For now, “anti-national” or “anti-Indian” books are merely being removed from syllabi. Slowly, they will disappear from libraries. Soon, they will cease to be mentioned at all. A long winter has begun to descend on the land of knowledge.
Apoorvanand
Knowledge – its very disciplines – are today locked in a struggle for survival on university campuses in India. It is a bloodless war, but no less brutal for that. Most people in India remain blissfully unaware of this conflict and carry on with their business. On one side stand those who defend knowledge, armed with nothing but their training, their discipline, and their commitment to intellectual integrity. On the other side are the invaders, wielding a far more lethal weapon: nationalism, sharpened into its Hindutva form.
The latest dispatches from this battlefield tell us that the standing committee of the academic council of Delhi University has asked the Departments of Economics and History to reconsider their curricula. In the Economics syllabus, the unit that has provoked particular ire is titled “Gender and the Economy.” Even within this, it is the sub-unit “Crime and Gender” that has most angered certain influential members of the committee. Their objections are twofold. First, they ask: What possible connection can gender have with the study of economics or the economy? Second, why should crimes related to gender be discussed at all? This, they insist, lies outside the domain of economics.
The chair of the Economics Department tried to explain that violence against women – whether inside the home or outside – has a direct bearing on economic structures and outcomes. Such violence affects women’s participation in economic activity, often in deeply adverse ways. This relationship is well recognised and widely studied within economics across the world. The explanation made no impression. The committee members remained unmoved and returned the draft syllabus to the department. Now it remains to be seen what will happen if the department sends the syllabus back unchanged.
Also read: Why the Suspension of a Jamia Professor Over a Question Paper Should Worry Us
Reading this report brought back a recent conversation with a colleague from the Economics Department. There was a paper in the syllabus titled “The Economics of Discrimination.” The standing committee had ordered its removal. When teachers from the department went to meet the chairperson of the committee, they were told that the very word ‘discrimination’ was offensive to the ear. How, they were asked, could such an unpleasant-sounding word be allowed into a syllabus?
The Department of History was informed that there was no need to teach so much global history. India’s own history, they were told, was deep and vast enough – why look beyond it? The department explained that nearly 70% of the syllabus already dealt with Indian history, and only 30% with global history. If historians did not learn about the wider world, would they not risk becoming frogs in a well? The chair of the department stood his ground. We learn that it has also been suggested that the word ‘society’ be removed from a paper titled “Ancient Indian Economy and Society.”….
https://thewire.in/education/at-delhi-university-indianisation-of-syllabi-is-hollowing-out-knowledge
++++++++++++++++++++++
Methodical destruction of the education system
There is a quiet and visible crisis in higher education in India that runs deep: Deepak Nayyar
Ruchir Joshi: Out of depth – India’s anti-knowledge brigade
Where Are the ‘Don Quixotes’ of Indian Academia?
Witch-hunt against Tejaswini Desai highlights dangers of being a teacher in India today
Professor’s Harassment by ABVP Shows Near-Complete Takeover of Universities by RSS-BJP
Shobhit Mahajan: The Paper Mill
An Ode to the ‘Ad-Hoc’ Teachers of Ramjas English Department
After the truth-shower 