Ever since the 7th standard textbook controversy began brewing up in Kerala, some friends and acquaintances have been asking me why I am not writing about the issue in this blog. In fact, I was just waiting to see how the whole thing is going to end. After the Godmen/women hunt, this seems to be the next hot thing in Kerala. All religious/community leaders - Christian, Hindu, Muslim - and Congress party are together in this fight against the Communist government in Kerala, alleging that the Communists are trying to instill Atheism and Communism in students.

To be honest, I have never seen the opposition party Congress being active like this before. They have always been a weak opposition and sometimes it makes one wonder if there is an opposition party in Kerala at all. The difference this time, with this issue though, is how their groups are out in the streets like they have not done before. The Youth Congress as well as KSU (Kerala Students Union - students wing of Congress party) leaders organizing marches and rallies, clashing with police, destroy the public property etc. If you closely observe, it looks as if they want to prove "we are more destructive than SFI/DYFI". Their goons are all out in the streets, leaving no hope to the ordinary Keralite about the political parties.

Now on to the controversial 7th standard Social Science text book. I haven't seen the original text book, but got to see the scanned copies of the text book. I could see 5 lessons from the text book.

The first lesson talks about the need for preserving our agricultural sector. Any sane person who has seen the poor agricultural productivity in Kerala would not see this as a disputable issue.

First is a picture of a villager walking infront of a shop and commenting that "Rice price will increase even more. We may not get enough". The second picture shows a man watching the trucks unloading the rice bags imported from other states and he says "do you think the neighboring states would feed us all the time?" Food for thought again.

Now the lesson goes on to explain how the land reforms happened, how the farmer got his land back from his landlord etc. There are quotes given from the autobiography of the Communist leader A K Gopalan. This might provoke the other political parties but what has been mentioned in the textbook is indisputable. It is part of Kerala's social history.

Agreed that there is a feel-good factor in it which doesn't explain many of the current situation, but are we going to put the negatives into the children at this young age or let them learn what has actually happened?

The second chapter begins with quoting the oath "India is my country..." then the next is a newspaper clip of a Dalit youth burned by the upper caste men for fetching water from the public well. Now I agree this is something not in the good taste. There are better ways to talk about the caste issues rather than talking about such a violent incident. This might make a Dalit student who reads this would see his upper-caste class mates in a different light from then onwards.

Rest of the lesson talks about the caste system and the social movements against caste system. I think there is nothing wrong about it. But there is something that can provoke the fanatics of Hindu/Christian/Muslim religions. Hindu groups might be upset about the events describing the caste discrimination in Hinduism that practised in Kerala. Christian groups might upset because the textbook says that the caste system strongly prevailed in Christianity until the end of 19th century. Muslims might be upset because the book mentions about the movements by the likes of Vakkam Maulavi who fought against the wrong customs within the Muslim community.

The chapter ends with a homework to find if there is any such divisions prevail in one's own religion. Now the remaining question is, is this against religion or is this against the ills of religion which our children should learn to become better human beings?

On to the most controversial portion, go here - I don't understand how a lesson that teaches to see human beings above religion can be wrong.

However in the lesson where it talks about the freedom movement, they do not seem to have given much prominence to Mahatma Gandhi. That is something objectionable. Another lesson teaches about weather and the importance of preserving rain water. Another one talks about the world civilizations and our rivers etc. Any of these objectionable?

To conclude, there is some disputable content in this text book which can be discussed, but nowhere has it anything against God or instills Atheism. Or if it is a crime to make children think above religion or to promote inter-religious marriages, it has something to provoke fanatics from all religions. But the protests from such religious fanatics or the political parties should be ignored in a progressive society.