Economics of Discrimination replaced with Economic Thought of Ambedkar: Changes to DU syllabus passed in academic council meeting

Head of Economics Department, Professor Surender Kumar, did not comment on the development.

The Indian Express had first reported on June 11 that the suggestion to drop the three above electives was first made in an AC meeting on May 26 and opposed by faculty members of several colleges. Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh constituted a six-member panel to revisit the syllabi.

A senior professor and panel member said on the condition of anonymity: “The paper on discrimination has been replaced with a paper on Ambedkar’s economic thought. The globalisation paper is more or less as it is. The paper on economy, state and society has been updated to make it relevant to today’s context.”

About 10 AC members have signed a dissenting note on the changes. “The way the syllabus of Economy, State and Society (ESS) was completely revamped goes against the democratic nature of academic deliberations and syllabus formation,” the note stated.

Associate Professor Dr Monami Sinha, from Kamala Nehru College, said: “The ESS paper was most in contention during the AC meeting. They kept assuring us that the revised syllabus is very similar to the old one and only a few new readings have been added. However, readings on mainstream Economics have been added, while more heterodox readings such as Schumpeter, Marx, etc., have been dropped.”