Karnataka: Education minister says content related to Tipu Sultan to remain unchanged in textbooks
Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa had said that the government is considering a proposal to remove Tipu Sultan's name from school textbooks.
FollowBengaluru: Karnataka education minister S Suresh Kumar said that the chapters containing Tipu Sultan would be retained in the state's textbooks for the next academic year.
"MLA Appacchu Ranjan from Madikeri constituency had written a letter 3 months ago. As far as his letter is concerned, I instructed the formation of a committee. There should be a balanced picture about the issue highlighting both the positive and the negative angles of Tipu," Suresh told reporters.
"Already tender has been finalised to print the textbooks. We will keep the syllabus as it is for this year," he added.
Further, stating that a committee will be formed to look after the suggestions made by MLA Ranjan, he said, "We have decided to constitute another committee as per the suggestions of the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) for the issue."
Earlier, Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa had said that the government is considering a proposal to remove Tipu Sultan's name from school textbooks.
"About Tipu Jayanti, we are going to drop everything. We are also thinking to drop everything in the textbooks about him. I do not agree with people who say that Tipu Sultan was a freedom fighter," Yediyurappa had said.
October 28:
On October 28, state education minister Suresh Kumar had written to the managing director of Karnataka Textbook Society, directing him to submit a report in three days on BJP MLA Appachu Ranjan's proposal to strike off references to Tipu Sultan from history textbooks.
This happened after Ranjan wrote a letter to Kumar in which he stated that Tipu has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in textbooks and history should not be written with false facts.
"Tipu came to Kodagu, Mangaluru and other parts of the state to expand his territory. He came here just to convert people to his religion and to boost his kingdom," he had said.
Ranjan had further said that Tipu had no respect for Kannada as his administrative language was Persian. "He changed names of places - Madikeri to Jafarabad and Mangaluru to Jalalabad. He looted many temples and Christian churches as well. In Kodagu, he converted 30,000 Kodavas," Ranjan had said.
