A letter is sent to HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, stating to take necessary steps and remove the controversial part from the chapter titled 'Effective History and Civics' in the text of 8 class textbook.

In the letter, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan mentioned about some controversial part and requested to withdraw it as soon as possible because it is giving the wrong message to the students.

The Class 8 textbook of ICSE depicted the works of great philosopher-poet-saint of Kerala Sree Narayana Guru as a leader of only a particular community ignoring his contributions to social life. The portrayal of Sree Narayana Guru as a community-specific leader is hurtful to the sentiments when he has given so much to the social life.

Who was Sree Narayana Guru?

• Sree Narayana Guru was a social reformer born in Kerala at the time when the casteism prevailed. The Guru had started a reform movement in Kerala and rejected casteism, promoted new values of spiritual freedom and social equality. Guru established temples and educational institutions for the upliftment of the downtrodden.
• With his tireless preaching of the doctrine of 'one caste, one religion, one God', the Guru had stood for moral and religious universalism and was a 'tireless crusader' for social equality and fought against all sorts of discrimination prevalent against the downtrodden and the oppressed in his times.
• This is also to be noted that great visionaries of his times, including Sree Ramana Maharshi, Poet Rabindranath Tagore, and Mahatma Gandhi drew admiration about his vision, philosophy, and life', the letter, a copy of which was released to the media here said.

BJP state president also requested to include the portions from 'Critique of Caste'(Jathi Memamsa) written by the Guru, who belonged to the backward Ezhava community and had to face social injustice in the then caste ridden society of Kerala in the textbook and show the correct works of Guru.

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