Karnataka ‘drops’ Class 7 chapter on Tipu Sultan

Karnataka has dropped a chapter on Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan from the history textbook for Class 7 students to reduce their syllabus, as reopening of schools has been delayed due to COVID crisis this academic year, an official said on Tuesday.

"The chapter on Tipu Sultan for Class 7 has been dropped to reduce the syllabus by 30 per cent for this academic year due to delay in reopening of schools due to no let-up in coronavirus spread," Karnataka Text Book Society Director Madde Gowda told reporters here.

The society, however, retained the chapter on the 'Tiger of Mysore' for Classes 6 and 10.

"As Class 7 students would have read Tipu in Class 6 and will read more on him again in Class 10, dropping it for them in this academic year will not be a loss to them," asserted Gowda.

The society has uploaded the reduced syllabus for the state board schools on the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) website for online classes and teaching.

"The chapter on Tipu will, however, be taught to Class 7 students as part of the assignment and not as a separate lesson," said Gowda.

The eldest son of Sultan Hyder Ali, Tipu (1750-1799) was the king of then Mysore kingdom in southern India and died in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war in 1799 at Srirangapatna, about 20km from Mysore, after a series of battle victories against the British.

The syllabus in the textbooks has been trimmed to adjust for the shortened academic year.

Meanwhile, the opposition Congress protested against the dropping of Tipu's lesson for Class 7 students and accused the BJP government of "playing communal politics" in education too.

An expert committee headed by noted writer Baraguru Ramachandrappa advised the state government in November 2019 against dropping the content on Tipu from history textbooks.

Chapter 5 on Tipu in Class 7 is part of the history portion on the "Wodeyars of Mysuru". In Chapter 4 for Class 10 students, Tipu is mentioned along with Halagali Bedas, Kittur Rani Chenamma and Sangoli Rayanna as those who opposed and fought the British in the 18th century.

"We have not deleted study matter on Tipu or Hyder Ali. The changes were made by subject experts in whose work we do not meddle. They have changed it on priority, as the academic year has been reduced to 120 days from 220 working days," Gowda added.