Hyderabad: With three weeks to go for polling in Telangana, the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has come under fire from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) over a passage in a Telugu workbook for students of Class 5, which they allege was included in the course material to hurt ‘Hindu sentiments’.
The short passage, part of the workbook compiled by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and published this academic year, says inhabitants of a place called ‘Cheyrala’ suffered many difficulties since they ‘worshipped an idol of Lord Krishna given to them by the Pandavas at the end of their exile’.
“On the advice of a Swami ji, locals discarded it (the idol) by immersing it in a water body,” read the passage, part of the workbook’s first chapter ‘Mana Jhanda’ (our flag).
“The passage, with no known connection to the Mahabharata epic, was totally avoidable,” said a Telugu teacher at a government primary school in Siddipet. “It injects unnecessary thoughts, opinions into the children’s minds about their faith, means of worship.”
The teacher, who spoke to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, added that though he was “inconvenienced” while teaching the passage, there was nothing he could’ve done as it is “what the government wants us to teach”.
Asked for comment, Radha Reddy, director of SCERT, told ThePrint that the inclusion of the passage was an “inadvertent error” and directions have been issued to withdraw it from the syllabus and that it would be expunged from publication next year. The online version of the book has already been removed, she added.
“It was an inadvertent error. There are people of all faiths working with us and nobody intends to hurt anyone with school book content, especially on religious lines,” she said.
Representatives of schoolteachers’ unions reportedly met Reddy to demand action against those responsible for the inclusion of the passage. While it was taught in class in June-July, according to the teacher, the passage caught the public eye only recently after a photo of the workbook began circulating on social media and WhatsApp groups.
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‘BRS insulted, denigrated Hindus’
The Telangana BJP and the VHP have termed the inclusion of the passage as an example of “BRS’s blatant hatred against Hindus and Hinduism”. The VHP has demanded immediate recall of the workbooks.
“The BRS led by Chief Minister KCR subscribes to the same ideology as DMK leader Udayanidhi Stalin. They insult Hindus and Hinduism time and again,” Telangana BJP spokesperson Kishore Poreddy told ThePrint.
“From removing mangalsutras of women entering exam halls to injecting poison in young minds against Hindu gods and goddesses, BRS has done everything to insult and denigrate Hindus and their religious practices,” Poreddy said, adding that those responsible for the inclusion of the passage “need to be identified and severely punished” — to set an example.
Ravinuthala Shashidhar, joint secretary of the VHP’s Telangana unit, alleged that the inclusion of the passage “appears intentional, to corrupt the minds of Hindu children”.
“Criminal proceedings should be initiated against the author, SCERT screening committee and the director for letting such despicable content into school books,” he told ThePrint, adding that the VHP will continue to raise the matter till action is initiated against those responsible.
The BRS, meanwhile, termed the charges as politically motivated.
“KCR is a more devout Hindu than PM Narendra Modi and his acolytes. He has performed yagnas on a scale never before and has rebuilt the Yadadri temple. To blame the BRS government and KCR directly for workbook content is silliness on the part of the BJP and comes across as an attempt to score brownie points ahead of the polls,” BRS leader Dasoju Sravan told ThePrint.
SCERT director Reddy said the passage was included in the workbook based on sthala-puranam (an account providing ancient significance of a Hindu place of worship) and that “only part of the original version was taken in the workbook which made it appear slanted”.
“Unfortunately, it has become an issue now,” she added.
Reddy’s clarification, however, did not find many takers.
“The confidence with which the SCERT director brushes away the matter and claims no action needs to be taken on anybody reflects the support for this act from the topmost echelons of government. If the same ‘inadvertent’ mistake was crafted against any other religion, heads would have already rolled in the SCERT,” said Poreddy.
“It is not a minor mistake, nor does it appear inadvertent on the part of a professional body like SCERT,” said Ravinuthala. “The books should be bundled away, discarded so that such junk is not read by anyone ever.”
The content in school books has always been a matter of intense debate, fuelled by instances of governments revising or deleting passages and chapters, based on their political ideology, after coming to power.
For instance, a suggestion last month by an NCERT panel to replace ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’ as the country’s name in textbooks sparked a political row with opposition parties terming it the BJP’s “Hindu nationalist agenda”.
The Telangana SCERT too courted a similar controversy in June this year, days after schools reopened for the new academic session, when the words “socialist, secular” were found to be missing from an image of the Preamble to the Constitution printed on the cover page of Class 10 social science textbook.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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