Tipu Lessons in K’taka School Textbooks to Stay, Expert Panel Says

The panel has noted that the lessons on Mysuru would be incomplete without mentioning the role Tipu Sultan played.

Tipu Sultan.

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the history of Tipu Sultan being taught to children in schools in Karnataka. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had earlier made it clear that they were trying to remove all mention of Tipu Sultan from textbooks. However, the expert committee, which was formed to look into the issue, has now decided to retain the lessons and said that nothing would be changed.

Noting that the lessons on Mysuru would be incomplete without mentioning the role Tipu Sultan played, the panel has decided that it is best to keep the Mysore king’s story in textbooks.

Speaking to Daijji World, experts reportedly said that Tipu Sultan played an extremely significant role in the South in the fight against the British Empire. Noting that the king had fought off Britishers in four wars in Mysuru alone, the panel of experts has recommended that the lessons continue to stay in print.

The committee reviewing the issue comprised several renowned professors in history who noted that if Tipu Sultan’s story was dropped from books in Mysuru, a significant part of its history would go missing.

In the first week of November, the Department of Primary and Secondary Education decided to form a new committee to discuss whether chapters in school textbooks related to the Mysore king Tipu Sultan should be scrapped or modified.

The new committee replaced a previously existing one after the state government received backlash for not including any subject matter experts on the committee.

When BJP leader BS Yediyurappa took oath as chief minister of the state in July, he had made it clear that he and his government would do “everything they can” to remove mention of the Mysore king Tipu Sultan from textbooks in schools in the state.

(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)