Minister seeks report on proposal to remove lesson on Tipu Sultan

Team Udayavani, Oct 29, 2019, 12:15 PM IST

Bengaluru: Days After BJP MLA Appachu Ranjan demanded that the lesson on Tipu Sultan should be removed from textbooks as it carries wrong information, State Education Minister Suresh Kumar wrote to Managing Director of Karnataka Textbook Society, directing him to submit a report in three days on the proposal to strike off references to the controversial 18th century ruler of erstwhile Mysore kingdom from history textbooks.

As per the sources, Kumar in his letter also mentioned to hold a meeting with the History Textbook Drafting Committee and invite Ranjan to discuss the necessity of the lesson on Tipu Sultan and whether to keep it or to remove it.

This comes after Madikeri MLA wrote a letter to Kumar in which he stated that Tipu has been portrayed as a freedom fighter in the textbooks and history should not be written with false facts.

It may be recalled that Madikeri BJP MLA Appachu Ranjan on October 22 demanded that the lesson on Tipu Sultan, the controversial 18th century ruler of erstwhile Mysore kingdom, be removed from textbooks as it carries wrong information.

“The lesson on Tipu Sultan contains wrong information. It should be removed. I have written to Education Minister S Suresh Kumar that he (Tipu Sultan) is not a freedom fighter,” Ranjan told.

He said Tipu Sultan had a “history of plundering and expanding his kingdom” and run his administration in Persian language. “Hence, he is not a freedom fighter,” he added.

The BJP government in Karnataka on July 30 cancelled the annual birth anniversary celebrations of Tipu, being organised since 2015.Then the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government had started the Tipu Jayanti celebration as an annual affair on November 10 since 2015. It was continued by the Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy last year, despite opposition from BJP and others.

Kodagu district was marred by widespread protests and violence during the first official celebration in 2015, during which a Vishwa Hindu Parishad worker Kuttappa had died. BJP and right-wing organisations had stiffly opposed Tipu Jayanti celebrations, calling the ruler a “religious bigot”.