the textbooks have also been heaped on the committee.

Bommai has clarified in his statement that no distorted anthem has been a part of any textbook and added that the government had asked the cyber crime team to probe the issue and take action against those behind it.

The controversy over the Karnataka Class X textbooks erupted when objections were raised against the supplementing of a chapter on Bhagat Singh by a lesson on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar's speech. More objections followed regarding the omission of a chapter on Narayana Guru and several other prominent figures and their literary works in the new textbooks. Allegations were made that the textbooks were being "saffronised" and demands were placed to sack the textbook revision committee led by Rohith Chakratirtha.

The committee had been appointed by the state government to examine and revise the social science and language textbooks. The committee has partially revised social science textbooks of Classes VI to X and Kannada language textbooks of Class I to X, as reported by PTI.