After writers, seers decry textbook revision

Muralidhara Khajane

Bengaluru: The textbook revision has put the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a huge spot of bother. 
On Tuesday,  prominent Lingayat seer Panditaradhya Shivacharya Swamiji of Tarulabalu Jagadguru Peetha criticised the textbook revision committee for the misinterpretation of Basavanna in the Social Science revised textbook, prescribed for Class 9. The criticism came a few days after Nirmalananda Swami of Adichunchanagiri Mutt (Vokkaliga Mutt) wrote a letter to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai objecting to revision panel chairman Rohith Chakrathirtha’s comments defaming Kuvempu and the State Anthem.

The chief minister understood the political implication of the development and sent State Education Minister Nagesh to meet Nirmalananda Swamiji. But the minister’s clarification apparently has not convinced Vokkaligas.  

Lingayat seer Panditaradhya Shivacharya Swamiji’s critical letter on Tuesday to the chief minister on the misinterpretation of Basavanna appears to be more serious.
He stated that “prima facie it appears that the textbook revision committee comprised one particular section of the society, while it is desirable that the committee should include experts from the field of education and scholars with social concern. Formation of the committee based on caste, party and political ideology is strictly undesirable,” he wrote.

Basavanna is a seminal figure in the Bhakti movement. He is a demi-god not only in Karnataka but also for those who dream of a casteless, classless society. Basavanna had challenged the dominance of Brahminical Hinduism and caste system from the 6th century onwards.

He is the founder of the Lingayat religion, according to hagiographic texts. Besides these two prominent and dominant communities, Dalits and Other Backward Classes are upset with the way textbook has been revised to promote Sanatana Brahminical ideas in children in Karnataka, which is known as “Sarva Janangada Shantiya Tota” (a verse from the state anthem penned by Kuvempu), meaning a garden which waters and respects all religions, castes, opinions, languages among other things.
With the textbook revision, the BJP has knowingly or unknowingly, invited unsolicited problems with the Assembly election round the corner.

It is the result of the BJP government’s over-enthusiastic initiative to please Sangh Parivar.  By the time, the BJP realised the gravity of the issue, it took a grotesque form. The party leaders, such as Prahlad Joshi, C T Ravi, Pratap Simha and others complicated the issue beyond repair. Instead of untying the complex socio-political knot, they have further tangled that. Insensibly defending the revision committee, they launched a scathing attack on writers, especially Devanuru Mahadeva, who is regarded as the “consciousness of Dalits”. Protesting what they described as an “anti-democratic act of revision committee Mahadeva and noted thinker Dr G Ramakrishna withdrew their works from the textbooks.
Meanwhile, the misinterpretation of renowned Kannada writer and Jnanapith recipient Kuvempu and 12th-century social reformer Basvanna infuriated the cultural sphere.

Prominent writers quit cultural and literary committees and bodies constituted by the government in protest against the government’s inaction against chairman of the textbook review committee Rohit Chakrathirtha, who allegedly distorted works of Kuvempu and Basavanna.
Writer and thinker S.G. Siddaramaiah, former chairman, Kannada Development Authority and Rashtrakavi Dr G.S. Shivarudrappa Prathisthana, renowned scholar Hampa Nagarajaiah, president of Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Pratishtana, noted writer H. S. Raghavendra Rao, thinkers Nataraja Budalu and Chandrashekara Nangali, resigned from government bodies in protest. They dubbed the revision of the textbook as an “unconstitutional attack and act of oppression on the fields of education, cultural and political spheres of the state”. 

Expressing concern over not initiating action against those involved in the revision and distorting of facts, they alleged that “the act is intentionally aimed at inciting communal hatred and undermining the federal structure of the State”.

Controversy is brewing by the day and several progressive writers have joined the chorus urging the government to scrap the Chakrathirtha-led textbook review committee. Protests are slowly rolling out to other parts of Karnataka. On Tuesday, students’ organisations launched agitation across the state against the imposition of a revised “convoluted” textbook.

The challenge for the BJP at the moment is to structure a counter-narrative. It is a herculean task to win back the confidence of the wounded Vokkaligas, L