The University of Delhi could leave courses on Pakistan, China, Islam and political violence with its MA Political Science course, several elective, faculty members recommended to remove many elements along with the university’s course panel.
This has provoked the backlash from the faculty members, which is called the move politically.
The University’s Standing Committee on educational matters discussed the syllabus of several courses on Tuesday.
Member of Standing Committee, Dr. Monami Sinha said that during the meeting, political science PG syllabus came under “Important Investigation”.
Sinha said, “The courses that were dropped, ‘Pakistan and the World’, ‘Role of China in the contemporary world’, ‘Islam and international relations’, ‘Pakistan: state and society’, ‘religious nationalism and political violence’, ‘Sinha said,’
Speaking to ANI, Monami Sinha said that these papers would be either completely dropped or replaced by other courses.
The new courses will then be sent to the course committee of the department. The committee will create a new course. The course will be presented to the university’s course panel for approval and then presented to the Academic Council for approval.
ANI reached the Delhi University Administration, but there was no response at the time of filing this report.
Recently, Vice Chancellor of Delhi University Yogesh Singh informed us that the heads of the department at Delhi University (DU) have been asked to review their syllabus and remove any unnecessary glory of Pakistan. The statement came in view of terrorist attacks in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April.
However, members of the DU Faculty objected to these amendments in the syllabus, saying that “forced” changes are retrograde and politically motivated.
Dr. Monami Sinha argued that the removal of these courses has reduced educational rigidity and geopolitical understanding.
He said, “It is mandatory to study Pakistan in detail, because educationally, we need to train our students and promote scholarship in Pakistan, as it is one of the challenges of India’s continuous foreign policy,” he said in his note.
He also warned China leaving when it was emerging as a prominent player in Global South.
With political courses, the committee recommended the removal of Unit 3 in MA Geography (Semester 1), on internal conflict and religious violence – a major text by Paul Bras – from the course “Regional Aadhaar of Politics in India”.
In social geography paper, the chair objected to the topic “Distribution of SC population”, which was calling for D-Jor on caste-related materials. A course was also dropped on vulnerability and disaster.
In Sociology, the introductory theory paper was criticized to rely on Marx, Weber and Durkim, with a call to include Indian theorists and joint family structures, Sinha said.
Objections were raised on the reading of wood Weston on the same-lingo families, in which the chair was noted that equal sex marriages in India are not legal.
Condemning the recommended changes, the Democratic Teachers Front (DTF) Secretary Abha Dev alleged that the educational autonomy of the departments has ended and it should “worry about all of us”.
“The academic autonomy of the departments stands. Dambing of courses is unfortunate by amendments centered around” beliefs “instead of teaching and scientific investigation questions. Forced amendments are retrograde and politically motivated. Doe is known for his UG courses. These changes will be given disagreement.
Meanwhile, the elected member of the Academic Council Mithuraj Dhusia questioned the rights of the standing committee, saying that the panel may suggest change but it cannot ask direct departments to remove the papers.
“The university administration of DU has forgotten the fact that the university’s location is for a ruthless and controversial debate to promote significant thinking, this does not mean that it is analogist to create an average brain, which can only give birth to the creed of the hero’s worship. Order,” Dhusia said in a statement. (AI)