Bengaluru: A new issue has arisen in Karnataka over accusations that the BJP-led government is "rewriting history," as the textbook revision committee is said to have included a section on Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in the state's updated high school curriculum.
According to the Kannada textbook for class 8, while Mr. Savarkar was incarcerated in the Andaman jail, he would perch on the wings of a bird and fly away to see his home country.
"There was not even a keyhole in the cell where Savarkar was incarcerated. But, Bulbul birds used to visit the room, and Savarkar used to sit on their wings and fly out and visit the motherland every day," a passage in the new textbook says.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS—the ideological guru of the BJP—and the opposing Congress have clashed about Mr. Savarkar's participation in the Indian liberation fight.
