School textbooks: Rohith Chakrathirtha's appointment criticised

The appointment of Rohith Chakrathirtha as the chairperson of the committee has upset several academicians, who said it was an attempt to ‘saffronise’ textbooks

The state department of public instruction seems to have stirred a hornets' nest by reconstituting a committee to review school textbooks.

The appointment of Rohith Chakrathirtha — a writer with strong right-wing beliefs and member of the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) — as the chairperson of the committee has upset several academicians, who said it was an attempt to ‘saffronise’ textbooks even as Chakrathirtha asked those concerned to wait for the final report.

Prof Baragur Ramachandrappa, who previously headed the textbook revision committee, was quite blunt.

“Small errors in textbooks can be rectified. But reviewing the entire content that was changed by the committee is unacceptable,” he said. “There were 27 subject committees with about 172 members who had worked on the textbooks. If there are any errors, the same needs to be corrected by these subject experts. Party politics and prejudice should not interfere in the textbook issue.”

Senior academician Dr VP Niranjanaradhya said this is the first step “towards the saffronisation of education in Karnataka as outlined in the New Education Policy (NEP): to build an education system based on Indian ethos and traditions”.

“This must be opposed at the beginning itself,” he said. “Schools have been shut for almost one and a half years. Without discussing a well-thought programme to address this education emergency, they are engaged in such a repugnant job of rewriting history textbooks.”

Congress leader and former MLC Ramesh Babu has written to Education Minister B C Nagesh to change the head of the committee. “The person appointed as chairperson for the textbook review committee is well known for his Hindutva ideology. Appointing him to review the textbooks will have adverse effects,” Babu wrote in his letter.

Reacting to the issue, B C Nagesh said, “I have been receiving complaints about mistakes in textbooks from various parts of the state. To address the complaints, we have constituted a committee to look into such mistakes. A decision will be taken after receiving the
report.”

Several associations also reacted sharply at the appointment.

D Shashi Kumar, General Secretary of Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said, “The textbooks committee should involve stakeholders including representatives from private schools as per the government order. We condemn the constitution of the committee keeping stakeholders away.”

Chakrathirtha, the man at the centre of the storm, asked academicians to be patient.

“Raising objection even before the submission of the report is like deciding on students’ performance even before writing the examination. If they are true academics, let them wait for the final report and discuss or criticise later,” he said.

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