Condemning ‘saffronisation’ of school syllabus, the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti would launch a State-wide protest on Tuesday demanding the State government to scrap the new textbooks and continue the old syllabus. The samiti also demanded resignation of Primary and Secondary Education Minister B.C. Nagesh.
D.G. Sagar, State convener of the samiti, addressing a press conference in Kalaburagi on Saturday said that the samiti would stage a protest in all the district headquarters to exert pressure on the government to withdraw the revised textbooks and continue with the textbooks reviewed by the previous committee headed by Baragur Ramachandrappa.
Mr. Sagar said that scientific temperament has been ignored in the revised curriculum, and they have also dropped the writings of authors who have consistently upheld the constitutional values of the society.
The textbook review committee that was headed by Rohith Chakratirtha had removed a Kannada poem “Nee Hooda Marudina‘‘ from Class VI, written by litterateur Channanna Walikar. In Class VII, they have removed the details of B.R. Ambedkar’s life, his birth place and parents name. The Mahad movement and entering the Kalaram temple of Nasik, which were mentioned in previous syllabus, were also removed by the new review committee.
He said that the committee that revised the textbooks dropped the phrase “Architect of the Constitution of India” for Ambedkar, and it was mentioned in the previous textbooks that were framed by the commerce headed by Mr. Ramachandrappa, he added.
In Class X Social Science textbook, in the chapter “Era of Gandhi and National Movement”, they have removed the sentence that “Ambedkar embraced Buddhism as a last resort since he believed that the empowerment of Dalits and downtrodden was not possible within the folds of Hinduism” , which was present in previous curriculum.
They have also dropped the lessons on Bhagat Singh, Narayan Guru, Tipu Sultan, and deleted the mention of social reformer Periyar, he said.
Mr. Sagar said that if the government failed to withdraw the revised syllabus, the samiti would intensify its agitation.
