Maha to check school books for defamatory text

The Maharashtra government has formed a committee of historians to look into the allegations of “defamatory” content against historical figures in the books meant for supplementary reading in state-run schools.

The decision came after Opposition parties objected to the description of Sambhaji, the son of warrior king Shivaji, as an alcoholic in Samarth Shri Ramdas Swami, a book about 17thcentury poet-saint Ramdas.

Another book named Santanche Jeevan Prasang, which describes the lives of various saints, mentions that the wife of Saint Tukaram had a habit of cursing. Boththebookswereprovided to government-run schools under state’s Ekbhashik Purak Wachan Pustak Yojna, a part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The three-member committee, headed by historian Sadanand More, will submit its report within a week, said Sunil Magar, director, Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT) in a statement. He added that the schools have been directed to not issue these books to students for reading until the government makes a decision on the matter.

Sambhaji Brigade, a Maratha organisation, had submitted a written complaint to the state education commissioner on Thursday, claiming that Samarth Shri Ramdas Swami makes unsubstantiated and derogatory claims about Sambhaji.

Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan had said the reference to Sambhaji in the book was objectionable and described it as “defamatory to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj”. Chavan, as well as Nationalist Congress Party leader and leader of Opposition in the legislative council, Dhananjay Munde, also pressed for the immediate withdrawal of the book and demanded an apology from Maharashtra education minister Vinod Tawde.

Munde had said that putting a hold on the circulation of the book wasn’t enough.

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