Committee wants removal of theatre association, objectionable words from DU syllabus

Officials in the department said that the committee had on August 14 sent a letter saying that Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) should be replaced by “Indian theatre movements” and a paper on radical theatre be renamed. Hindustan Times has seen a copy of the letter.

Delhi University’s (DU) oversight committee for syllabus has recommended that the varisty’s English department remove the mention of Indian People’s Theatre Association from the syllabus of BA (hons) in English. It has also asked the department to replace the word “radical” from the title of a paper “radical traditions in modern Indian performing arts” and make it “post independence Indian theatre”.

DU ‘soversight committee for syllabus has recommended removal of the mention of Indian People’s Theatre Association from the syllabus of BA (hons) in English. Image used for representational purpose only. (Sushil Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

Officials in the department said that the committee had on August 14 sent a letter saying that Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) should be replaced by “Indian theatre movements” and a paper on radical theatre be renamed. Hindustan Times has seen a copy of the letter.

The recommendations come a week after the oversight committee had passed the first semester syllabi of four departments — English, History, Political Science and Sociology. However, it returned the syllabi of all four departmments for the remaining five semesters’ for “comprehensive revision”.

The committee had on August 14 informed these departments that they have to revise the syllabus and put it on the University’s website for “wider consultation” to be submitted back by October 31.

An official in the English department said that recommendations have come to remove the drama titled “aurat” by Jana Natya Manch — a Delhi based radical theatre group — from the syllabus. “We defended the drama because it was promoting importance of education among women,” said the official.

Maharaj K Pandit, chairperson of the oversight committee, said that the department was asked to remove “unnecessary mention of some objectionable words”. “We have not asked the department to remove the chapters or topics but just the mention of just objectionable words mentioned here and there,” he said.

The syllabi of the four departments have been courting controversy in DU after the members of right-wing teachers’ group National Democratic Teachers’ Front (NDTF) and RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) objected to their content.

The English department has already removed a story on Gujarat riots, a paper on the Indian caste system and mention of Hindu scripture from the paper on homosexuality after opposition.

Rasal Singh, member of the NDTF who opposed the content of English department, said that both theatre groups promote “left ideologies” and hence they need to be removed.

Saikat Gosh, who teaches English at SGTB Khalsa, said, “The paper on the radical traditions in modern Indian performing arts was focused on people’s theatre which is being performed on the streets. They are not even getting the concept of this paper.”