Mahasweta Devi, two Dalit authors axed from DU’s eng syllabus, teachers dissent

The oversight committee is tasked with looking at problems with reference to exams, course changes, and other department requirements.

Several Delhi University teachers on Tuesday expressed concerns over the removal of texts by renowned author Mahasweta Devi and two Dalit authors from the undergraduate English syllabus without consulting the committee of courses and termed it “maximum vandalism” and overreach by the oversight committee.

The committee is appointed by the executive council, the highest decision-making body of the university.

The oversight committee is tasked with looking at problems with reference to exams, course changes, and other department requirements. The committee is appointed by the executive council, the highest decision-making body of the university.

In a dissent note submitted by 15 academic council (AC) members on Tuesday, teachers said the oversight committee which approved such changes did not have the powers to do so. The AC members said the same was the case with history, political science, and sociology departments as well.

“In a core paper titled “Women’s Writing” in semester 5, the oversight committee has committed the maximum vandalism. It first decided to remove two Dalit scholars, namely Bama and Sukartharini, who were replaced by upper caste writer Ramabai,” the dissent note said.

“These changes were introduced recently and there is absolutely no academic rationale for them. Oversight committee members are from sciences background. Department heads are only called as special invitees, so they cannot vote against the changes being introduced by committee members. Even the department heads were not given an explanation on why these texts were removed,” said AC member Mithuraj Dhusiya, who teaches English at Hansraj College and is one of the signatories to the dissent note.

Incidentally, the learning outcomes based curriculum framework (LOCF) syllabus for the four subjects of history, political science, sociology and English had run into a controversy in 2019 as well over certain omissions.

On Tuesday, the dissenting AC members also said the committee refused to accept any short story by Devi despite her iconic literary stature. Devi, a Bengali author and tribal and women rights activist, had received several awards for her seminal work, including the Sahitya Akademi award, the Jnanpith Award, and was also conferred with a Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in India. She died in Kolkata in 2016.

Apart from introducing short stories such as “Sultana’s Dream” by Begum Rokeya without consultation with the course committee and against the recommendations of the department, the committee also removed “a feminist reading of Ramayana”, the AC members wrote, while referring to Chandrabati’s Ramayana.

The committee also “arbitrarily deleted sections” from the paper titled “Interrogating Queerness”, the teachers said.

“It is unfortunate that the oversight committee has always shown a prejudice against the representation of Dalits, tribals, women, and sexual minorities as evident in its concerted efforts to remove all such voices from the syllabus,” the academics wrote, adding that the committee “does not have any member from the Dalit or the tribal community who can possibly bring in some sensitivity to the issue”.

Rudrashish Chakraborty, who teaches English at Kirori Mal College, said, "The Oversight Committee is guilty of not only undermining the laid down academic processes of the University, they have also abdicated their responsibility towards the students by delaying the notification of the syllabus in every semester. It is unbecoming of a University having stature like DU to notify the syllabus 5 weeks after the commencement of the semester."

Oversight committee chairperson Maharaj K Pandit responded, “We, as senior academics of the university, should not get into these kind of conversations. We have not changed the syllabus of any subject. Only in English, one author has been taught for eons, and so some of the committee members were of a mind that “shouldn’t we look at other authors?” I do not even know whether the other authors are Dalit or not. The committee had conflicting opinions over the story [Draupadi] so we decided to drop it with the consent of head of the department, who selected an alternative story in its place from a suggested list.”