In a move to slash the 2020-21 syllabus as decided by the Karnataka government, the state has scrapped chapters on the controversial 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and his father Haider Ali from the class 7 social science textbooks.

Thee chapters on the Mysore ruler however, have been retained in the textbooks of class 6 and 10, NDTV reported.

The revised syllabus on the Karnataka Text Book Society (KTBS) website shows that the chapter on Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, Historical places of Mysore, and Administration of Commissioners for class 7 students have been removed.

The Department of Public Instructions decided to slash the syllabus for the year 2020-21 in view of the pandemic and disruptions caused in the academic year.

Recently, amid growing concerns from some BJP leaders to slash a chapter in the textbook glorifying Tipu Sultan, the government had constituted an expert committee to look into to matter. The committee had recommended that the ruler cannot be ignored or removed from the school syllabus.

Commenting on the decision, Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar had said that the BJP government has taken the decision with a political agenda in mind. ‘History is history…you cannot change history. We will not accept it. Congress will take it seriously by setting up a committee to look into it,’ Shivakumar had said.

Soon after forming the government in Karnataka, the BJP had scrapped the birth anniversary celebrations of Tipu Sultan. The ruling party and some other organisations have been very vocal in their opposition to Tipu Sultan, calling the king a ‘religious bigot’.

While BJP and some other parties see Tipu Sultan as a ‘religious bigot’ and a ‘brutal killer’, some Kannada outfits refer to him as ‘anti-Kannada’, claiming that he had promoted Persian at the cost of the local language.

Also Rad: Karnataka: Yediyurappa Govt Cancels Tipu Jayanti Celebrations, Academics Condemn The Move