1,100 academics petition DU to revoke move to drop 3 authors
NEW DELHI: Over 1,100 academics and writers, including renowned authors Arundhati Roy, Perumal Murugan, Urvashi Butalia, Jayati Ghosh, Romila Thapar, and Uma Chakravarti, have petitioned the Delhi University vice-chancellor demanding the reinstatement of three women authors, Mahasweta Devi, Bama and Sukirtharani, in the undergraduate English syllabus after a group of DU teachers said the decision was taken without due consultations.
While urging the university to revisit its decision, the signatories said the deleted texts were crucial for developing an understanding of the contours of society. “The deleted texts are seminally important as they help realise the systemic oppressions of the Dalit and Adivasi communities that was prevalent, especially in gendered terms, and provide a better appreciation of our contemporary ethos and polity. Is this not something that the young men and women of independent India need to know and engage with? How else will a better and equal world be shaped?” stated the letter.
In a dissent note by 15 academic council (AC) members last month, teachers said the oversight committee had approved changes to the syllabus without consulting the English department. These changes include removal of Mahasweta Devi’s celebrated work Draupadi, works of two Dalit scholars Bama and Sukartharini and replacing them with texts from upper caste writer Ramabai, the removal of the “feminist interpretation of Ramayana”, and certain sections from the paper, “Interrogating queerness”.
DU registrar Vikas Gupta said: “The head of the committee has already expressed that these texts were being taught for several years. They themselves decided to change the courses and the academic council has already approved the changes. I don’t think there is any further scope for discussion on this.”
Saswati Sengupta, associate professor, Department of English, Miranda House, one of the petitioners, said the petition was tendered to the DU vicechancellor and to its visitor, the President of India. “As women and teachers of English literature, four of us initiated the petition. We also teach in a college like Miranda House where the young women of the present and future India come to learn. It’s thus very important for us to have these voices in the syllabus,” said Sengupta, adding that the petition was carried forward by like-minded people who shared it around.
JNU professor Ira Bhaskar, one of the signatories, said it was important to foreground voices from marginalised communities. “Voices of the marginalised, whether Dalit or women, need to be included...to produce critical analytical minds,” said Bhaskar.
In an earlier statement, the National Democratic Teachers Front, a right-wing group, said adverse reactions were false propaganda. “...all authors mentioned in the draft syllabus, as formally approved in the original AC meeting, have been retained,” said the group.