Delhi University’s English department decided to drop some portions of the undergraduate course syllabi that mentioned Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar riots following objections raised by a section of teachers.
The decision was taken a day after the Academic Council of the university sent back syllabi to the English and History departments for a final call, after the objections were raised. The decision was taken “so as not to hurt anyone’s sentiment”, The Indian Express quoted the head of the English department as saying.
Following the decision, the English department will drop a story based on Gujarat riots and remove mentions of Muzaffarnagar riots from its undergraduate syllabi. Objections were also raised against syllabi of two other departments – Sociology and Political Science. Those two were passed with “minor modifications”.
“We don’t want to hurt sentiments… so we are removing a story called Maniben alias Bibijaan, and from the English journalism course we are removing mention of Muzaffarnagar riots. We are also revising a few other things,” Head of English Department Raj Kumar was quoted saying.
The National Democratic Teachers’ Front (NDTF) has said that Maniben alias Bibijan, based on the Gujarat riots, has shown characters from the Bajrang Dal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in “bad light”.
