In Rajasthan texts, Mahavir is Buddha, Aulia gets backhanded compliment

The Rajasthan government’s curriculum-restructuring exercise that has axed Nehru continues to throw up surprises.

First, it was Jawaharlal Nehru. India’s first prime minister was rather unceremoniously removed from the social science textbooks of the Rajasthan school board earlier this year.

Then came the turn of Rani Jhansi when a laudatory poem on her -- Khoob ladi mardani, wo toh Jhansi wali rani thi -- by Subhadra Kumari Chouhan -- was axed as part of a ‘curriculum-restructuring’ exercise.

And now, Lord Mahavir and Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia.

A Class III chapter on Lord Mahavir shows the accompanying photo of the Jain saint seated, and suspiciously looks like Lord Buddha, say peeved Jains.

The Jain community is enraged at the photograph of Lord Mahavir in the Class III textbook Apna Parivesh Aur Pryavaran Adhyayan.

Secretary of Shri Mahavirji, a prominent religious destination of Digambar Jains in Rajashthan, Mahendra Patni said: “Bhagwan Mahavir or any Jain deity never sit in the position of giving blessings. He sits either in padmasan, ardhpadmasan or khadgasan. This is the picture of Gautam Buddha.” The Jains have asked for the ‘mistake’ to be corrected.

However, the Rajasthan Pathya Pustak Mandal has already printed and delivered 20 lakh copies of the book. The content was prepared by the Rajasthan State Institute of Education Research and Training (SIERT).

The other controversy surrounds Aulia. A chapter in Class VII’s Social Science book introduces him as someone who was not communal despite belonging to a ‘particular’ community.

That sounds like Union Minister Mahesh Sharma who called former President APJ Abdul Kalam a “nationalist and a humanist despite being a Muslim”.

The exact line on Aulia in the chapter Bhakti and Sufi Andolan reads: “Sufi saint Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia of Delhi, despite being a follower of a 'particular' religion, was not socially and religiously communal."

This was pointed out by a team of experts that recently scanned the revised textbooks for government schools in the state. Headed by Delhi University professor Apoorvanand Jha, this team has termed the statement ‘insensitive’ and ‘sub-standard’.

Members said the statement gives an impression that Muslims -- the country's largest minority community -- are communal but the saint was an exception.

(This story originally appeared in the deccan Chronicle as may the case be)