‘Reinstate works of Mahasweta, two Dalit writers in DU syllabus’

Mahashweta Devi. File pic/AFP

Over 1,100 academicians, writers and civil society members have written to the Delhi University's acting vice-chancellor, urging him to reinstate the works of Mahasweta Devi, Bama and Sukirtharani in the English (Honours) syllabus.

The petition came a few days after the teachers of English in DU made the same plea and accused the Oversight Committee of making a "complete mockery of all democratic and due processes" while drafting the syllabus. It has been signed by the likes of writers Arundhati Roy and Vikram Chandra, actors Sharmila Tagore and Shabana Azmi, filmmaker and writer Adoor Gopalakrishnan and filmmaker Anand Patwardhan.

"The exclusion of Bama and Sukirtharani is a blatantly casteist act as it discriminates against contemporary Dalit women authors in a core paper on women's writing, Surely, to delete, without any justification, two living Dalit women authors is a rare example of political disregard, omission and marginalisation of existing living writings...

"Both Bama and Sukirtharani are contemporary Tamil writers, is it not important to teach and know, in a central university located in Delhi, the regional diversity of India," the petition questioned. Mahashweta Devi's short story Draupadi, which has been dropped from the syllabus, revolves around a Dalit woman who is picked up by the police on the accusation of being a Naxal and is then raped. "Are we to turn a blind eye to its empathetic articulation by Indian authors," it said.

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