DU drops Mahasweta Devi's "Draupadi", works of Dalit authors from English syllabus

NEW DELHI: Delhi University has dropped Mahasweta Devi’s short story ‘Draupadi’ from the BA (Hons) English syllabus on the directions of an oversight committee for framing of learning outcome-based curriculum frameworks.

The council also approved the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) and four-year undergraduate programmes (FYUP) from the academic year 2022-23.

An AC member, said, “We strongly protest against the overreach of the Oversight Committee which arbitrarily changed texts in the new undergraduate Learning Outcomes based Curriculum Framework (LOCF) syllabi of the fifth semester, bypassing the statutory bodies like Faculties, Committee of Courses and Standing Committee.” He added that “Two Dalit authors Bama and Sukirtharini were arbitrarily removed.”

Mahasweta Devi’s “Draupadi” about the oppression of a tribal woman was also removed.

He added that “no substantial discussion” was allowed in the Academic Council on the matter of four-year undergraduate programmes (FYUP) with multiple entrances and exits or on other agenda items.

He further added that, “No voting was allowed and the elected members were asked to deposit dissent notes. This is a subversion of statutory processes. Discussion in the Standing Committee, with 27 members, is not the same as discussion in the Academic Council with over 100 members,” he said. This shows that DU administration lacks confidence in the FYUP model and is avoiding addressing important issues,”

As per the PTI report, 16 out of 26 elected members of the AC, dissented on the implementation of NEP – FYUP with MEES. The disent note said, “the university has not asked for detailed feedback of the report of the NEP implementation from all stakeholders including members of all relevant statutory bodies and even though DU uploaded the report on DU website on February 20 February 2021, it did not specifically ask for submission of feedback on this report.”

With inputs from PTI

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