Karnataka students to study Bhagavad Gita: Ed Minister

State Education Minister B C Nagesh said that the Bhagavad Gita will be included in school syllabus from the current academic year.

In the latest development on the Bhagavad Gita row, Karnataka's Education Minister B C Nagesh has said on Monday that the Gita would be included in students' syllabus as part of moral science education in schools starting from the current academic year.

Karnataka education minister BC Nagesh.

Speaking at a press conference, he said, "Moral education is the need of the hour and hence, stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata which help to inculcate moral qualities will be included in the syllabus."

With Gujarat all set to introduce the Bhagavad Gita in the school syllabus for classes 6-12, Karnataka, which, like Gujarat, has a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, had previously said that they will ‘definitely’ include the epic in syllabus for students if it were approved by experts.

Nagesh had told reporters that there will be no change this academic year and that the department is thinking about Moral Science for the year 2023-24.

“Bhagavad Gita is not only for the Hindus, it is for all. If experts say, it will definitely be introduced," Nagesh had told ANI last month.

Nagesh added that the former president A P J Abdul Kalam had also said that the Bhagavad Gita has power. "Bhagavad Gita is not a religious practice or process. There is nothing wrong with people of different faiths listening to the Bhagavad Gita, which guides life," he added.

The minister assured that the advantage of studying the Bhagavad Gita in an academic setting will be studied by experts. He had previously vouched that subjects in moral science will only be decided by experts. 

On the topic of several lessons on Tipu Sultan being cut from syllabus, Nagesh told reporters that the lessons found in the current textbooks on Tipu Sultan are not right. "Only one side of his life has been presented now. Congress leaders are creating an unnecessary hue and cry over the issue for vote bank," he told Deccan Herald.