The Department of Philosophy of Delhi University has received a new instruction, stating that the courses of graduates (UG) and postgraduate (PG) courses should not include Pakistan, famous poet and thinker Muhammad Iqbal and any material related to the ancient book Manusmriti. This instruction came from the academic dean on 12 June and the department has been asked to complete its review by 16 June. An email from the Dean’s office states that all the semester units of the UG and PG courses (under NEP) and there should be no mention of these three items in the reading list.
All faculty members of the department have been asked to carefully examine and confirm the content of each course. These subjects will not be taught, a member of the department said on the condition of anonymity that for the last few years, it is being repeatedly said by the Vice Chancellor that subjects dividing the society will not be taught in the university. The material related to Iqbal has been removed earlier, but still some departments were trying to include it in the new course. In the year 2023, a unit based on Muhammad Iqbal was removed from the BA (Hons) Political Science course. Iqbal, the author of Sare Jahan Se Achhe, was later declared the national poet of Pakistan. At the same time, a new alternative course was added to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar this year.
Earlier this month, it was also recommended to remove issues such as Kashmir and Israel-Felistine from the psychology courses, stating that these topics are controversial and their psychological reference is not clear. Instead, it was said to give more space to Indian thinkers like Gandhi and Buddha.
Biopolitics courses also canceled
Apart from this, the university administration has also canceled a new course biopolitics of Philosophy Department. It was earlier said that the subject is related to political science and later it was completely removed. Some teachers of the department believe that this course was necessary, but due to lack of time, they could not oppose it. Such changes are being taken by the university administration to maintain social unity.
