Flaying the Karnataka State Government for inducing a “saffron slant” in the fifth and eighth standard social studies textbooks, which are going to be introduced in the next academic year, activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI) staged a protest demanding that the textbooks be withdrawn.
Reading from sections of the books, SFI State president Ananth Naik pointed to instances where the Vedic and Brahminical practices of the past have been glorified. “Some of the passages clearly justify casteism and seem to suggest that there is nothing wrong with the Varna system,” he said. Arguing that textbooks should imbibe the spirit of scientific enquiry and rational thinking in children, the activists said that the BJP Government and the RSS want to reinforce and justify the dogmas of the past. The textbooks, according to the protestors, have the potential to create communal discord as they speak very disparagingly of minority communities and their faith.