Row over Social Studies textbook snowballs in India

Thiruvananthapuram: The controversy over a Social Studies textbook prescribed for Grade VII students snow balled on Sunday, with the Syro-Malabar church using its Sunday assembly to read out a pastoral letter across churches in Kerala against the proposed textbook.

The church says the textbook indirectly teaches children atheism and communism, and promotes a life without religions.

Vicar of the Lourdes Church in the state capital, John Thadathil told the morning assembly in his church that even Grade I lessons were trying to inject communist thoughts into young minds.

Reading excerpts from one of the lessons that the church objected to, he said it attempted to promote an interest in children in the colour red, which was questionable.

The textbook row has pitted the church in the state and the Communist Party of India Marxist-led Left Democratic Front against each other, for yet another time.

The two have been at loggerheads over the fee structure in professional self-financing colleges in the state.