Bengaluru: One of the complaints against state syllabus textbooks introduced by the previous BJP government was that it was saffronising them. But the new textbooks seem to be echoing its policies even now with one suggesting introducing a uniform civil code and banning votebank politics to put an end to communalism!
The textbooks posted on the official website of the Karnataka Textbook Society, that is part of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), owing to the delay in printing and supplying them this year, have left many teachers and students surprised. While dwelling at length on issues like regionalism and communalism, the Class X Social Science textbook in its political science section suggests implementing the uniform civil code and putting an end to votebank politics, appeasement of minorities and so on to control the spread of communalism.
"We are confused by this. Who has reviewed these textbooks? The old textbooks were reviewed by the present state government to desaffronise them, but some of the books are still toeing the old line,” said a teacher.
Also, if the BJP government was accused of glorifying the Sanskrit language in its school textbooks, the present class VI Social Science textbook does more of the same. It says, "In fact, during the course of the debate in the Constituent Assembly, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar argued that if there was any language worthy of being considered as national language, it was Sanskrit."
