‘Do you know the national anthem?’

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Acting on a public interest litigation (PIL), the Bombay high court on Friday asked whether the state knew what our national anthem was. The court was hearing a PIL on the state textbooks that have misspelled “sindh” as “sindhu” in the national anthem, in the Class 10 and 12 state board textbooks.
A division bench comprising Justice Dr D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice S.C. Gupte was hearing the matter. “It is ‘sindh’ and not ‘sindhu’ in our national anthem. The state doesn’t know what our national anthem is? You (government) cannot start changing words in the national anthem. What do you propose to do?” Justice Chandrachud asked the additional government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani.
The PIL, which stated the error, was filed in the high court by one Dakshata Sheth in the last week of June this year. She had contended that the latest Class 10 Geography textbook of a Marathi medium school, printed by the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, mentioned the word “Sindhu” in the national anthem.
Ms Sheth, who is also a volunteer for education for street children, says in her petition that the same error is repeated in Class 12 textbooks of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics, besides the History, Geography and Marathi textbooks of Class 10 There are around three lakh Class 10 textbooks and four lakh Class 12 textbooks that have already been circulated in schools across the state.
“There are around seven lakh textbooks that have already been printed with the error. It would be difficult to recall such huge numbers. However, necessary measures will be taken to ensure that the error is rectified,” said the government pleader.
The HC then directed the state to file an affidavit and report on August 13 the measures taken in rectifying the errors.