Thiruvananthapuram: A committee set up by the
Kerala government to look into the Catholic Church’s complaint
about the `anti-church` references in the 10th standard Social
Science textbook has recommended removal of the controversial
portions as they hurt religious sentiments of the believers.
The report submitted recently by the two-member panel,
comprising former Additional Chief Secretary Dr D Babu Paul
and historian Dr Raimon, however, discounted the church’s
allegation that the inclusion of such `anti-religious`
contents was the result of a "deliberate Marxist plot to run
down the church."
"There are some factual errors and objectionable contents in
the text book. We have submitted our suggestions and it is
for the government to take action on them," Raimon said.
After studying the chapter titled "the dawn of modern era"
dealing with the Renaissance, which deeply influenced the
history of Europe since the 14th century, the panel found that
it contained factual errors resulting from approaching history
from purely Marxist perspective.
The church had taken serious objection to the contents in
the textbook, prepared by a committee of academics during the
previous LDF Government, alleging it was meant to propagate
Marxist ideology.
The church alleged that the chapter on Renaissance titled
`the dawn of the modern era` was entirely meant to defame the
church and establish that Catholic ideals were outdated.
Though the Government had initially urged eminent historian
MGS Narayanan to be a member of the panel, he declined to join
it.
PTI
