A.K. Ramanujan, while referring to the diversity and apparently contradictory element of unity in the Indian traditions, refers to an Irish joke about whether to classify trousers as singular or plural: singular from the top, plural from the bottom.1 A Concurrent Discipline Course in the University of Delhi for Second Year Honours students not doing History was introduced in 2005 on ‘Culture in India—Ancient’, and had sought to very sensitively...
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Free speech and Indian Dionysius' by Karan Singh Tyagi
Plutarch's Life of Dion contains an interesting anecdote of Dionysius, an avowed and established tyrant, killing his captain, Marsyas. Marsyas had dreamt of cutting Dionysius's throat, and Dionysius killed Marsyas on account of his dream. He based his decision on the assumption that Marsyas would not have dreamt of such a thing by night if he had not thought of it by day. In his seminal work The Spirit of Laws...
More »Ramanujan essay dropped to save PM another headache? by Neha Pushkarna
October 9 was a Sunday. An unusual day to call an emergency meeting of Delhi University's academic council. The main agenda was fairly routine stuff: approval of certain courses. However, tucked away as supplementary agenda was a proposal to do away with A K Ramanujan's essay, 'Three Hundred ramayanas' from the history course - a proposal that was passed, triggering one of the fiercest debates in recent times in the academic...
More »Yash Pal condemns removal of history portion from textbook by G Krishnakumar
Academic and chairman of the review committee on the National Curriculum Framework (2005) Yash Pal has pointed out that it was not a “nice thing” to remove parts of the history portion of the Social Science textbook for Class X in Kerala on the grounds that they were deliberate attempts to denigrate certain communities. In an exclusive interview to The Hindu here on Wednesday, Prof. Yash Pal said it (the learning...
More »Censoring Ramanujan’s Essay on ramayana by Dileep Padgaonkar
Nothing straight can ever emerge from the crooked timber of a parochial mind. Those responsible for the decision to drop A.K. Ramanujan’s essay on the ramayana from Delhi University’s undergraduate Arts course argue in substance that from childhood these students are told about the sacred character of the epic. This is why it occupies a special place in the Indian psyche. Its characters are perceived to be divine creatures. To...
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