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Bhagavad Gita, Vedas Monopolize Moral Education School Books In Haryana: Report

Bhagavad Gita, Vedas Monopolize Moral Education School Books In Haryana: Report
The Hindu Bhagavad Gita book with an old gold pair of glasses.
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The Hindu Bhagavad Gita book with an old gold pair of glasses.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana has included the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas as well as the virtues of yoga in school textbooks on moral education, The Indian Express reported today.

While quotations from the Quran and Guru Granth Sahib have also been included in these textbooks, these are less compared to the content from the Gitas and Vedas, the newspaper reported.

The Modi government and BJP-led state governments have been accused of saffronisation of school education since the Hindu nationalist party came to power at the Centre in May 2014.

Last month, BJP leader Ram Shankar Katheria, the former Minister of State for the Human Resource Development, declared that education in India would be subject to "saffronisation," which is "beneficial" for the country. "I am saying that there will be saffronisation in education and there will be saffronisation in India. What is good will happen," he said at a public function in Lucknow.

In May, a team of academicians who reviewed the revised textbooks in BJP-led Rajasthan said that they were ‘anguished’ by the flaws and limitation of content, and planned to file a public interest litigation over the saffronisation of education which included renaming of the Sindhu Ghati Culture (Indus Valley Civilization) as Sindhu Saraswati Sabhyata (Indus Saraswati Culture) and linking it to Vedic culture.

The Rajasthan government has also removed any reference to Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, assassinated Mahatma Gandhi in the Class VIII textbooks.

The Indian Express reported that the BJP government in Haryana had sought suggestions from RSS ideologue Dinanath Batra on the content of the books.

The newspaper reported that one chapter has termed the Gita as the “most superior” religious text in the world.

“To propagate religion is the work of religious preachers and not of the government. We live in a secular country and all religions have an equal place," former State Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal told newspaper.

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