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Ramanujan essay dropped to save PM another headache? NEW DELHI: October 9 was a Sunday. An unusual day to call an emergency meeting of Delhi Universitys 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 Ramanujans 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 world. Actually, it was a landslide win for the Ramanujan nay-sayers. In all, 111 members voted against the essay; only nine offered dissent. Matters might have rested there, but they didnt. The voices of the nine members have since grown louder with support pouring in for Ramanujans essay from top scholars in other campuses in India and abroad. In Delhi University, too, there have been several protest meetings. The history department - the relevant department in the context of the essay - held a special debate in a jam-packed hall. On the face of it, the controversy centres on a 1991, 18-page essay by A K Ramanujan, a historian of outstanding scholarship who taught for many years at University of Chicago. Top historians maintain that Ramanujan has dealt with the Ramayana tradition with exemplary academic rigour. In DU, the essay, taught to second-year students of History (honours), was part of a 525-page textbook, Cultural History of Ancient India. The course was devised by the history department, of which Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs eldest daughter, Upinder Singh, is a member. Back |
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