The State Cabinet in Karnataka has approved 45 changes to be made in the Kannada and Social Studies textbooks for classes VI to X. These changes include the removal of lessons on RSS founder K.B. Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue V.D. Savarkar, which were previously added by the BJP government.
A lesson by Chakravarthi Sulibele has also been dropped, while lessons on Savithri Pule, B.R. Ambedkar, and Jawaharlal Nehru, which were previously removed, will be added back.
However, the government has decided not to withdraw the entire textbooks that have already been distributed to students. Instead, a supplementary booklet containing the recommended changes will be issued. The booklet, based on the suggestions of a five-member expert committee, will reach approximately 75,000 schools across the State before the end of June.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa clarified that recalling and printing new textbooks would be costly, so providing supplementary booklets is a practical solution. The government plans to form a new textbook revision committee within a month to conduct a full revision of the textbooks from the next academic year.
dditionally, the Cabinet has mandated the reading of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution in all schools, emphasizing the importance of understanding its principles. Government and semi-government institutions will also be required to display a copy of the Preamble in their offices.
