Bengaluru
A day after 18th Century Maharaja of Mysuru Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali were given marching orders from textbooks in Karnataka, the State Government on Wednesday put the controversial move on hold.
The backtracking came after a furore over ‘selected deletion’ of lessons in Social Studies textbooks relating to Tipu Sultan, Prophet Mohammed, Jesus Christ and the Constitution, among others.
Media reports said Minister of Primary & Secondary Education Suresh Kumar ordered the Karnataka Textbook Society to put the syllabi trimming plan to be kept on hold, which means Tipu Sultan and his father will continue to remain in the pages of the textbooks.
Opposition parties and several intellectuals had slammed the BJP government for trying to use the shortened academic year as a ruse to further their political agenda. As the academic year was shortened by 120 days, a 30% cut in the syllabus was recommended as schools are expected to reopen only on September 1 in Karnataka due to the Covid-19 crisis. The Dept of State Education Research and Training then stepped in and recommended some chapters in Social Studies books relating to history of Mysuru during the time of Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali, and the Constitution, Prophet Mohammed, Jesus Christ, among others be deleted.
