Madras High Court directs State Government to remove objectionable content on RSS from school textbook

Madras High Court, on January 10, directed the State Government to remove the objectionable content on RSS from social science textbook of standard X.

A Petition has been filed by Mr P.Chandrasekaran ( WP.No.639 of 2020), against the content in social science textbook of standard X, which states that “RSS is anti-Muslim”. The malicious content comes under the caption ‘Hindu Communalism’ and was published in both Tamil and English versions of the textbook by Department of School Education.

The principal secretary to the government of Tamil Nadu, the director of the Department of school education, the managing director of TN Textbook and Education Service Corporation and the director of SCERT were made parties to legal proceedings.

The matter came up before Justice PD Adikesavalu. The petitioner’s counsel Dr G. Babu argued that the content gives a false impression that RSS took an anti-Muslim stance in the struggle for freedom and the same had resulted in Partition of the country. He told the court that the information was completely false that creates a wrong perception of the organisation which had, in fact, vehemently opposed the partition and creation of a country on the basis of religion. The respondent, in turn, submitted that the contents would be removed from the textbook and the process is already underway.