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Journalism of Courage
Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Yogesh Singh on Friday said he used his emergency powers to reject the proposal of including the Sanskrit text Manusmriti in the LLB curriculum.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said, “In our review meeting… there was a discussion on not teaching topics that hurt certain sections of society. Hence, we have decided to not table it in the Academic Council meeting today (Friday). I have made suggestions to include readings of Kautilya and other scholars to align with the Indian perspectives, but it is up to the Academic Council of the Delhi University to make the final decision.”
Singh added that the decision to drop Manusmriti was an autonomous one and not influenced by the Ministry of Education.
“The Education Minister (Dharmendra Pradhan) spoke with me yesterday (Thursday) just to understand what the issue was. This decision was not communicated to us by the ministry. The DU is an autonomous body and we have taken the decision to remove these suggested readings using our autonomous power,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said, “A proposal to include Manusmriti in a Delhi University law course was rejected by the Vice Chancellor. There was no endorsement of any such plan which is going to hurt the constitutional spirit of this country.”
“I talked to the Delhi University Vice-Chancellor and he assured me that some law faculty members have proposed some changes in the jurisprudence chapter and that they have rejected it. We will keep the constitutional supremacy of our country alive and as long as PM Narendra Modi is in power, there will not be any harm to our Constitution,” Pradhan added.
A section of Delhi University teachers had earlier protested against the proposal of the Faculty of Law to introduce Manusmriti in its undergraduate program as a suggested reading.
The revised syllabus document was to be placed before the DU’s Academic Council for Academic Matters on Friday.
Manusmriti with the Manubhasya of Medhatithi by G N Jha and Commentary of Manu Smriti – Smritichandrika by T Krishnaswami Iyer were proposed as suggested readings in Semester 1 of the Bachelor of Laws (LLB) course.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Professor Anju Vali Tikoo, Dean, Faculty of Law, had said earlier in the day, “The Manusmriti has been introduced in line with the NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 to introduce Indian perspectives into learning. The unit under which it has been introduced in itself is an analytical unit. Hence, to bring in more perspective for the students to compare and understand analytical positivism, this step has been taken.”
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