A Karnataka-based education rights group has accused the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) of attempting to saffronise the curriculum through its newly introduced Class 6 Kannada textbook, Krishna.The organisation, People’s Alliance for Fundamental Rights to Education (PAFRE), has demanded that the book be withdrawn from the current academic year’s syllabus, alleging that it promotes religious themes while sidelining Karnataka’s cultural identity and diverse food habits.In a statement, PAFRE Principal Convener Niranjanaradhya V P said the textbook reflected a wider trend of introducing mythology and religious themes into school education under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 framework. “This is nothing but a project to saffronise the curriculum,” he claimed.The group also questioned NCERT’s decision to name the textbook Krishna. According to PAFRE, Karnataka’s cultural identity is closely linked to literary and social reform figures such as Adikavi Pampa, Kuvempu, Kota Shivaram Karanth and Basavanna.“Karnataka’s identity is rooted in the ideas and contributions of great poets and reformers such as Adikavi Pampa, Kuvempu, Kota Shivaram Karanth and Basavanna. Yet NCERT has chosen the name ‘Krishna’,” the organisation said.PAFRE further criticised a lesson on nutrition, alleging that it promotes a vegetarian view of a balanced diet while leaving out foods commonly consumed across the state.“The plate shown in the lesson contains only ragi mudde, roti, rice, vegetables, milk, and fruits, while fish, eggs, and meat are completely absent,” it alleged.The organisation said this presents a limited picture of Karnataka’s food culture and questioned whether communities that consume pork curry, fish curry and keema balls had been ignored.It also alleged that the textbook portrays vegetarian food as the only marker of a balanced diet. “By portraying only vegetarian food as balanced, politics is being brought onto children’s dining plates. This is not education; it is cultural terrorism,” the group alleged.PAFRE further claimed that the textbook does not adequately represent the folklore, literature and lifestyles of different regions of Karnataka, including Coastal Karnataka, North Karnataka, Malnad and the Old Mysuru region.The organisation has asked CBSE to withdraw the textbook from the Class 6 curriculum this academic year and urged NCERT to explain in writing why the book was named Krishna.It has also sought the inclusion of references to eggs, fish and meat in the chapter on balanced diets, questioned the exclusion of the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) from the textbook development process, and called for the book to be renamed to better reflect Karnataka’s identity.
