MYSURU: Against the backdrop of growing uproar against revision of school textbooks and several writers demanding that their content be dropped from the syllabus, noted novelist SL Bhyrappa said that students must be taught truth about history and not ideologies.
Recalling his experience with a textbook revision committee during the tenure of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Bhyrappa, a Saraswathi Samman awardee, said when the NCERT committee had included his name in the panel, he had raised objections to the text about Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and his atrocities.
“Without much discussion or providing any answer to my questions, the meeting was called off. After 15 days, I was dropped from the committee which was reconstituted by adding a communist to it,” he said.
He also referred to an experience with a guide in Mahabaleshwar where the facts related to a war between Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj and Afzal Khan were concealed and a board displaying the content was removed ahead of elections during his visit.
Protest outside Min house flayed
When asked about the ‘award wapsi’ campaign when several artistes and litterateurs had returned their awards when Narendra Modi assumed charge as the prime minister, Bhyrappa said, “I had actually suggested to the government to not only take back the awards but also the cash prize given to them,” he said. Bhyrappa condemned the violence which took place in front of Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh’s residence in Tiptur on Wednesday.
He said, “If police were not there, the NSUI activists would have set the house on fire.” Bhyrappa also expressed his views on the controversy surrounding erstwhile Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan.
He said, “Tipu Sultan is glorified but when his atrocities, especially committed in the Kodagu region are questioned, people raising the objections are branded ‘communal’. This is what happened with Rangayana director Addanda Cariappa, who as a Kodava, had raised objection to Tipu Sultan. Attempts were made to get him sacked but that did not happen,” he said.