During an ongoing communal controversy upon switching the holidays from Sunday to Friday in a few schools in Jharkhand, a similar controversy came up in Kota, Rajasthan — where brahmin parents complain that their seven-year-old child, studying in class second communicating with them in a few community-specific words such as ‘Ammi’, ‘Abbu’, or asking for ‘Biryani’. They are worried and alleged that their child has been learning these words from his CBSE course book.
Various non-muslims parents have also complained the same as the book is being taught to their non-muslim children.
Where a parent said, “Our children are born and brought up in conservative Brahmin families and when our seven-year-old child starts demanding biryani because it is being taught in books, it gets intolerable.”
The parents complain that the book has a few Muslim names too such as Shanu, Sania, Shireen, Amir, and Naseem as the names of the story’s characters and there are general references like Ammi (mother) and Abbu (father).
These children are studying in private English medium schools and their parents claim that they have been using these words – Abbu and Ammi at the home and asking to eat Biryani.
The book has been published by a Hyderabad-based publisher the title of the book is Gulmohar and is issued by the CBSE board for class 2 students.
Hapless parents complained about the book to local Bajrang Dal and VHP leaders, who in turn have filed a complaint with the state education department reports IANS.
A few parents alleged that book is an attempt at “Islamisation” of school education.
These parents said that the book is an attempt to create a gap between their children and the Hindu culture. In fact, issued by CBSE, this said book has 113 pages and costs Rs 352.
(With inputs from IANS)