The Decline Of Nehru, Tagore & The Rise Of Savarkar: How Delhi University Got Itself A New Syllabus
Prabhanu Kumar Das | 30 August 2023 | Article 14
Narendra Modi pays tributes to Veer Savarkar at Parliament of India in 2014. Photo: WIKIMEDIA
Since 2019, Hindu right-wing organizations—both student and teachers’ groups—have successfully propelled syllabi changes in Delhi University’s (DU) English, history and other social sciences and humanities subjects. Some teachers are battling against these changes, many pushed through by a secretive ‘oversight committee’ and new policies. We examine the syllabi changes, the ideological influences driving them, and the processes by which they are being brought in at DU, all pointing to Hindu right-wing control over the leading university in India’s capital.
Delhi: On 16 July 2019, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP) and the National Democratic Teachers Front (NDTF), respectively, student and teacher groups linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), led protests against “anti-RSS content” in undergraduate syllabus outside the University’s vice-chancellor’s office, while an academic council meeting was underway.