Rajasthan textbooks peppered with gaffes and errors: panel

A striking picture of Gautam Buddha features in the lesson on Jainism  founder Mahavira, while a social science book depicts the Indus Valley civilisation as the Sindhu Saraswati civilisation.

These were among several gaffes, inappropriate jokes and  not-so-subtle attempts at ‘saffronisation’ found by an expert panel reviewing textbooks introduced by the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE).

They similarly noted with disbelief a chapter in the Hindi textbook of class six students, where a godman is seen telling a man with marital woes, “If I knew the solution, I would not have become a sadhu.”

The expert panel has also charged the State Institute of Education Research and Training (SIERT) of allowing questionable facts and gender bias in the textbooks.

Pointing at the way the Indus Valley civilisation has been twisted to represent the Hindutva interpretation of history, Rajasthan University Political Science professor Lad Kumari Jain, one of the panellists, has asked the class 9 Social Science textbook to be withdrawn.

The expert panel is headed by Delhi University professor Apoorvanand and former Dean of Social Science at Rajasthan University Prof Rajiv Gupta. “The course books are replete with factual errors. It will not help improve the knowledge and competence of the students,” educationist Kamal Sharma, reviewing the Environment Science books, told DH.

Jaipur Jain Society Secretary Mahendra Patni has asked SIERT and RBSE to withdraw the textbooks. Earlier, SIERT came under the lens for deleting the names of Jawaharlal Nehru and other freedom fighters from the textbooks.