Portion that insulted women removed from CBSE textbook

Mumbai: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has removed the portion about the Channar Revolt — commonly known as the ‘Upper Cloth Revolt’ or ‘Maru Marakkal Samaram’ — from the class IX history textbook. The alleged reason for removing the portion is that it contains defamatory references made about women. Published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training, the social science textbook prescribed for class IX students is used by several state boards, besides CBSE. The references were made regarding the revolt in the erstwhile Travancore state, covering parts of present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

According to the text, in 1822, women of the Shanar caste, who were later known as Nadars, were attacked by the higher castes for wearing a cloth across their upper body.
Ms Rama, a CBSE spokesperson, said, “There is a circular issued on this and the CBSE has removed a section on the 19th century Upper Cloth Revolt in South India from Class IX textbooks after objections to derogatory references made about women.”

As chief minister, Jayalalithaa, in 2012, had also written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in removing the objectionable references. Now, the CBSE has said in a circular that the section concerned stands omitted from the curriculum.