Several teachers and the Congress have objected to the alleged glorification of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Savarkar in a Class 8 Kannada textbook.

The paragraph that is being scrutinised is taken from KT Gatti’s travelogue, Kalavannu Geddavaru, in which the author visits the Andaman cellular jail and describes Savarkar’s life in prison, reported The Wire.

The paragraph says: “There was not even a keyhole in the cell where Savarkar was incarcerated. But, bulbul birds used to visit the room and Savarkar used to sit on their wings and fly out and visit the motherland every day.”

It replaces an earlier lesson called Blood Group by Vijayamala Ranganath, The Wire reported.

The now-dissolved Karnataka Textbook Revision Committee on Sunday said that the paragraph was a metaphor, The News Minute reported. However, some teachers have claimed that the paragraph is written in the literal sense, making it difficult to explain in class, The Hindu reported.

“If the writer has praised Savarkar metaphorically, there is no objection,” a teacher said. “But the lines are written as if it is a literal fact. It is very difficult to explain this to the students. In case the students ask questions and seek proof about this, how do we do it?”

Congress MLA Priyank Kharge said the line does not sound like a metaphor.

The Karnataka Textbook Revision Committee also said it had received oral complaints regarding the paragraphs, according to Deccan Herald.

On Sunday, Rohith Chakratirtha, the chairperson of the Karnataka Textbook Revision Committee, said that the intellect of a few people has sunk so low that they cannot understand the meaning of a figure of speech, The Print reported.

“Any connoisseur will know that in the sentence Savarkar used to go to the motherland sitting on the wings of a bird, it does not mean that Savarkar used to sit on the wings of a bird himself,” he said. “But, our so-called intellectuals have found a problem in this sentence, it means that there is something wrong with their intellectuality.”

Karnataka’s Education Minister BC Nagesh said that what the writer has described in that lesson is accurate. “Savarkar is a great freedom fighter,” Nagesh had told The Hindu on Friday. “No matter how glorified he is, it is not adequate for his sacrifice.”