Desaffronising textbooks: Muslim body gives its list
De-saffronisation of textbooks is one of the biggest agendas of the state government run by the Congress.
By : shrinivasa m.
Update: 2015-12-17 04:01 GMT
BENGALURU: School textbooks can propogate dangerous stereotypes. For instance, imposing the belief about the ‘Cow’ as a sacred animal and equating the animal with a mother, can create prejudices among students about beef-eaters.
Glorified portrayals of Brahmin characters, pictures of Goddess Bhuvaneshwari, and a Muslim girl playing the role of Goddess Bhuvaneshwari, adding the prefix ‘saffron state’ to Kittur Kingdom, no information or a lack of it on Muslim festivals and writers, lessons only from Hindu mythology like the Ramayana and Mahabharatha, no lessons on Gandhiji or Ambedkar, Muslims and Christians participating in a temple car festival, a picture in which students are saluting the Goddess Bharatha Matha, a lesson on Jihad which is insulting to Islam, performing a pooja to the tomb of Tippu and Hyder Ali…….
These are just a few of the instances listed by the Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO) in state textbooks, which they say glorifies Hinduism and insults other religions.
De-saffronisation of textbooks is one of the biggest agendas of the state government run by the Congress. As part of this agenda, it has formed a committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Baragoor Ramachandrappa.
The Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO) has now submitted a list of issues to the committee and has urged them to look into the matter. Topping the list is portraying Hinduism and Brahminism negatively in various text books
According to sources, the Students’ Islamic Organisation (SIO) of India, Karnataka, has forwarded a 35-page review of various text books prescribed for various classes by the Department of Primary and Secondary Education.
According to Mr. Labeed Shafi, State President, the Students’ Islamic Organisation of India, Karnataka, SIO, has had primary and high school text books for the year 2015, reviewed by experts and teachers. Their observations and suggestions were submitted to the text book review committee set up by the Karnataka state government in 2015.
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