DU adds new elective course on Savarkar to BA Pol Science programme, teachers protest

Meanwhile, some teachers protested that the chapter on Savarkar has been introduced against the one on Gandhi.

Alok Pandey, an Academic Council member who attended Friday’s meeting, said, “Earlier, a paper on Gandhi was there in semester V and in semester VI a paper on Ambedkar. Now, they have introduced a paper on Savarkar. We have no problem with the introduction of Savarkar but they have done it at the cost of Gandhi. They have moved the paper on Gandhi from semester V to VII.” “It seems they are planning to remove the paper on Gandhi from studies as students who will opt for a three-year programme will not study this paper,” Pandey said.

Pandey, who was also a part of the standing committee where the proposal was discussed, said he agreed that they will teach about Gandhi in semester V, Savarkar in VI and Ambedkar in VII as per their age chronology.

Opposing the move, Rajesh Jha, a former member of the Executive Council, said students should be exposed to Gandhi in initial semesters in order to develop critical thinking.

“The course seeks to meet two essential objectives: one, to acquaint the students with the art of reading texts, to enable them to grasp its conceptual and argumentative structure and to help them acquire the skills to locate the texts in a broader intellectual and socio-historical context,” the course objective said.

The themes in Gandhian thought that are chosen for close reading are “particularly relevant to our times”, it said.

The university has adopted a four-year programme as part of the National Education Policy and students have the choice to either opt for a three-year undergraduate degree or a four-year undergraduate programme.

The university is preparing syllabi for four-year programmes for several subjects.

(With inputs from Express News Service)