The Karnataka government issued an order to revise the content of Kannada and Social Science textbooks for Classes 6 to 10 on Saturday, June 17. The order said that 18 significant changes have been made in the textbooks involving 15 lessons. Prior to the Assembly elections, the Congress party had pledged to reverse certain changes made in the textbooks during the previous BJP administration, should they be elected to power.
A major change in the Class 10 Kannada textbook entails the substitution of the lesson 'Nijavada Adarsha Purusha Yaragabeku,' which featured RSS founder Hedgewar, with 'Sukumara Swamiya Kathe' authored by Shivakotyacharya. Additionally, the Class 8 Kannada textbook has replaced the poem 'Kalavannu Geddavaru' by KT Gatti, which depicted Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar with 'Blood Group' written by Vijayamala Ranganath.
In the Class 8 Kannada textbook, the play 'Bhoo Kailasa' by Parampalli Narasimha Aithal has been substituted with 'Magalige Bareda Patra,' a translation of Jawaharlal Nehru's letter to Indira Gandhi. Another change involves replacing R Ganesh's 'Shreshta Bharatiya Chintanegalu' with Sara Aboobacker's 'Yudha' in the Class 10 Kannada textbook.
The Class 10 Kannada textbook no longer includes the prose piece titled 'Taayi Bharatiya Amara Putraru' by Chakravarthy Sulibele. In the Class 8 Kannada textbook, Ramanandacharya's 'Saamajika Kalakaliya Modala Shikshaki' has been replaced by HS Anupama's lesson 'Savitribai Phule'.
Significant additions have been made to the Class 6 Social Studies textbook. These new chapters contain various subjects such as Vedic Culture, Rise of New Religions, Human Rights, Women Social Reformers, Women Freedom Fighters, and about the Wodeyar kings, Sir M Visvesvaraya, and Sir Mirza Ismail within the context of princely states. These additions have been included with the objective of offering students a comprehensive understanding of diverse historical and social perspectives.
Moreover, the Class 10 Social Studies textbook has changed to promote linguistic pride. Sentences that previously conveyed regionalism and portrayed linguistic pride as narrow-mindedness in comparison to nationalism have been removed from the chapter titled "Bharathakke Iruva Savalugalu Matthe Pariharagalu" (Challenges and solutions that lie ahead of India).
According to the government's order, the revisions will be communicated to all schools through a corrigendum, and the changes will also be announced on the department's website. With these modifications, the textbook committee has reinstated a majority of the elements that were implemented during the tenure of the Congress government, under the guidance of writer Baragur Ramachandrappa, between 2013 and 2018. However, after the BJP government assumed power in 2019, the textbooks were adjusted to include various lessons on Hindutva ideologues through a committee led by Rohith Chakrathirtha.